So, You Want a Job!

A webquest for 4th-5th grade students.

Burdette L. Bontrager

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Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher Page

Introduction

The House of Burgesses, in Williamsburg, Virginia,  has just received word that a fleet of ships, carrying new immigrants, is coming from  England!  These people will need to have a place to live and work!  The Burgesses have commissioned you, a representative of Williamsburg, to assign a trade to each person.  There's only one problem--you don't know anything about the local artisans and their trades.  You will need to do some research on  the various trades that need new apprentices.  In this way, the Burgesses will be able to match the new individuals with a job that best suits their skills!

Task

The task for you and your team will be to study the colonial trades and complete a report and project to submit to the Burgesses.  The House of Burgesses will review your  findings and display them during The Public Times.

Process

Getting Ready

  1.  First you will be assigned to a team with two other students.
  2.  Get  together with your team and each of you will choose 3-4  trades to research.
       The available trades that need new apprentices are listed below.

          *Apothecary          *Basketmaker          *Blacksmith          *Brickmaker
          *Cabinetmaker      *Carpenter              *Cooper               *Foodways
          *Founder               *Gunsmith               *Miller                   *Milliner
          *Printer & Binder   *Saddler                  *Shoemaker         *Silversmith
          *Wheelwright        *Wigmaker

  3.  Once you have chosen the trades to research print out the Colonial Trades Research
       Organizer worksheet. 


Gathering the Information

     Go to the following website to find information on your chosen trade(s).
     


Prepare the Project

     Prepare a project that depicts the trade(s) that you have chosen.  It must represent
     the trade, include information about the tools used and/or the service that was
     performed.  This project must accompany your written report when submitted to the
     House of Burgesses for review.  Once approved, you will present your findings and
     project during The Public Times event.


Evaluation

Below is a rubric that shows how students will be evaluated individually.  The compilation of the report, project and presentation  at The Public Times event.

Beginning

1

Developing

2

Accomplished

3

Exemplary

4

Score

 




Research

 

 Very little time was spent researching websites.  No information recorded on Colonial Trades Research Organizer.
 Time was spent on researching websites but very little information was recorded on the Colonial Trades Research Organizer.
 Quality time was given to researching most websites.  Information was recorded on the Colonial Trades Research Organizer in a complete manner.
 Researched all  websites and found others that related to the Trades Research Organizer and completed all suggested organizers.

 


Project

 

 Project was not made by the student and did not coincide with the given task.
 Project was made by student but very little time and effort was given to the task.
 Project was made by the student and related to the given task.  Adequate time was alloted to  project.
 Project was made by the student with  detail  given to artifacts and information by the student.




Written Report
 Written report was not in student's own words, did not have a folder and did not relate to the task assigned.
 Wtitten report was in student's own words, related to the task assigned, but did not have a folder
 Written report was in student's own words, related to the task assigned and had a folder that related to the assigned task.
 Written report was in Student's own words, related to the task assigned, had a folder and other materials that related to the assigned task.

Conclusion

Hopefully by this time, you have a better understanding of the trades during the Early American Colonial Period.  You should now be able to identify specific colonial trades, understand the role they played in the society and the tools that were used in the trade(s).
The House of Burgesses reviewed your  findings and will be displaying them during The Public Times.  Each Burgess would like to thank you for helping them match the new individuals with a job that best suits their skills!

Credits & References

The template used was from The WebQuest Page.  Clip Art was taken from Microsoft Clip Art.  

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.

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page