THE WAY OF THE PHILANTHROPIST
WEB QUEST
Developed
by
TODD
BINGHAM
tobingham@gmail.com
He hath a tear for pity and a hand
Open as day for meting charity.
- William Shakespeare, King Henry the Fourth, Part
II
(King Henry at IV, iv)
Contents
Introduction
Ask yourself these questions before continuing:
Can I make a difference in my
community?
Do I want to help those in
need?
Do I enjoy bringing happiness
to others?
If you answered yes to any of
these questions, you are ready to learn how to make a difference. Your next
step is to go to the task section to discover your
special assignment.
Being myself no
stranger to suffering, I have learned to relieve the sufferings of others.
[Lat., Non ignara
mali miseris succurrere disco.]
- Virgil or Vergil
(Publius Virgilius Maro Vergil), The Aeneid (I, 630)
Introduction | Task | Process and Resources | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher
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Task
The time is coming soon for your group to take action
and begin making a difference in the lives of those in need. Before you can make
a difference in other peoples lives you need to uncover a few things. First,
you and your team while need to investigate the term philanthropy, understand
the meaning of the word and search for famous philanthropists. Next, your group
will research and contact national and local philanthropic organizations. After
your research you will need to agree upon one organization that your group
feels strongest about and could use your support. Once you have determined who
you want to help you will need to write a persuasive letter to your local or
state representative addressing your findings and asking for their support.
Your final task will be to create PowerPoint Presentation about your findings
and experience and share it with your classmates.
In order for this to work,
you and your team members will need to collaborate and respect one anotherıs
ideas, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. This is a team effort and you will be
graded as a team. If you want to learn how to help others you need to be able
to help one another. Each of you has been assigned a special role based on one
of your many talents. The list of below will give you a better idea of your
individual roles:
1. Researcher/Historian-You will be in charge of finding out about
philanthropy, philanthropists, and working with the reporter by finding out the
info about your local philanthropic organizations. For more information on what
a researcher/historians job role is check out researcher/historian.
2. Reporter-You
are the lead contact, you need to professional and thorough. You will be
researching philanthropic national and local agencies and finding a
representative of your local or state government. For more information on your
job check out reporter.
3. Technical Writer-Your job is to make sure your teamıs paper work looks good. That means
checking the text for the PPP and writing with the letter to the local
representative. For more details on your job check out technical writer.
4. Graphic Designer-Your main role is to make the PowerPoint Presentation look
professional, and is exciting to your fellow classmates. You need to make sure
that you presentation includes all the information required. You will have to
use all your team players input, so make sure to keep an open line of
communication. To find more information about your job take a look graphic designer.
Remember even though you have
special roles you are a member of a team and team players help one another out!
That means if you are waiting to begin work or are finished with your main task
help out your teammates.
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Process and Resources
Are you ready to make a difference?
Hereıs were the adventure begins.
This quest will take 2 to 3 class periods. Each one of you will be working at a
separate computer, but make sure you are available to assist the other members
of your team. Before you begin, read all the requirements of the project and
take a minute to look over what your partners will be doing, so that you might
assist them. You will each need to keep a record of the information you have
found. You will each be provided with a folder and paper to keep track of your
information. Remember you have to share this information with your team, so
make sure others can read your notes. Each one of you has important duties to
accomplish in order for your teams to reach its desired goal...making a
difference!
Jump to my task:
1. The researcher/historian
will begin by defining the term philanthropy and then discover a past and
present philanthropist. Begin your quest by looking at these sites for
definitions of philanthropy
Be
sure to write down the definition, synonyms, and examples you think best define
philanthropy. Next take a look at these sites that list some famous
philanthropists:
Famous philanthropists 1, Famous
philanthropists 2,and Famous philanthropists 3.
Take a quick look at these three lists and find five philanthropists, total,
from the past and present and write down their names, lifetime, and two facts
about them that make them worthy of being philanthropists. If you find any
interesting quotes from these people be sure to write it down.
