WEBQUEST WELCOME

Hello grade 9 students!I hope you are enjoying the reading of the novel "Men of Stone" by Gayle Friesen. Now that you have begun, it is important for you to understand the history behind the novel. Aunt Frieda brings her past into the lives of Ben and his family and as the novel progresses the history of Aunt Frieda becomes an important link to understanding how Ben feels about his situation.This web quest is going to help you to uncover some of the history behind the "Man of Stone"- Stalin- and Aunt Frieda’s Mennonite background. You will be examining different sites and then writing a newspaper article for the “Thompson Tabloids” based on the information that you find. The purpose of this assignment is to aid you in understanding the historical context of the novel, so you can better understand Ben and the struggles that he faces. You will have three classes to complete this assignment... Use your time wisely!

YOUR TASK

Using a collection of the websites found in the resource section, you will be able to learn about the history of Mennonites as well as research Stalin and how he impacted the life of many Mennonites from Russia. In your newspaper article, you must include: a graphic or a picture found during research which relates to your article; some history of who the Mennonite people are;a brief history of who Stalin is; and lastly answer the question, "How did the reign of Stalin impact the lives of Mennonites in Russia?" In order to complete this assignment you will have to go to the next post entitled "PROCEDURE" and it will give you step-by-step instructions for how to proceed.

PROCEDURE

Follow the steps below to begin your assignment:


1. Go to the site: http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/news/index.htm. Once you are there you need to go through step one and two, which appear on the left hand side of the site. The purpose of going through these steps is to learn about what will make a good news article. Step one shows you that there are two types of news writing. You may choose one of them for this assignment- either news story, or feature article. Keep in mind that if you choose the feature article, you may want to put yourself in Aunt Frieda’s shoes when writing. Step two highlights the importance of asking the “5 W’s and 1 H.” Make sure that when you are writing your own article, you have answered these questions as fully as possible so that your reader understands the events to the best of his or her ability.


2. Go to this website: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=J1ARTJ0005232
This website outlines some of the basic history behind the Mennonite religion, beliefs and way of life. In order to understand the impact Stalin had on the people, it is important that you understand the history behind this group of people.


3.To help you organize your information you will need to go to the website below, download the graphic organizer, print it off and record your findings. You will need to hand this in to me, so this step is IMPORTANT!!!
Graphic Organizer: http://eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/5Ws.pdf


4.Learning about Stalin- The websites below give you an idea of the man that Stalin was and how he ruled.
http://www.cbv.ns.ca/dictator/Stalin.html- gives a brief biography of his life.

http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/stalin/section8.rhtml- read this section to help you understand the terror that Stalin evoked in people. He believed that he was the #1 ruler of the country, and he definitely did not want people to disagree with him. (People who did disagree with Stalin’s ideas were known as “dissenters” and as you will find out, were not around for long if Stalin could help it.)



http://www.gameo.org/index.asp?content=http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/W6768.html - this site details Mennonite life under the rule of Stalin.

5.ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS- now that you have all of the necessary background info. you will need to plan your article. Go to these sites for ideas on how to organize your writing: http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/twisters_news_report.pdf
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/socialstudies/Vote2004/news_h5.pdf


6.Use Microsoft Publisher to create a newsletter which you can put your news article in. Make up a catchy title for your article and organize it however you want.

BE CREATIVE!!

THE RUBRIC: How Your News Article Will Be Assessed

CLICK ON THIS RUBRIC TO EXPAND AND SEE THE SPECIFIC MARKING CRITERIA