Who Will Speak for the Trees?

A WebQuest for 3rd Grade Science and Language Arts

We have been reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, and discussing some of the similarities and differences between them. For instance, both of these books feature trees that are used until there isn't much of them left. In The Lorax, the Lorax tries to help the trees, but he cannot convince the Once-ler to heed his warnings. In The Giving Tree, The Giving Tree is willing to give up all of herself for the sake of her friend, the boy. Sometimes trees are mistreated in real life, also.

As we were reading these books, did you see any ways in which the situations that took place might relate to the real world?

Task

To complete this WebQuest, you are going to be investigating a variety of Web sites that will give you more information about trees. You will then be writing a letter to one of the characters from The Giving Tree or The Lorax to tell them what you have learned in order to help them to keep the negative outcomes that took place in these books from happening again. Finally, as a group you will be constructing a poster that shows what the environment of your character's book would have looked like if they had received your letters in time.

Process

First, the class will be divided into four groups of five. Each group will be given a copy of the two books -- The Giving Tree and The Lorax. Scan through these books to remember and keep fresh in your mind what they are about.
These links below will give you some new information about trees, how they are used and some concerns people have over what could happen if we continue to use trees at the rate that we do. As you read the material below, think about how what you are reading changes your ideas and allows you to think beyond what we have already learned from the books we have read together. Take notes as you find new information, including where you found it. You should have at least one noted piece of information for each of the five sites.

http://www.rcfa-cfan.org/english/eforests.htm

http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids&teachers/kids/resources/faq.html

http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/explore/environment4.html

http://www.state.me.us/doc/foliage/kids/forestfacts.html

http://www.americanforests.org/resources/10reasons/
Come back to your group and brainstorm the new ideas you have developed as a result of your research. (Before you begin, read these rules to follow during your brainstorming session.)
Each group will be assigned a character from one of the books to whom you will be writing a letter. Your letter must include at least five facts you have learned from your online research. Each member of the group will be writing their own letter. Then you will exchange letters with the others in your group in order to get suggestions for possible changes to improve them and to learn about each other's ideas.
Once everyone in the group has read the others' letters, your group will be creating a poster showing the alternative ending that may have happened had your letters reached the character in the book you've been writing to soon enough. Make sure your poster has incorporated at least three key scientific elements you learned about online and that these have been labeled accordingly. These posters will be presented to the rest of the class, along with one or two of the letters from the individual group members.

Evaluation

The rubric below shows you how your performance and final projects will be evaluated. You will be receiving an individual grade for your notes, as well as for the letter you have written. Your group will also get a grade for your poster and final presentation.

Individual Rubric

	Beginning Stage -- Improve 1	Developing Stage -- Satisfactory 2	Accomplished Stage -- Good 3	Exemplary Stage -- Excellent 4
Note-taking	Notes are recorded only with peer/teacher assistance and reminders.	Notes are recorded.	Notes are recorded legibly and are somewhat organized.	Notes are recorded and organized in an extremely neat and orderly fashion.
Letter-Writing -- Salutation and Closing	Salutation and/or closing are missing.	Salutation and closing have 3 or more errors in capitalization and punctuation.	Salutation and closing have 1-2 errors in capitalization and punctuation.	Salutation and closing have no errors in capitalization and punctuation.
Content Accuracy	The letter contains no accurate facts about the topic.	The letter contains 1-2 accurate facts about the topic.	The letter contains 3-4 accurate facts about the topic.	The letter contains at least 5 accurate facts about the topic.
Ideas	The letter seemed to be a collection of unrelated sentences. It was very difficult to figure out what the letter was about.	Ideas were somewhat organized, but were not very clear. It took more than one reading to figure out what the letter was about.	Ideas were expressed in a pretty clear manner, but the organization could have been better.	Ideas were expressed in a clear and organized fashion. It was easy to figure out what the letter was about.

Group Rubric

	Beginning Stage -- Improve 1	Developing Stage -- Satisfactory 2	Accomplished Stage -- Good 3	Exemplary Stage -- Excellent 4
Creativity	Fulfills bare minimum of requirements with few additions.	Some effort has been made towards development of further ideas.	Shows teamwork in coming up with a couple of inventive ideas.	Project reflects work together to compile extremely creative finished product in all ways.
Cooperation	Worked cooperatively with partners some of the time, but had several problems that required adult intervention.	Worked cooperatively with partner most of the time, but had one problem that required adult intervention.	Worked cooperatively with partner most of time but had a few problems that the team resolved themselves.	Worked cooperatively with partner all the time with no need for adult intervention.
Required Elements	One or more required elements was missing from the poster.	Poster included all required elements.	Poster included all required elements and one additional element.	Poster included all required elements as well as a few additional elements.
Use of Time	Used time poorly (as shown by observation by teacher and/or documentation of progress in journal) in spite of several adult reminders to do so.	Used time well (as shown by observation by teacher and documentation of progress in journal), but required adult reminders on one or more occasions to do so.	Used time well during most class periods (as shown by observation by teacher, and documentation of progress in journal) with no adult reminders.	Used time well during each class period (as shown by observation by teacher, and documentation of progress in journal) with no adult reminders.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You are now thoroughly familiar with the books The Giving Tree and The Lorax, and have developed some ideas on their themes. Through Internet research, note-taking, letter-writing, brainstorming, group work and the creation of a final poster, you have shown your developing abilities to use the Web, write coherently, work in groups, and show your creativity in a variety of ways. In the process, you have learned more about trees in the real world, the problem of deforestation, the reasons for it, and possible solutions.

So now what do you think Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss were trying to tell us? Have your ideas on this changed as you completed this project?

If you find yourself still curious to know more about this topic and other related ideas, follow the links below to learn more.

http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/chf/pub/tree_kit/student/index.html

http://www.ppic.org.uk/htdocs/info/child/kidshome.htm

http://www.domtar.com/arbre/english/start2.htm

Credits & References

Thank you to RubricStar. It was a great help in creating the rubrics.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss are important parts of this WebQuest.

Here are links back to The WebQuest Page as well as The WebQuest Design Patterns Page so the latest version of this template and training materials can be acquired.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original authors' names are retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let us know via email and provide the new URL. Thank you.

Last updated on 7.5.03. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page.