2. The reporter will first look into state and local organizations
that assist those in need. Take a look at these sites:
Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC
Ronald Mc Donald House Charities
Now,
take a look at a couple of lists of charity organizations at Charities
Review Council and Charity Choices. Find
out what these organizations do for the people they assist and how people like
you can help. Be sure to write down several agencies that you think the group
might be interested in helping so that you can decide as a team who you want to
help.
3. The technical writer will be
in charge of writing and editing the letter to the representative so take the
time to look at these sites on writing a persuasive letter:
Contact your Congressperson in the U.S. House of
Representatives
Write to Congress, the President, and State
Legislators
Find a local
or state representative you would like to write to about this agency. You might
write about how the agency you select is doing an important service and needs
their support to further the agencyıs efforts. After you have written the rough
draft you will need to show it to your group. Everyone needs to read the
letter, agree on the message and content, and sign or attach their name to the
document. You will post or email this letter when the teacher has checked it.
You will also be in charge of helping the graphic designer compile the
information from the researcher and reporter, and write the text of the
PowerPoint.
4. The graphic designer
will first need to check out some sites on creating an excellent PowerPoint
Presentation:
MIStupid.com (Click on the
slide master video)
You
can begin by choosing the layout and design for the presentation. Take a look
at the Format, Slideshow, and Insert menus for all the creative possibilities.
Search the Internet for exciting and relevant images related to philanthropy
and donıt forget to talk to your team members in case they found some good
images online to match your text and slideshow. Donıt forget your job is to
make this look great, so you need to know the subject and what everyone else is
working on.
This
is a group project and you will be graded as one. By the end of this quest you
should have all the information you need to have begun your persuasive letter
and PowerPoint Presentation. You will be given an additional two days after the
quest to finish the letter and PowerPoint. You will be graded on these two
assignments. Check the evaluation section to find
out how you will be graded for your project.
Introduction | Task | Process
and Resources | Evaluation | Conclusion
| Credits | Teacher Page | Back to top
Evaluation
This page contains the rubrics, or scoring guides,
that your group will be graded on. The links are below. Make sure you take a look
through both the Persuasive Letter Rubric and PowerPoint Rubric, and ask any
questions before beginning your assignments. There are 10 categories for both
rubrics. The scoring is from 4, outstanding work, to 1, incomplete. Your groups
will be graded on each category and all the points, from all the categories,
will be added together for your total. A perfect score would be 40. You should
try for outstanding on each category, but you need to score 3 on each category
to meet your objectives. Click
here if you want to know more
about rubrics.
Click on for
Click on for
POWERPOINT
PRESENTATION RUBRIC
At the end of the project
each of you will print out a copy of the Self Evaluation Rubric and fill it in.
When you are finished you will hand it in to your teacher. You will not be
graded on this rubric, but please take the time to fill it out accurately and
honestly.
Click on for
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Conclusion
Congratulations, you
have become a junior philanthropist. Now you have taken action and made your
voices heard. How do you feel about yourself? You should feel good that you are
an active participant in your community; a voice for those in need. What will
you do next? You can continue to investigate causes you believe in, write
letters to your representatives, and even volunteer some of your time for your
favorite organizations. Society needs people like you. Good Luck!
To pity distress
it but human; to relieve it is Godlike.
