One major topic our seventh and eighth graders cover in Social Studies is the US Constitution. This past year, students were challenged to fully comprehend the difficult subject and teachers were challenged with teaching the content in an interesting and innovative way.

WebQuests have the potential to be an interesting alternative to teaching the basics of the US Constitution and Illinois State Law. I decided to find an existing WebQuest to evaluate it's effectiveness and determine if it would be a reliable resource to use in this upcoming school year.

When evaluating this site I will use the questions I posed in an earlier blog post: 

1. What is the site's purpose?

2. Is it appropriate to use?

3. Is the information current?

4. Is the information presented in a clear manner?

<a href="http://www.lesdwebquests.org/conindex.html" target="_blank">United States Consitution Webquest</a> was created by some Arizona educational organization, although that information is not very clear. The task of the quest is for students to imagine themselves as journalists in 1787 who research and understand the final draft of the constitution in order to write a newspaper article on the details.

1. The purpose of this site is to direct students to resources where they will gain information about the purpose and history of the US Constitution. Students essentially are summarizing main events, answering questions, and creating a visual aid (presumably to be presented in class to their peers) to showcase their knowledge.

2. The site is appropriate to use. Almost all of the links included are to reputable sites (.gov, .edu) and include correct information. The creation of a newspaper will allow students to synthesize new information and apply it to a purposeful product. This has the potential to engage students and encourage collaboration. 

One concern to consider is the reading level of the resource links. Many of the sites use vocabulary that may be hard for our under-performing students to understand. If a teacher chose to use this webquest, they may have to modify for students at lower reading levels by grouping mixed-ability or offering alternative sites.

3. The welcome page was updated in 2002, and subsequent pages range from last edited in 2001 to 2007. Concerns that may be raised: Is the information incorrect? Do all the links work? After checking, all of the links do still work. There are books listed for further research, but it should be noted that they were all published between 1992 and 2000, and may not be as easily found as more current publications.

4. The site is presented in a clear manner, with six navigation links appearing to the left of the page. The type is large and easy to read, the background image looks like weathered  paper, and there are paintings and flags that enhance (and not distract from) the site.

In all, I think this is a good resource for our school to use in the upcoming year, but teachers should be prepared to differentiate for students who may not be able to read the text.