Exploring Nature's Fury

This WebQuest was designed for my 5th grade students to further their knowledge on the topics of Nature's Fury that we learn about in our basal text. Our Nature's Fury unit begins in the second week of school and usually lasts about 4 weeks. This Webquest is designed to be used as an ongoing activity for my students to complete during guided reading and seatwork time throughout our language arts period. In total, I would like the WebQuest to take about two weeks: 1 week for research, and 1 week for organizing their information and creating the VoiceThread presentation. I have never used VoiceThread with my students, but next year is the first time that I plan to implement it in my classroom. Up to this point, my students have completed PowerPoint presentations, created Severe Weather brochures and posters, or wrote non-fiction children's books as their assessment. If you are unfamiliar with VoiceThread any of those options have worked wonderfully for me in the past. I have never had the students work on their final projects in pairs, but I do allow them to gather their research with a partner or in a small group. I found that by having them collaborate they were able to find more information in a shorter period of time which allowed for more independent work on their projects.

Standards

ELPS (English Language Proficiency)Standards addressed: Standard 2: English Language Learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of language arts. Level 3: Developing: Write a series of sentences with a main topic and supporting details using a guided model. Level 5: Bridging: Revise writing for logic and order of ideas with feedback from peers and teacher. Standard 4: English Language Learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of science. Level 4: Expanding: Explain features of natural phenomena using a graphic organizer. NETS-S: Standard 2: Communication and Collaboration-Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, includingat a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.Standard 3: Research and Information Fluency-Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate,and use information.Standard 5: Digital Citizenship-Students understand human, cultural, and societalissues related to technology and practice legal andethical behavior.Standard 6: Technology Operations and Concepts- Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.

Credits

Our school librarian does a wonderful job finding online databases that are user friendly for teachers and students, and she is a large part of the reason that I was able to find such great websites for my students. National Geographic also has fantastic sources for the students to use and provides a range of interactive activities as well as videos and information that related directly to our topic. Warren Faidley helped inspire my task for the students to complete and has an informative website that gives current updates on his storm chasing, research, and projects that piqued my students' interest.