Holiday Webquest
Introduction: To better understand your own customs and holidays and how they originated, you will investigate the holidays of Spanish-speaking countries.
The Task: To gather information about the celebration of a holiday in a Spanish-speaking country and use this information to write a portfolio piece.
The Process:
Step 1: Please look in at least 3 websites listed below and then decide on a holiday and a country to research and write about. You must sign up with the teacher so that no two students are doing the same holiday in the same country. Here's a hint: you will want to search 2 or 3 websites or books to find out if there is any info about your potential holiday in your potential country.
Step 2: After you have decided upon and signed up for a country and holiday, you may begin your search. Document your sources by using the format for citing resources that we learned in class. Then, TAKE NOTES on your notecards. Please use a different notecard for each separate fact that you find about your country.
Step 3: Now, do the same with researching in the library. Remember to document your sources!! Take notes in the same manner as prescribed above.
**All notecards (bibliography and facts) will be turned in with the rough draft and outline. See rubric link for details.
The Evaluation: This is a major project grade. Click here to find out how much it is worth and how it will be evaluated.
Resources to use: The following are some websites to get you started. Please use books and magazines from the library also.
Click here for the best place to start
Click here for another good place to start if you need Christmas, Day of the Dead, or Cinco de Mayo.
This site has other good links for other holidays - check it out!
Click here for lots of different holidays in many different countries
Click here for Christmas in Mexico
Click here to check out the Worldbook Encyclopedia
Click here to do a yahoo search or a lycos search to find out more about your country or holiday. Or use yahooligans (a yahoo for kids).
Click here to Ask Jeeves about your holiday or country or Ask Jeeves for Kids.
Click here for a good site written in Spanish It has a listing for every Spanish-Speaking country except Equatorial Guinea. This looks like a great site!
Click on Navidadlatina for help with any holiday surrounding the birth of Christ.
Click on Yupi.com for a search engine in Spanish (parallel to yahoo).
Other specific sites:
Click here for Christmas information
Click for a fun site in Spanish with music!
Click here lots and lots of good holiday sites
Click here for Mexico holidays
Click for a good site on Guadelupe Day
Things to look for in your research:
1. Customs surrounding the celebration of your holiday in your country. Please include detailed information about the procedure of the celebration. Ask yourself: What foods are traditionally eaten during the celebration of this holiday? What type of community celebrations take place...parades, services, feasts, etc.?2. Who? or What? is being celebrated, remembered, or honored by this holiday?
3. What makes this holiday significant to the people who celebrate it? Look for information about your country that would help the reader to better understand the celebration of this holiday. For example, the reader should be informed that 90% of your country's population is Roman Catholic in order for the reader to better understand the significance of the celebration of Carnaval and Lent in Bolivia. Gather specific facts in your research to fully express the meaning of your holiday to the reader of your portfolio piece.
4. A major part of research is DOCUMENTATION!! You have been properly taught how to document web sources and books as resources for information. Plagiarism is cheating and is against the law. You MUST document carefully in order to avoid prosecution. A grade of 0 will be given to any student who steals information and uses it as his own.
Conclusion: Be thorough and detailed in your research. Please ask if you get stuck!! Have fun and learn lots.
This page designed by:
Holly B. Putnam
last updated 08/30/04 01:45 PM