World Religion WebQuest

Contrary to popular opinion, culture did not die during the Industrial Revolution. But it did witness a variety of transformations. There were so many different influences during this period, and they did not happen in a vacuum. This was a time for nationalism, imperialism as well as industrialism. They all had an influence on culture.

To help your awareness of the cultural trends during the Industrial Age, we will be conducting a graded discussion on culture. However, this one will be a little different. You will be playing the role of one of the leading figures in Industrial Age culture. You will be researching all the trends in culture in order to be able to address the core questions for the discussion and any challenges that emerge.

The first part of the quest is more like a scavenger hunt. You will go to the various sites listed and answer the associated questions and then submit. You may also use the MS Word version of the scavenger hunt; open the file and type responses then either email file to teacher or submit printed copy.

The next stage will be the panel discussion. Students will select their character to represent; duplicates are not permitted. Students will not only respond to questions about their own character, but will also question the other characters present. Questions should allow the characters to state positions and defend them on topics that relate to this period known as the Long Nineteenth Century.

Just as there are two parts to the process, there are two grades for this WebQuest. First is your scavenger hunt, which will be assessed as a regular assignment for accuracy and completion.

The second assessment is for the panel discussion, wich will be graded using the following rubric. Remember that one of the key elements of a discussion is to allow and even to encourage other students to participate. If you monopolize the discussion, you will not be showing exemplary participation.

	4	3	2	1
Conduct	Demonstrates respect for learning process; has patience with differing opinions and complexity; asks peers for clarification; attempts to involve others; moves forward into new concepts; not disruptive	Generally shows composure but may display impatience with contradictory or confusing ideas; not patient while waiting to speak; comments frequently but does not encourage others to participate; attempts to move discussion forward; shows a desire to contribute responsibly	Participates verbally but shows impatience with seminar process; may make insightful comments but is either too forceful or too shy and does not contribute to the progress of seminar; tends to debate not discuss; may be unfocused due to depth/length of seminar	Displays little/no respect for the seminar process; argumentative; takes advantage of or causes distractions; uses inappropriate language; challenges individuals rather than speaking to ideas; writes personal notes
Speaking	Speaks to all participants; avoids talking too much; can be heard by all	Addresses majority of comments to peers; does not try to say “everything” while speaking; responds to questions voluntarily; tries to speak louder when asked to do so	Speaks directly to leader; speaks too softly and needs to be reminded; routinely lapses into slang or substandard usage; speaks only with prompting and has no sustainable point	Reluctant to speak when called on or passes; cannot be heard; shows no desire to contribute verbally
Reasoning	Understands questions before answering; cites evidence; provides logical and insightful comments; makes connections between ideas; resolves apparent contradictory ideas; considers others’ viewpoints not only own; avoids bad logic	Demonstrates some reflection on concept but not mastery; makes limited connections with ideas of others; ideas interesting enough that others respond to them	Limited reflection on concept; may overlook important points thus leading to faulty logic; may be accurate on minor points while missing main concept; contributes opinions that have not factual support; has some difficulty in formulating understandable comments	Makes illogical comments; says no more than “I agree”; ignores previous comments and seminar direction; uses humor to avoid serious thinking
Listening	Listens for opportunities to respond; does not overlook details; takes notes/writes questions; builds on discussion; points out flawed reasoning; overcomes distractions	Generally attentive and focused; responds thoughtfully to ideas/questions raised; may be too absorbed in own thoughts to hear others’ comments; may write some notes but not consistently	Responds only to ideas that are personally interesting; asks for repetition and rephrasing of questions; takes limited notes; easily distracted	Not attentive to others; exhibits negative body language; takes no notes
Preparation	Understands major concepts; has student- prepared notes and questions	Demonstrates knowledge of facts; has highlighted WWW printouts and prepared simple questions	Confused about key concepts; may have some WWW printouts	Clearly unprepared; has no notes, WWW printouts, or questions

Adapted from Socratic Seminar

You now have some basic information about culture around the world during the Industrial Age. There are many influences on culture. Artists are affected by world events in the same ways that other people are; they just have more expressive ways of showing it. Even in the most dismal of times, mankind has sought ways to express who they are and what they feel. If you doubt this, look at some of the art created by prisoners during the Holocaust (http://lastexpression.northwestern.edu/).

I would like to refer to all the wonderful websites on world culture, but space dictates otherwise. Please visit my list of Advanced Placement World History resources for links to some of these wonderful pages.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.