Welcome, teachers!

This webquest was created in accordance with Social Studies, English/Writing, and Technology curriculum standards promulgated for the state of Virginia. The applicable standards for Virginia apply. For other states, you may have to double check your individual state's standards to ensure alignment.   They are in line with fifth grade standards, but could be used with upper grade levels.   Add or suggest additional links as needed/desired.

The applicable SOL's are...

Social Studies:

-The student will describe colonial America, with emphasis on life in the colonies in the 18th century from the perspective of large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, and slaves

-The factors that led to the founding of the colonies, including escape from religious persecution, economic opportunity, release from prison, and military adventure

-geographic, political, economic, and social contrasts in the three regions of New England, the mid-Atlantic, and the South

English/Writing:

5.7: The student will write for a variety of purposes to describe, to inform, to entertain, and to explain. -choose planning strategies for various writing purposes.

-Organize information.

-Use vocabulary effectively.

-Vary sentence structure.

-Revise writing for clarity.

-Edit final copies for grammar, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation, especially the use of possessives and quotation marks.

5.8 The student will synthesize information from a variety of resources.

-Skim materials to develop a general overview of content or to locate specific information.

-Develop notes that include important concepts, paraphrases, summaries, and identification of information sources. -Organize and record information on charts, maps, and graphs.

-Use available electronic databases to access information.

-Credit secondary reference sources.

5.3The student will make planned oral presentations.

-Determine appropriate content for audience.

-Incorporate visual aids to support the presentation.

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About this WebQuest...

This WebQuest is intended to be used as a longer-term project, possibly spanning over a few weeks or even up to a month.   It is designed for three assigned group sessions, ideally lasting about one hour a piece. However, you can add or remove project elements as you wish to change the length and intensity.   To complete the project without group work, you may want to have students research and complete only their individual colonist research pages.

Ideally, students will have completed coursework and lessons dealing with the Colonial Period and have some prerequisite knowledge about the colonists.   This would be used to delve deeper into that knowledge.

For greater accuracy, some of the references given are primary source materials, so they are a little tougher to read.   A dictionary and thesaurus are provided for help for the students and these should be pointed out at the beginning. All of the web pages containing primary source documents are indicated next to the WebQuest links.

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Some ideas for other types of learners...

For tactile/auditory learners:   Have them create something solid in addition to a research paper on their colonist.   For example, bake a loaf of bread if they are presenting the female colonist, or bring in a horseshoe if they are the artisan colonist (or have them dress as their colonist!)  Have students "tell"  about the object they have brought in, and from there go on to talk in detail about the life of their colonist.  Grade students on the relevance of the object/costume and their oral presentation.

For visual learners:   Stress including more pictures from various sources in their documents or presentations. Make a picture book instead of a "Who's Who"   book and have them describe colonial life based on their pictures.