American Revolution WebQuest
An Internet WebQuest on American Revolution

created by Mrs. Lovello
Pelham Road Elementary

Introduction | The Task | The Process | Conclusion |


Introduction
Imagine that you have been transported back in time to 1763. You are in the New England colonies. Tensions are building because the British keep imposing taxes and taking freedoms from you. There is talk of rebellion against the British. You fear that there could be a war. You must devise a plan on how you will rebel against the British. Will you use your pen, your voice, or a weapon? You must decide and create a presentation of your plan.

Task
You will be assigned to a group of three. Once you are assigned to this group, you and the other members will transformed into a role of rebelling with your pen, rebelling with your voice, or rebelling with a weapon. Each of you must explore the perspective of the role you have chosen. As you learn about the American Revolution you will see each role defined in the resources. You must be able to answer the following question, How did the colonists achieve independence from England?

Process
In groups of three students, your task is to design a plan of action to aid the colonists in gaining freedom from the unjust taxation of the British.

Your job is to gain a better understanding of the many perspectives of the colonists during this time period. Each member of your group will be responsible for exploring why some chose to use a pen to rebel, use their voices to rebel, or pick up weapons to rebel against the British.
After your group has explored the different colonists' perspectives, your duty will be to:

congregate and voice the varying outlooks of the three types of colonists;
create a proposal that explains your step-by-step plan of action for rebellion;
present your plan of action in the form of a skit, movie from Movie Maker, or a Power Point;
attend a town meeting in which you will choose the best course of action.

Phase 1 - Background Information
After the activity in class, how did it make you feel to be told what to do and how much to pay in taxes? Watch the video clip to gain more background knowledge on the American Revolution. The sites below are important because they will provide basic information about the topic as a whole. Everyone should explore these sites before starting your Task and fill in the graphic organizer.


Phase 2 - Roles
These roles were chosen because they each define the most important elements of American Revolution. Each of you has been assigned a particular role with links and instructions below. Here are the general instructions for all of you. Please see your specific instructions and questions below.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. One member from each WebQuest team will explore one of the roles below.

2. Read through the links. You can print out pages and underline the parts that you feel are important or cut and paste from the webpage into a word processor.

3. Remember to include the URL of the page you take information from so you can return to it and use it as a citation. (Web Address)

4. Focus what you've learned into one main opinion that answers the Big Quest(ion) or Task.

5. Keep a journal on your thoughts about your role using your graphic organizer and information you have found on the links and from books.

Pen:

You do not like to fight, but you are becoming very upset with the way the British government keep imposing taxes and won't let you make your own decisions. You have chosen to use your pen and write to show your rebellion against the British government. Consider the following questions when you research.
How have the imposed taxes affected you and your family along with your business?
Has your lifestyle been affected by the new taxes?

The links below might be helpful in answering your questions.

Voice:

You do not like to fight, but you are becoming very upset with the way the British government keep imposing taxes and won't let you make your own decisions. You have chosen to use your voice and speak out to show your rebellion against the British government. Consider the following questions when you research.
How have the imposed taxes affected you and your family along with your business?
Has your lifestyle been affected by the new taxes?
How has Britain's authority affected your rights as a colonist?

The links below might be helpful in answering your questions.

Weapon:

You do not want to go into battle, but you are becoming very upset with the way the British government keep imposing taxes and won't let you make your own decisions. You have chosen to use to pick up a weapon and use it against the British to show your rebellion against them. Consider the following questions when you research.
How have the imposed taxes affected you and your family along with your business?
Has your lifestyle been affected by the new taxes?

The links below might be helpful in answering your questions.

All:

Use the links and matrix you completed earlier to answer the following questions.
1. Who used their voice to rebel against the British?
2. What did they say about the rebellion and the British?
3. What are some famous quotes?
4. What do you have to say?
5. What are some quotes that you could create? Remember they must be memorable and against the British?


Phase 3 - Reaching Consensus
1. Once your group has finished exploring the roles, you and your group members need to use your graphic organizer and journal to go over the events that have occurred. Express how each member might feel about the events on the organizer. How does it affect your life? What can you do about it? Are you fed up with this treatment or can you live with it?

2. Proposal: When you have finished going over your reactions to the recent events, each member of your group must write a step-by-step proposal for rebelling. You will present your proposal to your group members. Remember, you are trying to persuade each member to rebel your way. When drafting the proposal, take into consideration your perspective , what resources are available to you at the time, and what the consequences of your actions will be.

3. Presentation: Once you have chosen in your group whether you will choose as a group to use pen, voice, or weapon you must create your presentation for the town meeting. You may choose to create a skit, movie, or Power Point. The movie must be 5-10 frames long. You can add sound, video, pictures, and text. Your Power Point must be the same length. You may also use sound, video, pictures and text to get your message across to others at the town meeting.

Conclusion
So is an elephant smooth, rough, soft, or hard? Well, when you're blindfolded and only *looking* at one part, it's easy to come up with an answer that may not be completely right. It's the same for understanding a topic as broad or complex as American Revolution: when you only know part of the picture, you only know part of the picture. Now you all know a lot more. Nice work. You should be proud of yourselves! How can you use what you've learned to see beyond the black and white of a topic and into the grayer areas? What other parts of American Revolution could still be explored? Remember, learning never stops. Was taxation the main cause of the American Revolution. Did you find other cause of the Revolution? What were they? List in you journal.

created by Filamentality Content by Mrs. Lovello, jlovello@greenville.k12.sc.us
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/webamericanjl.html
Last revised Sun Jan 4 12:10:37 US/Pacific 2009