WebQuest

You are going back to the time of the birth of America when many of the colonists were beginning to feel like Americans. Some colonists no longer felt they were British citizens since they were forming a new home far from England. These colonists called themselves patriots. Others still wanted to remain loyal to Britain. These colonists called themselves Loyalists or Tories. The patriots wanted to be free from British rule and begin a new country, while the Loyalists wanted to keep ties with Britain.

What brought about the Patriots decision to attempt to create a new nation? What were some of the actions taken by the British government that pushed the colonists toward creating a new nation? What were the challenges facing this new nation that was beginning?

Your team will be scored on the following criteria. The group grade is the grade each team member gets. Work together!

	Far Below Expectations 1	Not meeting Expectations 2	Is meeting Expectations 3	Exceeds Expectations 4	Score
Presents event to the class.	Students do not give enough information; students cannot answer questions about the event.	Students identify event, but don't give any other information. Vague responses are given about the event.	Students know information about their event, but fail to elaborate. Students only give answers to the questions.	Students demonstrate full knowledge (more than required). Expands their answers with details and additional information.
Uses display to enhance speech	Students do not have a display with a time line, illustrations, or text	Students are missing one or more parts: little or no illustrations, text or time line.	Display shows time line, illustrations or pictures and text about event	Display shows evidence of hard work and collaboration. Display is very neatly organized and well thought out.
Speaking in front of class	Students are hard to hear, no eye contact is made with audience, presentation is very hard to follow	Students speech can be heard, but is quiet, minimal eye contact with audience	Students spoke to audience, looked at their intended audience, presentation can be followed	Students worked effectively with each other to speak clearly, presentation very easy to follow
Works as a team	Project is not the result of a collaborative effort. The students showed no evidence of collaboration.	Very little collaboration happened. Each student's skills were not used, but the project still was finished.	Students worked together as a group, but may have had some difficulties working together. The team could have utilized each other's skills better.	Project showed evidence of mutual effort and students worked as a cohesive unit in the creation of the final project.

You have just glimpsed the many hardships faced by those bold colonists who fought hard to break free from Britain's rule. It was a difficult time for everyone. But those hardy colonists perservered to defeat a nation, in order to create a new nation.