Teacher Page

Webquest for Arthur

Students must learn to write in order to be successful in life. Writing is the basis of communication for expressing ideas.  Writing is also a way to document experiences.  The earlier students start to learn the process, the sooner they gain the skills they will need to become an effective writer.

In this unit, the students will be utilizing the writing process as they experience their community. They will write about people, places, and things that they will encounter through various field trips.  After their excursions, the students will take on a role as newscasters and write a script to report what they saw.

How Does Writing Impact Life?

Television:

1.     What television programs do you watch?

2.     Which program do you like best and why?

3.     Did you learn anything from your favorite show?

4.     How does your favorite show make you feel?

5.     What would you write about to help make people feel good about themselves?

Community:

1.     What is a community?

2.     How are community helpers important?

3.     Who are your community helpers?

Unit Prerequisites

• Knowledge about Arthur, the character in the Marc Brown series of books
   

• Basic writing skills

Access:

·        Ask your family member what kind of job they have.

·        Interview one of your classmates about the kind of job there parents have.

·        Read books.

·        Listen to stories on cassettes or computer disk.

·        Research how TV programs are made.

Interpret:

·        Categorize the different types of jobs that your classmates’ parents have.

·        Compare and contrast differences and similarities between your family and your pen pal’s family.

·        Compare and contrast neighborhoods

·        Imagine and discuss what it will be like to be on your favorite TV program.

Produce:

·        Draw pictures of some things that you see at the places we visit.

·        Participate in a letter writing activity to the author Marc Brown.

·        Write to a pen pal.

·        Write a language experience story about the trips.

Communicate:

• Record a newscast about field trips.
   

• Show news cast video to other students.
   

• Do a survey.  Have children tell how the video made them feel.
   

• Make a checklist of feelings.

Evaluate:

• Complete the rubric for the letter to Marc Brown. 
   

• Write a story telling about each field trip taken.
   

• Share stories with school mates and parents.
   

• Tell what you learned from working on this project.

Teacher Resources

www.pbs.org

http://www.kidsreads.com/wordscrambles/word-arthur.asp