Introduction

What is an accomplishment?  Have you ever accomplished anything?  Have you felt triumphant and successful because of something you did?  An accomplishment is just that, something done successfully, a triumph or an achievement.  In this webquest you are going to discover the accomplishments made by famous 20th century Texans.  Who knows, you may just discover an accomplishment of your own. 

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The Task

It will be your job to research and discover the accomplishments of notable 20th century Texans.  You will work in pairs and individually.  You will submit a report of your findings in the form of one of the following:

• Power Point 
• Brochure 
• Business Card 
• Bio-Poem 

1. 1. Opening Activity:  Using a word web think of synonyms for the word accomplishment. Click on the link provided to fill in the web.  You may use a dictionary or a thesaurus if needed. Save the completed word web to your TIP lab folder under the title 20th Century Texans Project.  
2. 2.Peer Interviews:  You will need a partner to complete this task.  With your partner, click on the link provided to fill in  and complete the Peer Interview Form.  Save your interviews in your 20th Century Texans Project Folder. You will be asked to share the results of the interviews with the class.  
3. 3. What is a Biography?:  You will need your social studies text book for this activity. Turn to pages R34 and R35.  During this webquest we are going to concentrate on the changes that occurred in Texas since 1900.  The years between 1900 and 1999 are called the 20th century.  Use the timeline to review some of the events of this time period.  Now turn to pp. 348-349.  You are going to use the selection, "Dorie Miller-Courage Under Fire", to help define the term biography. You have been provided a document to help you with your notes.  Save the document to your Projects Folder.  
4. 4. Biography Scavenger Hunt: You will need a partner to complete this matching activity.  Open your textbook to the biographical dictionary on pages R45-R50.  The information found in the biographical dictionary is the same as what you looked for in the previous activity: early life, family, education, character traits, and accomplishments. You will use these pages to help match each famous Texan with the correct discription. Save the completed document to your Project Folder.  
5. 5. Big 6 Research: This is the heart of the webquest!  Your task will be to write a short biography about a notable 20th century Texan of your choice. To accomplish the task, you will use the Big6 Skills Approach to Problem-Solving.  After reviewing the Student Task Sheet restate the task in your own words under #1 of the Components of the Big6 Skills Sheet. In your Task Definition include research questions that are needed to solve the information problem.  For example, "What was early life like for _____________?"  You may want to review activity 3 & 4 for other research questions to be asked. Next, brainstorm a list of resources to write in under #2-Information Seeking Strategies of the Big6 sheet.  Resources might include the textbook, websites, etc.  Big6 step 3-Location and Access,has been filled in for you.  Links to Internet sites are given. You will need to fill in the blanks for any other sources used.  Big6 step 4-Use of Information is where you will begin to extract pertinent information.  A Note Taking Sheet and a Bibliography Style Sheet have been provided for this purpose.  Under Big6 step 5-Synthesis you will begin to complete your presentation of a PowerPoint, Bio-poem, Business card, or Brochure. 

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The last and final step is the Evaluation.  Your performance will be evaluated based on the contents of your Project Folder.  Rubrics have been provided for each individual presentation.   Below is a rubric for the overall project.

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	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Portfolio Folder	Folder contains some projects.  No Bibliography.  Conventions make information hard to understand.  More than one day late.	Folder contains projects, may not be in order.  Bibliography not complete or in order.  Not well organized.  Many convention errors.  Turned in one day late.	Most projects present and organized.  Fact/My Word format used.  Bibliography present for all sources.  Few conventions errors.  Neat and organized.  Turned in on time.	Folder contains all 10 projects.  Note Sheet in "Fact/My Word" format.  Bibliography complete and correct.  Well organized. Good command of conventions. Turned in on time.
Product: PowerPoint, Brochure, Bio-poem, Business Card	Rubric Score of 1	Rubric Score of 2	Rubric Score of 3	Rubric score of 4
Presentation	Read material from paper.  No eye contact.  Lots of repeats.  Listening skills need improvement.	No eye contact.  Pronounces most words correctly.  Monotone voice.  Listens to others well.	Knows material.  Fair eye contact.  Pronounces most words correctly.  Ok verbal skills(quiet).  Listens to others well.	Good verbal skills.  Eye contact and voice projection and pronunciation.  Knows material.  Good listening skills.
Tin Can Model	Sloppy job.  More than one day late.  Unrealistic representation.  Did not follow instructions.	One day late.  Neat.  Most instructions followed.	Neat.  Turned in on time.  Most instructions followed.	Neat. Turned in on time.  Good use of materials.  Realistic.  All instructions followed.

During this webquest you have learned about the accomplishments of notable 20th century Texans.  You have also learned about a few accomplishments of your own! 

Final Activity: Character Trait Web: Fill in the web with examples from your research. 

As a final thought, ask yourself this question: What would Texas have been like if this person had not been successful in accomplishing their task? 

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Resources:

NISD social studies unit Texas Our Texas
PowerPoint, Inspiration, Kidspiration, Publisher, Word
www.oswego.org/testprep/ela4/h/biopoem.cfm
www.teach-nology.com/cgi-bin/rubric.cgi
www.photohouston.com
www.musicfanclubs.org/leannrimes/larbio.htm
www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/giants/austin/austin-01.html
www.sofeminine.co.uk/w/star/f59/fan-club/Renee-Zellweger.html
www.redadair.com/bio.html
www.famoustexans.com/
www.strait2heart.com/pictures.html

**Approved list of Famous Texans information

Books and other analog media:

Textbook-Scott Foresman Social Studies- Texas

A great big "THANK YOU" goes to Denise Harris for creating the documents and rubrics used in the links.  I would like to say "Thank you" to Debbie Lovell for dealing with me interrupting her lab, and helping me with resources,links,and just about everything else. I would also like to thank the NISD Social Studies Department for all of the curriculum unit sources. Last but not least, a heartfelt "Thank You" goes out to Jeannine Keairnes for letting Denise and I have a day to work on this at school. 

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