Follow the Drinking Gourd

NCSS Standards
II. Time, Continuity, and Change
      c. compare and contrast different stories and accounts about the past events, people, places, or
          situations; identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the past
      d. identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past such as: documents, letters, diaries,
          maps, textbooks, photos and others
VI. Power, Authority, and Governance
       h. recognize and give examples of the tensions between the wants and needs of individual groups, and
           concepts such as fairness, equity, and justice
X. Civic Ideals and Practices
     b. identify examples of rights and responsibilities of citizens

Other information:
This webquest is really trying to get students to discover their own learning.  Students can, of course, ask for help when needed but I really want them to learn about the Underground Railroad on their own so they can discover and explore information about it.  The National Geographic site and the PBS site have great 'tours' students can go through to really see what the Underground Railroad was like.  

Finding information about the slaves might be difficult because there are not a lot of documents that recorded their stories.  For this reason the rubric may need to be adjusted according to how difficult it is for students to find information. 

It is also difficult to find child friendly sites for information about abolitionists and stationmasters.  There is a lot of information out there but it is pretty advanced for 3rd-5th graders.  If more information is needed there may be age and reading level appropriate books that would work better.

In the webquest, I do not have time for the teacher and students to discuss the meaning of the lyrics to "Follow the Drinking Gourd".  You can change this and spend more time on it if you wish.  You could even read the book "Follow the Drinking Gourd" to the class to help them understand the song more.  You could also look at quilts that people from the Underground Railroad made because they put code in the quilts to tell slaves if it was a safe place to stay or not.  Students could find this very interesting and make their own quilt as a class, if time allows for it.

This webquest can be varied in many ways and it is up to the teacher to decide what works best for the students.  The main thing I really wanted out of this webquest was an inquiry experience for the students, so this idea should stay as you adjust the webquest to your students.