Teacher Process
This WebQuest is the culminating project for the "Founding the Nation and Legacy for Today" unit for 5th grade. Students will first learn about the Constitution and then be introduced to a current issue (removing the four federal dams to protect wild salmon).
Task 1 and 2 will take about 13 - 1 hour sessions. Task 3 will take an additional 11 - 1 hour sessions.
Task 1: This is the research section of the project. All needed links are available in the WebQuest for students to access their information for their stakeholder research. Students work in 6 assigned groups (one per stakeholder). How they take notes is up to the teacher; we might recommend: index note cards, a graphic organizer, or bulleted notes. Fifth grade students often need to be reminded how to take abridged notes so that they are not directly copying from their resource.
Task 2: This is the group product/presentation piece. Now that the students have researched, they choose a format to present their research to the class. We suggest groups creating a PowerPoint, PhotoStory, Tri-fold Display, or Video presentation. The presentation is to be shared with the class in a clever and persuasive manner so that they convince a "congressperson" (guest adult) that their stakeholder position is correct. During presentations students need to take notes on each stakeholder, their position (for or against taking down the dams), and three reasons for their position - this is Graphic Organizer 1. Graphic Organizer 2 is the newly updated format, which is harder for students to navigate, but helpful for preparing them to write their individual essay.
Task 3: This is the individual CBA written paper. Students use Graphic organizer 2 to prepare themselves for writing their paper. The teacher will need to provide whole class instruction to assist students with how to navigate the graphic organizer. The graphic organizer is NOT graded as part of the CBA, so teacher help is allowed. The teacher will also need to help students write their bibliography for their paper; however the bibliography IS graded, so teachers need to help minimally. The final piece for the CBA is an individually written paper with limited assistance from the teacher. Most teachers would give students daily blocks of time anywhere from 30-60 minutes to work on their essay for about 7 days. This would allow students time to draft their essay, revise, edit, and rewrite their work. The CBA is not scoring writing criteria, but civics and social studies criteria.
Note: Some teachers may want to have students formally revise/edit their piece after the CBA is completed to finish the essay and then score this assignment as a writing grade for the report card.
When all 3 tasks are complete, we ask students to reflect on their learning process in the "Conclusion" section.