Brief Description

This Webquest asks the students to research why some schools and school personnel are leaning toward having the students wear uniforms.  The students also produce a questionnaire that they use to interview members of the community to determine feelings and opinions on this issue.  As a team, the students then debate the issue for the school administrators and/or governing board.  Finally, the students are asked to produce either a persuasive letter, a brochure or a Power Point to present the results of their study.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 2T-E1-Discuss basic issues related to responsible use of technology and information and describe personal consequences of inappropriate use.
• 3T-E1-Use formatting capabilities of technology tools for communicating and illustrating.
• 5T-F1-Recognize electronic information sources.
• 5T-E1-Locate information from electronic resources.
• 5T-E2-Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness and bias of electronic information sources.
• 6T-E1-Determine when technology is useful and select and use the appropriate tools and technology resources to solve problems.

• R-E2-Use reading strategies such as making inferences and predictions, summarizing, paraphrasing, differentiating fact from opinion, drawing conclusions, and determining the author's purpose and perspective to comprehend written material.
• R-E4-Identify the author's purpose, position, bias and strategies in a persuasive selection.
• W-E1-Use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and usage, along with varied sentence structure and paragraph organization, to complete effectively a variety of writing tasks.
• W-E5-Write a report that conveys a point of view and develops a topic with appropriate facts, details, examples and descriptions from a variety of cited sources.
• LS-F3-Prepare and deliver information by generating topics, identifying the audience, and organizing ideas, facts or opinions for a variety of speaking purposes such as giving directions, relating personal experiences, telling a story or presenting a report/debate.
• LS-E2-Prepare and deliver an oral report in a content areas and effectively convey the information through verbal and nonverbal communications with a specific audience.
• LS-F3Interpret and respond to questions and evaluate responses both as interviewer and interviewee.
• LS-F4-Predict, clarify, analyze and critique a speaker's information and point of view.

Academic

• Students will research a number of articles while evaluating and differentiating between fact and opinion.
• Students will devise an educated opinion on the issue following the research of provided information.
• Students will develop a detailed questionnaire with which to interview several individuals.
• Students will demonstrate appropriate interviewing skills.
• Students will verbally, visually and graphically present the gathered information while incorporating their own individual opinions.
• Students will demonstrate higher-level communication skills by appropriately debating the issue.

• Students will practice safe Internet usage.
• Students will practice “netiquette” when using the Internet.
• Students will use word processing editing tools to revise a document.
• Students will design a word processing document with graphical elements.
• Students will identify the author, copyright date and publisher of information located in electronic resources, including Internet resources.
• Students will locate information in a resource selected by the teacher.
• Based on the problem provided to them, students will collect data, interpret data, develop a solution to the problem and present findings in a variety of technological formats.

• Students have been taught how to produce a PowerPoint presentation.
• Students are comfortable with basic computer skills i.e., search, cut/paste, word processing, mouse control, etc.
• If possible, students should be comfortable with working with more than one window at a time.

• Computers with Internet access.
• Computers with PowerPoint access.
• Brochure template.
• School Uniform Webquest.

This webquest was designed with special needs students in mind.  It is quite likely that many will need some of the information read to them either by another student or the teachers. All students are encouraged to take their note taking skills checklist with them when they do their interviews. In addition, special needs students have been provided with templates for a variety of the tasks so that they do not have to “start from scratch”.  SEI students will be given a number of articles translated into their native language if necessary.  They may use additional computer time as needed.  Gifted students will be given the opportunity to produce one or more of the final presentations including the persuasive letter, a brochure AND/OR the PowerPoint presentation.  They may choose to debate more than once, so they can present both sides of the issue.

Procedures

• WebQuest can be found at http://www.amphi.com/teachers/gborga/suwebquest/
• The detailed procedures are outlined in the Process Page of the WebQuest.
• Briefly, the students are first exposed to the WebQuest as a group.
• The introduction is read thoroughly and the students have the opportunity to ask any questions or obtain clarification.  They are somewhat familiar with the WebQuest topic as they helped in the decision making of the topic.
• As a group, the entire WebQuest is read thoroughly.
• The students are divided into groups.
• Ideally, they can pick their own team members, but realistically they may need some help with that.  Each group should have at least one strong reader.
• The students then proceed with each page and activity on the WebQuest.
• When they believe they are ready to debate, the teacher schedules those activities with the administrators.
• When the brochures, letters and/or PowerPoint presentations are complete, the teacher assists with mailings or scheduling presentations, but the students do the presenting.
• Throughout the completion of the WebQuest, the students have the assessment rubrics available to them.

The assessment tools and guidelines are provided in the Evaluation page of the Webquest

Teacher Name: Gerri Beth Borga
Site: Amphi Middle School
Date Submitted: February 4, 2004