WEB QUEST ON WORLD WAR I

A WebQuest for 10^th grade World History

Designed By: Amanda Bannigan

Welcome to a WebQuest on World War I. This activity will give you the opportunity to become an expert on one year of the war and then teach that information to your classmates! There’s no time to waste, read on…

INTRODUCTION:

World War I (WWI) is called “The Great War”, but was it really all that great? Millions of lives were lost, property destroyed, and lives ruined. What is so great about that? The war may have had many negative outcomes, but there was good that came out of the battles.

Each year of the war contained its highs and lows. When did the good outweigh the bad? What were some statistics on casualties and property damage? Why did the war go on for so long? These questions are not ones that I am going to five you the answers to. Your quest will be to find those answers and more….

THE TASK:

You have all just become employees of the newspaper Miss B’s Press. We will be releasing a series of papers detailing the events of World War I. You will be divided onto groups and each group will be assigned a year of the war. Your job is to create the newspaper on that year of the war. Since you will be the experts on that year, you will be REQUIRED to present your issue to the class and provide each student with a copy. You will be teaching the class about your assigned year, so do your best!

Your newspaper MUST address the following topics:

* the role of the United States during your year.

* any important battles/treaties signed during your year.

* any new weapons or fighting techniques introduced in you year.

* information on any important people to your year.

* information on sports and fashion during your year.

* you may include political cartoons if you would like.

The Newspaper should model a real newspaper, so it needs to include:

* headlines * advertisements

* graphics * author of the article

* a title

* anything else you feel is crucial to a newspaper

Follow these steps to complete your project with SUCCESS!

1- Once in your group, decide on the following tasks. EVERYONE WILL BE A REPORTER!!

*EDITOR: This person will be responsible for keeping all group members on task. They will keep a record of what work was accomplished on what day; basically they will complete progress reports WHICH I WILL BE COLLECTING! They will need to proofread all articles for GRAMMAR, SPELLING, and PUNCTUATION before submitting them to the Layout Editor.

*LAYOUT EDITOR: This person will be in charge of the appearance of the paper. Other group members will help this editor, but he/she is responsible for making the paper look professional. He/she will need to be sure there are enough copies of the paper to distribute to each member of the class.

*REPORTERS: These people will research various events that occurred in the assigned year. The whole group will discuss which stories to use and the researchers will look for more information on those topics. ALL MEMBERS WILL BE REPORTERS!

*PRESENTER: This person will present your final newspaper to the class. He/she should be familiar with all the stories in the paper.

2- Now that you all have a job, it’s time to get to work! You should now begin the research process. The following links will be very helpful in your search: (I recommend starting by visiting the link to your year!)

1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

The Great War

WWI Document Archive

Aircraft of WWI

3- Once you have completed your research, you need to start writing your articles! Each article should be written in column format just like a real newspaper.

RUBRIC: You will be graded on the following criteria:

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Inclusion of Elements of a Newspaper	Includes less than 3 of the required elements.	Includes 3-4 of the elements listed in the process section.	Includes 5 of the 5 elements listed in the Process section.	Includes all aspects listed in the Process section, plus others.
Grammar, Punctuation, & Spelling	Repeated errors of the same type. This indicates carelessness to me.	5-8 DIFFERENT errors.	1-4 DIFFERENT errors.	Free from all errors.
Historical Correctness	No dates used. Incorrect information used.	5-8 incorrect dates and/or facts. Inclusion of information NOT from your year!	1-4 incorrect dates and/or facts.	Inclusion of correct dates and correct historical information.
Peer Evaluation: Your Group Members Will Give You These Points!	Member did not do any work, not even their own.	Member did the littlest amount of work possible. Only did their tasks and did not help the group.	Member contributed in many ways. Did their work and occasionally helped others.	Member contributed in all ways. The helped to write, edit, and come up with ideas.
Presentation	Your assigned presenter was absent so there was no presentation.	There was a lack of eye contact. Presenter spoke too fast. Did not have copies for class.	Moderate amounts of eye contact. Presentation of mostly appropriate articles. Had enough copies for class.	Excellent eye contact, tone of voice, speed of voice, and selection of articles. All students AND the teacher had a copy of your paper.	A

In addition, 10 points will be given for your completion of the questions on the CONCLUSION section of this WebQuest.

SHOOT FOR THE BEST! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!!

RESOURCES: The following sites were referenced in this WebQuest:

The following sites were used in the

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/EMS/WWI/WWI.html#1914

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/EMS/WWI/WWI.html#1915

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/EMS/WWI/WWI.html#1916

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/EMS/WWI/WWI.html#1917

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/EMS/WWI/WWI.html#1918

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/EMS/WWI/WWI.html#1919

http://www.pitt.edu/~pugachev/greatwar/toc.htm

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/

http://www.theaerodrome.com/

CONCLUSION:

These questions are based on ALL presentations! You may use the copies of the newspapers that you have! Answer on a sheet of notebook paper.

1- Who was the aggressor in this war?

2- Which countries won? Lost?

3- Describe some of the benefits of the Peace Treaty. What are some of the disadvantages?

4- Pretend that you are living in 1919. Do you think that this war really will be the “War to end all Wars”?

Now that we have exhausted learning about wwi, we will begin to study what happened after the war to the various countries. This will lead us into our study on World War II.