Grade Level:
This webquest is intended for middle school students. (Our district reads The Call of the Wild in eighth grade.)

Materials/Time Needed:
At least one computer with an internet connection for every 4-5 students. Ideally this would take place in a computer lab, over the course of about a week. The students will also need access to word processing, and imaging software. (Freeware includes OpenOffice as a substitute for MS Office and PhotoFiltre as a substitute for Photoshop.) Those that choose to present a Power Point type journal would need the appropriate software (OpenOffice has a Power Point equivalent), and the same goes for those that choose to present web pages (SeaMonkey from Mozilla has a WYSIWYG editor built in.) Students will also need a printer.

Standards Addressed (California - Grade 8 English-Language Arts):

• Reading - 2.6 Use information from a variety of consumer, workplace, and public documents to explain a situation or decision and to solve a problem.
• Writing Organization and Focus - 1.1 Create compositions that establish a controlling impression, have a coherent thesis, and end with a clear and well-supported conclusion.   1.2 Establish coherence within and among paragraphs through effective transitions, parallel structures, and similar writing techniques.
• Writing Research and Technology - 1.4 Plan and conduct multiple-step information searches by using computer networks and modems. 1.5 Achieve an effective balance between researched information and original ideas.
• Writing Evaluation and Revision  -  1.6 Revise writing for word choice; appropriate organization; consistent point of view; and transitions between paragraphs, passages, and ideas.
• Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics) - 2.1 Write biographies, autobiographies, short stories, or narratives:  a. Relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details.  b. Reveal the significance of, or the writer's attitude about, the subject.  c. Employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, comparison or contrast of characters).
• Written and Oral English Language Conventions Sentence Structure - 1.1 Use correct and varied sentence types and sentence openings to present a lively and effective personal style.  Grammar - 1.4 Edit written manuscripts to ensure that correct grammar is used.  Punctuation and Capitalization - 1.5 Use correct punctuation and capitalization.  Spelling -  1.6 Use correct spelling conventions.

• Greater knowledge of the people and circumstances of the Yukon gold rush, and its place in history.
• Background knowledge for greater appreciation of the role that the setting plays in The Call of the Wild.
• Produce lively first person accounts, based on historical facts.
• Learn research, citation, and presentation skills.
• Learn to work together collaboratively.

Tips for Delivery:
The students should be able to follow the process fairly independently. You might give some mini-lessons about narrowing your search with quotes or using strings of words. I would also ephasize giving credit for the information AND the graphics.  I would allot about a week, and then another day or two for presenting.

You should give the presentation a separate grade, and perhaps use a panel of students to ask questions. This way, you address even more standards, and the kids get to see each other's work. You probably already have a presentation rubric for other projects.

After you do it once, I don't have to tell you to keep samples for the next round. That also gives you an opportunity to tweak it based on the results you get the first time. Please let me know if you come up with any changes that might improve this quest.

The Author:
Mr. Coward teaches 7th grade English at Laguna Middle School in San Luis Obispo, CA.  He has been teaching for 17 years.
For more resources, please visit: SeventhGradeEnglish.com.
E-mail: mcoward@slcusd.org.

Credits:
All images taken from the site listed in the Resources section, and credited where they are used.
Credit goes to Bernie Dodge for creating the first webquest, and defining the main ideas and rubrics.
Thanks to George Smith for the WebQuest class which this quest is a result of.
Permission is granted for others to use and modify this webquest, as long as credit is given, and the use is not for profit.