Task

Shades of History:
The Montgomery Bus Boycott/Beyond Black and White

Teacher's Guide

You may use this WebQuest in any way that suits your needs. Here is a recommended sequence of activities, but they can be modified if you choose. The time required will depend on how many of the activities you choose to do. The WebQuest potentially addresses many curriculum standards related to history and social science and English language arts.

1. Have students start with the Introduction where they are invited to take a preliminary quiz as a diagnostic tool to see how much they know about the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955.

2. Divide the class into teams of four students. These groups will need to collaborate on a final project drawing on the different role perspective of each member, so you may want to consider this when organizing groups.

3. As a class, do the Background activities. The first two activities can be done within these teams, as a whole class, or as a combination of these two configurations. In the third activity, you may want to project the video for the whole class to view at once, let them explore the 9/11 Web sites in small groups, and then come together again as a whole class to discuss the last question for a shared experience.

4. Then, set up the Task, making sure that each group has someone assigned to each Role. You may want to assign these roles yourself, allow students to choose them, or facilitate some combination thereof. You may want to give students an overview of the entire Process so they know what to expect.

5. Next, organize students in role-alike groups to read the resources and answer the questions on their respective role pages. Students may want to divide up the resources so that each one reads different materials from the list. All students should take notes on the role-alike group discussions, as they will be reporting back to their original groups. You may want to provide additional links or other materials, such as those featured on the Roles page. You may also want to encourage students to pursue research on their own using a search engine such as Google or Yahooligans.

6. After these role-alike discussions, students should return to their original teams and respond as a group to the questions on the Task page. You may want to discuss the questions as a class first to clarify them. You can leave the response medium open, or you can limit it as you wish. Possible response formats might include multimedia presentations, performances, printed publications, or art exhibits. Regardless of media selected, all students in the group should contribute to the final product.

7. Share team projects publicly. You may want to share them just within the class, or you may want to share them more broadly with wider audiences.

8. As a class, do the Closing activities. The first activity (discussion) might be done either in original teams or as a whole class. You can either project the Web pages, print them, or ask small groups to work at individual computers. The second activity (quiz) is best suited for a computer lab but can be done by rotating students through classroom computers. The final essay can be done either on paper or using a word processor.

Please send any questions or comments to Marielle Palombo. Feedback is welcome!