Web Quest Lesson Plan

Introduction
Students have explored the topic of Life in the City. In this lesson, they will read about the suburbs and the city, as well as summaries of how suburban life has been portrayed in different pieces of literature. After reading through these Web sites, students will write about a personal experience that relates to life either the city or in the suburbs.

Lesson Description
Students will read definitions of the word suburb found on Answers.com http://www.answers.com/Suburb, depictions of the suburb in literature found in Michael Brooks’ review of Suburbianation: Reading Suburban Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Fiction and Film, by Robert Beuka http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=79031122405991, and Life in the City http://www.carfree.com/city_life.html, and will then write about a personal experience that relates to life in either the city or the suburbs.

Instructional Objectives

1. Students will use the Internet as an information resource.
2. Students will identify ways in which life in the suburbs and life in the city are different from each other.
3. Students will write about a personal experience that relates to either the city or the suburbs.

Student Web Activity Sample Answer
I get off the train—I am finally in the city. Right away I notice the odors—of exhaust from cars, from buses, and from taxis, and from people. I start walking to the museum and notice that everyone hurries by me, seeming to have an important place to go. Heads down, full speed ahead. On the way, I pass several theaters and so many restaurants serving foods of which I have never heard that I’ve lost count. I spend the day at the museum and make my way back to the train. As the train pulls out of the station, there are many people sleeping in the seats around me. I imagine that they are worn out from the city rush and ready to go back to the peace of their respective suburbs.