Introduction
Leading into FDR's "Four Freedoms Speech" and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, students will explore some of the events that influenced the president's speech and the fictional novel in order to gain context.
Task
This WebQuest will introduce students to real events during the period in which FDR's speech is delivered and To Kill A Mockingbird is set. The nation faced many hardships in the 1930s, and tensions were high throughout the United States. This often spawned social injustices and magnified inequalities.
Follow the directions to travel through The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl, Emmett Till, the Scottsboro Trials, and Brown vs. Board of Education to understand the turmoil that many Americans faced during this period.
Students have until the end of Friday's class meeting to complete and submit answers to the WebQuest.
Process
Process
ALL WORK WILL BE COMPLETED IN A GOOGLE DOC AND ATTACHED TO ASSIGNMENT IN GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
Students will be placed into three groups: red, blue, or yellow. Carefully follow the directions for the assigned color only.
1. Open a new Google Doc. Create an MLA formatted document where all answers will be placed. Save the document as Last Name First Initial--FDR and TKAM Web Quest.
2. FIRST SITE: ALL STUDENTS
View the Google Slides presentation from the link below.
Look at the photos, select one, and write down comments in response to the following questions:
a. What do you see in the photo, and how does this make you feel?
b. How do you think other people feel about the photo?
c. What would you do if you were in the situation seen in the photo?
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tbdinlDjJde9xWReONBjJBEJre6NMT5cFRu2xTgYnjI/edit?usp=sharing
3. SECOND SITE:
Red Group:
Click the link below, read the article, and complete the following tasks:
Write a summary.
Who/what did you read about?
Explain your reaction to the article.
Blue Group:
Click the link below, read the article, and complete the following tasks:
Write a summary.
Who/what did you read about?
Explain your reaction to the article.
Yellow Group:
Click the link below, read the article, and complete the following tasks:
Write a summary.
Who/what did you read about?
Explain your reaction to the article.
https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2004/cottrol_diamond_ware
4. THIRD SITE:
All Groups:
Using the link below,
a. Read the article and carefully look through the photos from The Great Depression.
b. Choose two pictures to place into your document.
c. Write a brief summary about how each of the pictures makes you feel.
What do you think life was like during that period?
How do you think President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt about the struggles the country was facing and tackling the task of trying to improve things?
https://www.thoughtco.com/great-depression-pictures-1779916
Evaluation
| Beginning 1 |
Developing 2 |
Qualified 3 |
Exemplary 4 |
Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organization | Information is disorganized and paragraphs are not well-constructed | Information is somewhat organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed | Information is somewhat organized and paragraphs are somewhat well constructed | Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs | |
| Amount of information | One or more required topics are not addressed | All topics are addressed, and most questions are answered with a sentence about each | All topics are addressed, and most questions are answered with at least two sentences about each | All topics are addressed, and all questions are answered with three or more sentences about each | |
| Mechanics | More than six formatting, grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors | Five to six formatting, grammatical spelling, or punctuation errors | Three to four formatting, grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors | No more than two formatting, grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors | |
| Illustrations | Illustrations are not accurate and do not add to the reader's understanding of the topic | Illustrations are not accurate or do not add to the reader's understanding of the topic | Illustrations are accurate and add to the reader's understanding of the topic | Illustrations are neat, accurate and add to the reader's understanding of the topic | |
|
Planning |
The project seems like it was thrown together at the last minute. | The project seems rushed and planning seems minimal. | There is some evidence that the project was planned in advance. | It is obvious that the project was well-planned and thought out. | |
Conclusion
After our final scheduled class discussion between all groups regarding what they learned about their personalized topics concludes this project, I hope that all students will have a much better understanding of what was going on at the time of both Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and FDR's "Four Freedoms Speech" as we head into the unit that covers them.