A Black History Month Webquest is an excellent digital activity for your Middle School Social Studies class. Webquests are great for introducing a topic to your students or helping them dig a little deeper.
WHAT IS A WEBQUEST?
A webquest is a series of questions that students answer with information they find on credible websites.
SELECTING WEBSITES TO USE
Pre-selecting the websites students will use for the webquest will make the webquests go faster and more smoothly in your classroom. Keep the following criteria in mind when selecting good websites to use:
- Use credible websites with information you can trust is accurate
- Choose websites with text at an appropriate reading level for your students
- Find ad-free websites (you never know what is going to be in those ads!)
- Double check that your school server doesn’t block the websites for students
Some great places to start when looking for websites that check these boxes are National Parks ServiceTM websites, museum websites, and sites that are especially geared for education.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH TOPICS
If you are using a webquest as a digital activity for Black History Month in your Middle School Social Studies classroom, here are some possible topics you can use:
- Influential historical figures: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, John Lewis, and more
- STEM figures: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Daniel Hale Williams, George Washington Carver, Bessie Coleman, Katherine Johnson, Percy Julian, Mae Jemison, Warren Washington, and more
- Musicians, performers, writers: Louis Armstrong, Marian Anderson, Teddy Wilson, Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Maya Angelou, Octavia Butler, Denzel Washington, Beyonce, and more
- Athletes: Jesse Owens, Jakie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, Hank Aaron, Bill Russell, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Simone Biles, and more
- Military and foreign relations topics and figures: Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and more
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Civil rights and social justice topics: Brown v. Board of Education, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Lunch Counter Sit-ins, Selma to Montgomery Marches, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, Black Lives Matter Movement, and more
Don’t get bogged down in picking the “just right” topics. There are no perfect topics. Instead, aim to open your students’ eyes to new people or new history they didn’t already know about. Or, aim to deepen your students’ understanding of Black History and the important contributions of Black Americans.
TIPS FOR CREATING A GREAT WEBQUEST
- Using quality websites is so important! Can’t find a good website for a particular topic or individual? Move on to a different topic or individual. This is better than using a sub-standard website.
- Break your webquest into parts, This chunking is helpful for your students when completing the webquest. It also allows you to shorten the webquest for students who may need a shorter assignment.
- After the webquest, you might choose to have a class discussion about what made the websites they visited credible/not credible). Identifying credible websites is an important skill, so this is a good chance to bring it in as a mini-lesson.
LOOKING FOR A READY-TO-USE BLACK HISTORY MONTH WEBQUEST?
You CAN make your own webquest for your students. But if you want to save yourself time, this Black History Month webquest is ready-to-assign using Google DocsTM or a printable PDF.
Here’s what teachers are saying about this ready-to-assign Black History Month webquest:
“I used this resource as an asynchronous lesson while I was out. Not only was it VERY easy to customize with little or no effort (and I needed that because I was sick) but the children actually enjoyed and felt like they learned from the work! LOVE!” – Madalyn, 2/11/21
“This was an excellent resource! Ready to go straight out of the download with three engaging topics that my 8th graders really enjoyed learning about. Clear instructions, informative sites, all links worked. I’m really glad I purchased this.” – Brooke, 2/4/21
So, whatever topics and websites you choose, remember that Black History is important during Black History Month and all year long. If you are looking to grab some additional Black History Month resources for your Middle School Social Studies classroom, check out this page with Black History Month resources or this discounted Black History Month resource bundle.
