Throughout the school year, we have many guests in our classroom.  I wanted these guest visits to be valuable, directly rate to our curriculum and share the events with our community.  This lesson was developed as part of Missouri's eMINTS Project (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies).  This webquest was written for fourth through sixth grades. This lesson is a performance task requiring students to learn in cooperative groups and may take 1 to 2 weeks to complete.  Students will learn and apply creative problem solving skills through teamwork.  It requires students to use their communication arts skills throughout the process of the project.  You may wish to modify the webquest to meet the needs of your students and types of guests being interviewed. 
    As you prepare for this webquest, you will need to have a variety of local and national newspapers on hand for your students to use as a model.  You may find it helpful to preview the following informational sites prior to introducing this webquest.

Missouri Performance Standards 

Goal One -   Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas.  Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to:
    1.    Develop questions and ideas to initiate and refine research
    2.    Conduct research to answer questions and evaluate information and ideas
    4.    Use technological tools and other resources to locate, select and organize information
    5.    Comprehend and evaluate written, visual and oral presentations and works
    8.    Organize data, information and ideas into useful forms (including charts, graphs, outlines) for
           analysis or presentation
   10.   Apply acquired information, ideas and skills to different contexts as students, workers, or citizens

Goal Two -  Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom.  Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to:
    1.    Plan and make written, oral and visual presentations for a variety of purposes and audiences
    2.    Review and revise communications to improve accuracy and clarity
    3.    Exchange information, questions and ideas while recognizing the perspectives of others
    7.    Use technological tools to exchange information and ideas

Goal Three - Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to recognize and solve problems.  Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to:
    1.    Identify problems and define their scope and elements
    2.    Develop and apply strategies based on ways others have prevented or solved problems
    3.    Develop and apply strategies based upon one's own experience in preventing or solving problems
    6.    Examine problems and proposed solutions from multiple perspectives

Goal Four - Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to make decisions and act as responsible members of society.  Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to:
    1.    Explain reasoning and identify information used to support decisions
    4.    Recognize and practice honesty and integrity in academic work 
    5.    Develop, monitor and revise plans of action to meet deadlines and accomplish goals
    6.    Identify tasks that require a coordinated effort and work with others to complete those tasks
 

Missouri Knowledge Standards

Communication Arts - Students will acquire a solid foundation which includes knowledge of and proficiency in:
    1.    Speaking and writing standard English (including grammar, usage, punctuation spelling,
           and capitalization)
    3.    Reading and evaluating nonfiction works and material (such as biographies,, newspapers, and
           technical manuals)
    4.    Writing formally (such as reports, narratives, essays) and informally (such as outlines, notes, etc.)
    
Social Studies - Students will acquire a solid foundation which includes knowledge of and proficiency in:  
    7.    The use of tools of social science inquiry (such as surveys, interviews, statistics, maps, and
           documents)