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The Important Thing About the Fifties
An Important WebQuest
by
Alan Engle
Introduction | Task
| Process | Evaluation | Conclusion
Introduction
You and your team of time-traveling
author/illustrators (your classmates) have been asked to write and illustrate a series of
children's predictable books of the life and times of America in the
1950s. You
have only days before you and your team are to report to the Center for
Scanportation where you are to prepare for scanning and the beginning of
your journey to the Fabulous Fifties.
Task
Each book in this series will provide insight into one
of these areas: People and Events, Sports and Entertainment,
and Science and Technology. Will the readers of your books will
be able to answer the question, "What are the important things to
know about the Fifties?" The
answer lies in your hands.
Process
The publisher has given you guidelines to follow when writing your books. These guidelines are not telling
you how to write the books, but rather guidelines of how the finish product should
appear. The guidelines for all the books are:
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Written in a similar style as The Important Book by
Margaret Wise Brown. For example,
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Baseball |
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The important thing about
1950's baseball is
that it was exciting.
It was dominated by the New York Yankees,
and saw the end of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball
League,
and made stars of Mantle, Snider, and Thompson,
and grew to the West,
and is the color of America.
But the important thing about 1950s baseball is that it finally
saw the Brooklyn Dodgers win in 1955. |
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Class book ready for publication by including an illustrated cover, title
page, and each student's illustration and page.
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Each "Important" page must be accompanied by an illustration
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Each classroom will produce it's own book:
-- a Third Grade classroom book will be titled and feature The Important Thing About the People
and Events of the 1950s,
-- a Fourth Grade classroom book will be titled and feature The Important Thing About Sports and
Entertainment of the 1950s,
-- a Fifth Grade classroom book will be titled and feature The Important Thing About
Science and Technology of the 1950s.
Now that you have an idea of what the published book
will look like, let's move on to how you can best find the information
you will need to help you write your part of the book. Below is an alphabetical
listing of Fifties topics. You can choose one of these topics or use the
list of additional sites to find something of your own choosing. Please
have your selected topic approved by the publisher (your teacher) before
proceeding.
Evaluation
How well did you learn?
 Did you follow directions?
Did you cooperate with your
classmates?
Did you use your resources?
Did you complete your page?
Did you present your page to the
class?
Your page should have included the following information:
1 . The name of the topic you
chose
2. An appropriate illustration
picture
3. Written in the appropriate
style
Rubric
| Outstanding! |
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| Very
Good |
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| Good |
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| OK |
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| Not
very good |
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Following Directions
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I did not listen to the
directions, so I did not know what to do. |
I did not follow the
directions.
I was frequently off task.
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I followed the directions but I had to be reminded to stay on
task.
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I followed the directions and stayed on task while I was
working on my project.
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I followed all the
directions and I helped other students who didn't know what to do. |
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Cooperation
with
Classmates
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We played around instead
of working on our project. |
We could not agree on
what we should be doing, so we wasted time. |
We were able to work
together to complete our page. |
We worked together on
well but did not share the responsibility of helping each other. |
We worked, together
on and shared the responsibility of helping. |
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Use
of
Resources
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I was unable to find the
information I was looking for. |
I was able to find some
of the information needed to complete my page. |
I was able to find most
of the information I needed to complete my page. |
I was able to find all
the information I needed to complete my page with help from
others. |
I was able to find all
the information I needed to complete my page independently. |
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Completion
of
Page
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I am just beginning to
understand the task. My work is incomplete. |
I worked on my page, but
only included a couple of pieces of information. |
I completed a few pieces of
information on my page. |
I included quite a bit of
information.
My picture were rushed.
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I included q lot of
information.
My picture was carefully detailed.
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Presentation
of
Page
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I was unable to
participate in the presentation. |
I participated in the
presentation but could only remember a couple pieces of
information. |
I participated in the
presentation and included a few pieces of the page information. |
I participated in the
presentation and included many pieces of the pages information. |
I participated in the presentation and exhibited confidence in
knowledge of all the material presented.
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Conclusion
By the time you and your class have
finished this quest you should have a good understanding of what was
important to life in America in the 1950s. Did you notice any similarities
between then and now? This quest may have just put you in the mood for
more study of the Fifties - or at least a strong urge to do the Bunny Hop
and get a Poodle. Go ahead and take a look at another Fifties WebQuest, "A
View of the Past" -- A WebQuest Look at the Fifties Through the
Lens of a View-Master. |