- Horace Mann,
Lectures on Education (lecture VI)
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Credits
³Helping hands² image
retrieved from
http://www.tripletsmomsandmore.org/HelpingHands.html
Introduction image retrieved
from
http://www.thisisthelife.com/photos/experiences/large/giving-to-charity.jpg
Task image retrieved from
http://punktde.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/a_studium/bilder/emailKonvention/Multi-Tasking_1.jpg
Evaluation image retrieved
from
http://www.coaches.bc.ca/.../
images/evaluation.gif
Conclusion image retrieved
from
http://www.stjhealthcare.org/
volunteer_services.htm
Credits image retrieved from
http://www.mdlsoft.co.uk/PrimaryPics1/thanks.jpg
New York State Standards
retrieved from http://www.envisage1.com/mcs/standtoc.htm#Learning%20Standards%20for%20Mathematics,%20Science,%20and%20Technology
National Social Studies
Standards Retrieved from http://www.civiced.org/58erica.htm#10
National Standards for the
English Language Arts Retrieved from
http://www.ncte.org/about/over/standards/110846.htm
Rubistar Rubric Generator
Retrieved from http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?ts=1121142981
Quotes retrieved from http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/topics/philanthropy_t002.htm
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Teacher Page
The web quest goal is for
students to understand philanthropy, what services are available and what
citizens can be do at the local level. The summation of their research will
conclude with preparing a persuasive letter to a local politician and giving a
PowerPoint Presentation on their findings and experience. The hope is that
students will realize that they can make a difference in their world.
Grade: 6th
Content Area: Language Arts/Social Studies
GOALS
The student will understand
the terms philanthropy and philanthropist
The student will work
collaboratively with others students on a research project.
The student will collaborate
with others, writing a persuasive letter.
The student will collaborate
with others on a PowerPoint Presentation about their findings.
OBJECTIVES
Given the web quest ³You Can
Make a Difference² students will collaborate with their group in writing a
persuasive essay, scoring 3 (standard meet) on 8 of 10 categories in the
persuasive letter rubric
Given the web quest ³You Can
Make a Difference² students will collaborate with their group and design a
PowerPoint Presentation demonstrating their attained knowledge by scoring 3
(standard meet) on 8 of the 10 categories in the PowerPoint rubric.
NATIONAL STANDARDS
National Standards for
Civics and Government
16.The role of voluntarism in
American life. Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions
on the importance of voluntarism in American society.
·
explain factors that
have inclined Americans toward voluntarism, e.g., colonial conditions, frontier
traditions, religious beliefs
·
identify services that
religious, charitable, and civic groups provide in their own community, e.g.,
health, child, and elderly care; disaster relief; counseling; tutoring; basic
needs such as food, clothing, shelter
·
identify opportunities
for individuals to volunteer in their own schools and communities
English Language Arts
2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods
in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g.,
philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual
language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with
a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language
conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative
language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.
7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by
generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate,
and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts,
artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their
purpose and audience.
NY STANDARDS
Social
Studies
Standard 5—Civics,
Citizenship, and Government
Students will use a variety of
intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for
establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other
nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American
constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of
citizenship, including avenues of participation.
Performance Indicators
·
examine what it means to
be a good citizen in the classroom, school, home, and community
·
understand that
effective, informed citizenship is a duty of each citizen, demonstrated by jury
service, voting, and community service
·
propose an action plan
to address the issue of how to solve the problem
ELA
Standard 1: Language for
Information and Understanding
Students will listen, speak,
read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers,
students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts,
and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and
electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and
written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language
to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.
Performance Indicators
·
select information
appropriate to the purpose of their investigation and relate ideas from one
text to another
·
present information
clearly in a variety of oral and written forms such as summaries, paraphrases,
brief reports, stories, posters, and charts
·
observe basic writing
conventions, such as correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, as well
as sentence and paragraph structures appropriate to written forms.
Standard 3: Language for
critical analysis and evaluation.
Students will listen, speak,
read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers,
students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by
others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they
will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the
English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and
judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.
·
present arguments for
certain views or actions with reference to specific criteria that support the
argument (E.g., an argument to purchase a particular piece of playground
equipment might be based on the criteria of safety, appeal to children,
durability, and low cost.)
express opinions (in such
forms as oral and written reviews, letters to the editor, essays, or persuasive
speeches) about events, books, issues, and experiences, supporting their
opinions with some evidence
MATERIALS
·
Four computers with
online service
·
PowerPoint software
·
Word or related writing
software
·
Plain manila folders
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Last revised: July 13, 2005