All Things Quests

7th grade- Topic 4 Growth of Muslim Empires

As I become more familiar with the new HSS adoption, My World, the more comfortable I am trying out some of the suggestions I was given on the adoption training day. One suggestion from the Pearson's trainer was to assign the Quest free from all the lessons when you're short on time. So with parent-teacher conferences, minimum days, report cards, and holiday breaks around every corner, I decided to try that idea out.

The Quests are explained in the front matter of the textbook as: "Quest Inquiry Activity is an inquiry project that takes place throughout the entire topic. Students are presented with a question or problem, and throughout the chapter, they conduct research, read the text, analyze primary sources, and answer the question or problem. The Quest culminates at the end of the topic, where students apply their knowledge and demonstrate their understanding in a final project: essay, discussion, presentation, or informed action activity. Quests may be assigned as an individual activity or as group work."

The Quests in the 6th-8th-grade textbooks fall under three categories: project-based learning, civic discussions, and document-based writing. I associate each of those learning activities with performance tasks. These performance task learning activities are authentic and scaffolded for student achievement. I looked over each Quest for my grade level earlier in the school year. I was excited about the creative project ideas and the thinking that would be demonstrated by my students while working on the Quests. After mapping out what my students would be expected to do throughout the school year, I became curious about what they would be asked to do when they went to middle school. I noticed that the Quests are not as scaffolded as they are for 6th grade and the steps are similar. Then, I imagined the implications of students completing these Quests from 6th-8th grade. At the end of middle school, a student who participated in all of the Quests 6th-8th would complete, 11 project-based learning tasks, six civic discussions, and nine document-based writing tasks. Consider the implications and abilities of a student who has completed all of those performance tasks before entering high school. I imagine that their literacy skills and history content knowledge would be considerably strong.

*Attached is a chart I created to map out the Quests in 6th-8th grade.

Below is the progress a student or small group of students goes through to complete a Quest:

6th grade Topic 3- Ancient Egypt and Kush-
Becoming a Pharaoh-in-Training

1) Ask questions: I first introduced the Quest by having the students work in small groups to generate questions they will need to ask in order to answer the guiding and essential question. This step was difficult for my 6th graders at first because they are used to answering questions, not creating their own. This task alone showed me a great deal about my students. I was able to see which vocabulary words we needed to spend more time discussing and if they understood how to break down the task. * For the first couple Quests, we did this step whole group, and I would model how to ask the questions through the "think aloud" strategy.

2) Investigate: As the class is reading through the lessons, they will see the Quest connections. When conducting the Quest independent from the whole Topic (chapter), you will want to read some of that lesson with the class in order for them to make a solid connection. These connections are not just readings they are: images, infographics, primary sources, maps, or charts. Analyzing the previously listed types of resources can be very powerful and covers important informational reading standards (i.e.: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.) While making these connections, students are gathering evidence for their end product.

3) Research: This step in different in each Quest. In some Quests, students are asked to conduct research using Primary Sources. In others, they are given certain places or people to research. This step is meant to be more independent, and where students take what they have learned and tailor it to the assignment's task.

4) Present/ Discuss/ Write: Finally, students will take everything they have learned and present it according to the project's guidelines. I chose to have my students work in a small group for the first Quest and in pairs for the second.

Happy Questing, 

Jenni Merry