What happened to the anasazi? A Webquest Designed by Kristine Speers This Webquest is designed for the 3rd/4th grade level

Introduction Imagine yourself as a newspaper journalist. You work for the Colorado Times, a newspaper near Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde is a national park that was once home to the Native American group, the Anasazi (also known as The Ancestral Puebloan People). It is November and the community is celebrating Native American Heritage Month. Your boss thinks it would be great if the newspaper reported an article about the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi over 700 years ago. He’s asking all newspaper journalists to submit an article to him by the end of the work week. He will then select one article to be printed on the front page. You’ve been working very hard and have been waiting for an opportunity like this to come along! Front page news! Will he choose your article?

Task You will be researching and writing an article that will be so interesting that your boss will want YOUR article on the front page of the newspaper. Your first task will be to research the following: 1. Who were the Anasazi? 2. What is Mesa Verde? 3. Why did the Anasazi disappear? Your second task will be to come up with a creative front page headline for your article. Remember, it will be on the front page of the newspaper and your boss wants to sell lots of papers! Your last task will be to write your article using the research you’ve collected. Your article needs to include all of the above information.

Process 1. Before you learn about the Anasazi and Mesa Verde, you will print a graphic organizer to organize your research. Be sure to include important details (at least 3 or more from each resource) about who the Anasazi were, Mesa Verde, and possible reasons why the Anasazi disappeared over 700 years ago. Also include your headline (title) for the front page of the newspaper. Click here and print Graphic Organizer 2. You will read a description about the Anasazi people. Click here to read about the Anasazi Go to the next slide to finish the Process steps

Process Cont’d 3. You will visit sites to gather more information about the Anasazi people and why they might have disappeared. Click here to explore the Anasazi culture Click here to learn more about the Anasazi 4. You will visit a site to learn about Mesa Verde. Click here to learn about Mesa Verde 5. Based on the information you have gathered, you will write an article using the following writing process: 1. Rough draft 2. Revise 3. Proofread 4. Publish

Evaluation Will your article be headline news? 4 = Outstanding 3 = Very Good 2 = Ok 1 = Not Very Good You followed directions. You followed some directions. You did not follow directions. You used proper grammar, punctuation, and good sentence structure with little to no errors. You had some grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure errors (4 – 6 errors). You had some grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure errors (6 – 8 errors). You did not use proper grammar and punctuation, and had little to no sentence structure. (8 or more errors). You used 3 or more details from each resource. You used at least 2 or more details from each resource. You used some details but not from every resource. You used little or no details from the resources. Your article flowed nicely and was well organized with a creative headline. Your article was organized with a creative headline. Your article could have been a little bit more organized with a more creative headline. Your article did not seem well organized and you did not have a headline.

Summary You’ve done your best and can only hope that the boss loves your article! In the meantime, you’ve learned much about the Anasazi people and their way of life at Mesa Verde. As we learn about communities, it is interesting to learn about other cultures and how they adapted to their environment in order to survive. It is also important to know that everyone had responsibilities in their community. If you lived at Mesa Verde, what might you have done to help the adults at Mesa Verde?

Teacher Page This webquest correlates with the following content and skills: CONTENT: 1. Early Native American Communities 2. Native American Culture 3. Adaptation 4. Desert Environment 5. Resources 6. Landforms SKILLS: 1. Utilization of graphic organizers to organize thinking process. 2. Reading content within text and identifying important details. 3. Utilization of the writing process. Resource used for this webquest: Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. Our Communities.