Web Quest for The Color of Water

Although this webquest on James McBride’s The Color of Water did not specify the grade level, I imagine that it is for tenth grade students because I taught this text to students at this grade level last year. Apart from the fact that the webquest focuses on The Color of Water, it deals primarily with social problems in New York including poverty and racism. Students are given the opportunity to explore the social problems of poverty and racism and then to evaluate the public policies that have been implemented to address the problems. Then students are asked to assume the roles of public policy analysts and assigned the task of creating new and innovative policies that can improve the conditions and New York City and thus the lives of many people. Students are divided into groups of four and then asked to present an oral report and a short Power Point presentation that will be used by “the Mayor’s commission” to “solve future problems of bigotry and racism. In these reports students must include some highlights on the great contributions that African-Americans and Jews have made to American society, visuals, dance, drama, poetry, and recommendations to the Mayor’s Committee on racism and bigotry. Lastly, student presentations are then to be developed into essays that are a minimum of three pages.

Even though this webquest could be more streamlined, it seems to be fairly comprehensive because it introduces and defines the purpose of the student activities and their connection to The Color of Water, defines the tasks that students must complete, provides the process so that students can understand how to complete the tasks, offers web resources, provides a rubric for the student presentations, addresses the way in which students’ work will be evaluated, and mentions how New York State standards are incorporated into the activities. This webquest is highly stimulating and useful for student learning because it allows students to become public policy analysts in the process of exploring how literary themes exist in society. Also, I particularly liked this webquest because if offers multimodal learning and can appeal to oral and visual learners. The products of the webquest are substantial because students not only have to gather, assess, synthesize, and evaluate information but they also have to present their findings and recommendations in a variety of ways. This can truly ensure that students have processed and grasped content while building their critical thinking skills. While I am not entirely certain if the students’ recommendations for solving social problems are actually submitted to the Mayor’s commission, this is an excellent idea nevertheless.

http://www2.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/t4prod/kleinwq2.html

Below, I have listed other webquests that I found appealing:

Night webquest
http://students.resa.net/bhsmc/ClassClicks/Peters/NIGHTwebquest.doc

Romeo and Juliet webquest
http://www.manteno.k12.il.us/webquest/high/LanguageArts/RomeoandJuliet/mainframe.html

The Outsiders webquest
http://outsiders06.tripod.com/