WebQuest: What Makes Someone Great - Student Page

See Teacher Page for detail project plan by the teacher.

Source: http://www.vickiwright.com/wq/index.htm

What Makes Someone Great?
A WebQuest for 6th Grade Gifted and Talented

Designed by Vicki L. Wright
vickiw1071@aol.com

Introduction

A group of community members and school district personnel are concerned that high ability students in your town are not getting the best possible education in high school. They are considering starting a Magnet School, or a school strictly for talented students, which will provide them with the chance for learning more in a specific area. They have formed a committee to explore how to do a better job, but they need your help.

As potential future students at the Magnet School, you are being asked to examine the lives and backgrounds of people who are generally considered to be geniuses in their areas of expertise. Your job is to look for anything these individuals have in common that could be a part of the new high school's curriculum.

Is it possible that all of them have a common characteristic? Is academic or intellectual giftedness enough? Or, could there be something about their education that was similar? Why are these people special? How can a high school be developed to help students achieve greatness?

 The Task

Your job is to examine the lives and personalities of admirable people in a variety of fields. Look for anything that these people might have in common.

They may have something similar that happened in childhood. Or, perhaps they each had a special person influence them. It's also possible that there is something about their personalities that makes them successful.

Is there a "key" to their success? Or, do you believe that they have nothing in common that a magnet school could help with?

You will present a PowerPoint presentation to the committee of community members and school district personnel at their meeting in one month.

Be prepared to share your findings with them. Your group will need to be prepared to speak to the committee and defend your findings with specific examples from the lives of the people you've studied.

You may use props, such as charts, graphs or pictures, to assist you in your presentation. You may even decide to present a skit to the committee which will show them what you've discovered.

The Process

What makes someone great?

Your task is to find answers to this question by learning about the lives of people who are famous or well-known in their particular field. To do this, you will each assume the role of an expert in one field.

One of you will be a Science and Technology expert, one will be an expert in Leadership, one on Sports, and one will focus on Arts and Humanities.

Before beginning your research, read the article Mind Power (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000703/zone.htm)for some background information.

Week One: You will be reading about THREE OR MORE of the specific people in your chosen field. You may use books and magazines as well as the Internet links provided.

Because the fields are divided among you, it will be extremely important that each of you learn as much as you can about what influenced these people and caused them to become great. Take notes on each individual so that you have some facts to refer to later.

Click here to print copies of a worksheet that will help you keep track of what you learn.

Worksheet

Name	Early Evidence of Ability	Important Influences	Disabilities	Additional Important Information	Implications for Magnet School

Week Two: Continue reading about AT LEAST THREE of the people and collecting information about their lives. Begin to formulate your own theories about what might have caused them to become great and look for evidence to support your theories.

Week Three: Meet with your group members to compare what you've learned. Are your theories similar? Can you find anything that the famous individuals might have in common?

If you find nothing in common, you may want to consider the theories of other members of the group and go back through the information on your subjects. Perhaps you overlooked something. If there is nothing in common, this will need to be incorporated into your presentation before the school board and community members group.

Develop your plan for the PowerPoint presentation you will give to the committee examining a magnet school. Determine what role you will play in the presentation and what you will contribute. Will you have visual aids? Will you do role-playing? How will you get your message across to your audience?

Week Four: Finalize your plans for your presentation as a group. Make sure that each of you has a significant role in sharing your findings and practice your delivery.

Culmination: Present your findings to the committee.

Evaluation

Your work on the What Makes Someone Great? WebQuest will be evaluated using the following rubric. You will need to become familiar with and understand it so you will know what level(s) you wish to aim to reach.

You will be evaluated with two rubrics -- one on just you and the other on your whole group. Remember that your efforts are essential in helping your group to explain how a magnet school might, or might not, help to educate exceptional people.

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Taking Responsibility for Own Share of Group Work	Little evidence of doing own share of work that contributes to the group effort.	Some evidence of doing a fair measure of work that contributes appropriately to the group.	Completes a fair share of the group work and contributes appropriately.	Appropriately completes own share of group work and makes an important contribution to the group's final product.
Organization	Little or no plan is evident. Deadlines are not met.	Shows some planning but planning is not well carried out. Deadlines may or may not be met.	Planning and thought are evident and are well carried out. Deadlines are met.	Well organized plan that is thoughtfully and thoroughly completed within the deadlines.
Ability to Discern Which Concepts to Apply	Unable to define which concepts or examples that will support the group project.	Able to define some concepts and examples that support the group project but doesn't show true understanding.	Able to define several good concepts and examples that support the group position and shows some understanding.	Defines numerous excellent concepts and examples which fully support the group position and shows deep understanding.
Justification of Argument	Few or no examples to justify position and no evidence of thoughtful interpretation.	Some examples to justify position and some evidence of thoughtful interpretation.	Many examples which justify position and show evidence of thoughtful interpretation.	Numerous examples which thoroughly justify position and show evidence of much thought.
Understanding of Giftedness and Relation to Self	Shows minimal understanding of the concept of giftedness and cannot relate it to self and others.	Shows some understanding of the concept of giftedness and is beginning to relate it to self and others.	Shows good understanding of the concept of giftedness and can relate the qualities to self and others.	Shows deep understanding of the concept of giftedness and can relate to both negative and positive qualities within self and others.

Conclusion

By learning about the lives and personalities of people who are commonly believed to be exceptionally talented, you can help the community members and district personnel to determine what very strong students need in high school. It will also help you to understand what it means to be gifted and talented and to understand more about your own potential for success.

Credits & References

Wiggins, G. and J. McTighe (1998) Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Clipart from Corel Gallery, 10,000 Clipart Images, Corel Corporation, © 1994.

The following clipart items are from The Print Shop Publishing Suite, © 1997 Broderbund Software, Inc.: Award.jpg, BenGurion.jpg, Fitness.jpg, Leonardo.jpg, and Scientist.jpg.

Background graphics created with PhotoShop by Vicki Wright.

What Makes Someone Great?" lesson created by Vicki Wright © 2000.

This lesson was created as a part of the "Teaching With WebQuests" course. Please refer to The WebQuest Page to acquire the latest version of this template and training materials, and for further information.