return to homework page

return to World War I WebQuest

return home

World War I WebQuest

Teacher Guide

This unit of practice Webquest explores the essential question "What is it like to live through a conflict." Use the index below to review hints for presentation, assessment, connection to the standards, addressing special students and more.

Invitation [Initial considerations]	Instruction suggestions and considerations
The Task and Interactions [directions]	Special student learning needs
Assessment suggestions	Situations: time and skills for completion of the tasks
Connecting to the Standards	Examples of student work
You may downmload a copy text copy of this guide by clicking HERE

return to the index

Unit of Practice	Looks like [specific]...
Essential question	What is it like to live through a conflict?
Invitation: Utilize a Web Quest to introduce and assist in the study of World War I	As we study wars and revolutions, our descriptions and lessons are often presented in abstract terms, events and dates. Yet these conflicts involve real people. There are the aggressors and defenders, the supporters and volunteers, and those who are simply caught in the middle. Homes, lands and loved ones are changed and/or lost forever. This webquest seeks to introduce the student to World War I through the eyes and lives of some of the participants of this conflict. Using primary sources from the Internet, students will learn about their participant, and then share these experiences with the rest of the class.

return to the index

Task	Task
In preparation, students will have studied patterns of state-building, nationalism and social reform in Europe and the Americas (1830-1914) discussed the multiple causes of WW1 Concurrently, students will be reading books such as Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and selected war poetry, to better understand the physical and mental effects of trench warfare in WW1, as well as the increased use of technology during this war.	Students will work in small groups to explore and analyze the experiences of a participants during WW1. They will then jigsaw into a new set of groups and explain the experience of their participant to the rest of the new group. Each individual student will then write a paper that answers the essential question "What is it like to live through a conflict?". Each student group will then present a class performance of their response to the essential question.
	Interactions
	Stage 1 [teacher directed; open-ended, short term] Meet in homogenous groups, by participant type, to explore three sets of data. After exploring each set of data, the homogenous group will synthesize the data to formulate a truth or understanding focused on the essential question, from their 'participants' voice. The homogenous group then will synthesize their 3 'truths' into one written statement. KEY: that the students realize they must not create a report, but, instead, must synthesize & express the VOICE of their participant [about 200 words].
	Stage 2 [teacher and student directed, open ended, short term] Jigsaw the experts into 3-5 groups [make sure each group has at least one 'participant' from each category.] [there may be extra students, who can be made group facilitators]. They will present their stage 1 group's 'truths/understanding' The stage 2 group will synthesize this data into a statement that answers/responds to the essential question. Each student will then present their own paper [about 200 words] that answers the essential question. Stage 3: [student directed, open ended, short term]
	Stage 3: [student directed, open ended, short term} The same group used in stage 2 will present a performance to the class of their response to the essential question by using one of the following methods: reader's theater script scenario mini-drama multimedia presentation other student choices note: all members of the group will participate in some manner.
Examples of student work have been posted at <http://www.sonic.net/bantam1/wqex.html>

return to the index

Assessment How is the student learning demonstrated?	Stage 1 assessed as a group, by the teacher, based on the written synthesis statements on the teacher generated guide sheet Stage 2 assessed individually, by the teacher, based on the summaries of each role presented and their over-all analysis/response to the essential question Stage 3 students & teacher design the assessment rubric and 'score' the other group's student created presentations
How do students, teachers, parents, and administrators know that learning standards are reached or exceeded?	For Stage 1 & 2 teacher will establish and communicate rubric prior to beginning of the stages. teacher will notify and invite parents to view their child's participant and discuss this with their child. For Stage 3 students and teacher will create the rubric and do the assessments, by group consensus.
Examples of student work have been posted at http://www.sonic.net/bantam1/wqex.html

return to the index

Standards: source: National Standards for World History Era 8: 20th century, standard 2A   Students should be able to: Demonstrate understanding of the global scope and human costs of the WW1	Examples of student achievement: Using historical and literary evidence, be able to describe the feelings , experiences and attitudes of soldiers from different areas of the globe. understand and analyze the relative successes of leading powers in their propaganda campaign. Draw upon books such as All Quiet on the Western Front to describe the physical and mental effects of trench warfare during WW1. Infer from a study of posters and cartoons in what ways and to what extent women's roles changed during the war. Evaluate the reliability of conclusions based on this evidence.
source: State of California History/Social Science Standards Grade 10: World History	10.6 Students analyze the effects of the First World War, in terms of: 4. the nature of the war, the human costs [military and civilian] on all sides of the conflict
requisite pre-skills	minimal net navigation skills

return to the index

Situations: time	Stage 1 1-30 minute and 1-45 minute computer lab session 1-15 minute intro and 1-45 minute group collaboration and writing session Stage 2 45 minutes for the groups to meet and share 45 minutes to write individual response to the essential question Stage 3 15 - 30 minutes to decide assessment rubric for the stage 3 presentations 45 minutes for presentations
place	computer lab & classroom
Using the technology	Make sure that: there are an adequate number of workstations to handle at least 7 groups of students simultaneously at least one of the workstations has sound capability there is adequate Internet access and bandwidth

return to the index

Teacher presentation/ facilitation Some suggestions to make the WebQuest more teacher friendly. Student worksheets are available here.

STAGE I suggestions: In getting the students to understand the nature of their paper, you might suggest putting it in the form of a letter, diary or answering the question "What did you do during the war?". Have the students use the first person Become thoroughly familiar with all the sites that the kids are being sent to. It will help in giving them a context as they move through the sets. Make up a binder with the 'hard copy' from all the sites that your students are going to visit. A number of the kids like to hold something, after they have reviewed the different sites. For some others, it makes it less intimidating to move forward when they realize that they are only going to look at two pages of a 32 page site. I noticed a lot of kids printed out some of the sites, to take back and study and/or reflect on. To see my thoughts and rationale as to the purpose of each subset of each 'participant', click here. STAGE 2 suggestions: When students read their 'I'-paper, have them add any facts from your review comments made to their stage 1 group paper. They should also fill in any information about the point of view or reference of their participant, i.e., leaders helped the people understand why they making the sacrifices, etc. It is important that the students use the stage 2 worksheet to list all their group's members by their roles. This allows us to know which roles must be accounted for in their individual papers. STAGE 3 suggestions: Some of the presentation formats the student groups might use include speaking as their participant a nurse speaking with a range of patients journalist interviewing... pilot 'seeing all' from the skies

special learning needs

I made up an informal reading difficulty rating system to help me compose the different student groups. soldier: hard pilot: easier nurse/medic: medium leader: special needs civilian: medium journalist: hard homefront: hardest In the stage 1 series of activities, the Leader's WebQuest was provided because each site has a speech which can be listened to. The text of the speech is also written out on the same page. Therefore, those with reading difficulties, as well as ESL students might benefit from being assigned to this particular WebQuest activity.

The World War 1 WebQuest can now also be found at:

Send questions or feedback to Barry Sovel

return to top of page

last updated 5 July 2002