A WebQuest History Unit: Doing a Poster of a Native American Tribe
Informational background
WebQuests
WebQuests are websites designed for supporting teaching-learning of lessons or academic units, offering the students directions for academic tasks, and information resources (links to texts and pictures) related to those tasks and topics (March, 2009a; WebQuest Org., 2009a). There are certain websites that provide information and examples of webquests, and links to websites for creating them, either by modifying existing ones labeled as “shared” or by using templates, or other ways (March, 2009c; Questgarden, 2009a; WebQuest Org, 2009b). In an Internet search for webquests for second grade social studies, it was found one dedicated to “Meet the North American Indians” (Questgarden, 2009b), which could be modified for the present project or serve as a model for creating a webquest on a history unit of Native American tribes. A detailed rubric for evaluating webquests was found in a link of Tom March’s website (March, 2009b). A blog, with an URL address can also be used for posting a webquest unit.
Theoretical Framework
The behavioral development and learning theories from the 1980’s, of Piaget’s Constructivism, Vygotsky’s Social-Linguism, and of Flavell and Speglier’s Information Processing Learning, have been increasingly influencing the teaching approaches in the country at K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels, and at technical and professional jobs’ training (Tompkins, 2002; Lucas, 2005). The new teaching-learning approaches are focused on students’ empowerment, with they actively developing learning ownership and individual learning processes based on experiences, previous knowledge, and information processing with social interactions (Ex. cooperative learning) playing an important role. The new approaches (Ex. communicative approach) are also related to changes in instructional methods and materials, and the application of instructional technology.
These new instructional ways have been promoted and reinforced in the last two decades by technological development on electronic communications, and human brain’s research advances on intelligence modalities, learning styles, cognitive domains’ brain sites, and many others (Bee, 2003; Kovalic & Olsen, 2002).
Second grade students are in an “emergent literacy” stage, in which they can read and write in a very elemental way (Tompkins, 2002), and their development of knowledge and skills is highly stimulated by visual images that help them developing perceptions and thinking about what they see (Barton & Berson, 2004).
Teacher Vision (2009) recommends the schools’ use of multiple assessment tools or assessment strategies, distinguishing three main types that are: 1) Observations (Ex. oral reports, debates, science experiments, and projects). 2) Portfolios (Ex. writing folders, art collections, math puzzles); and 3) Tests (pop quizzes, open book tests, end of unit tests, and standardized tests). The first two groups are often called “performance or authentic” assessments and would be more valuable because they assess content’s recall ability, and its application (Melsels, 2009).
Teamwork doing and presenting a poster about an academic unit of history would be an authentic assessment of the students for their learning on that academic unit, producing and explaining a poster for it, and would fall within the categories of project and portfolio.