What’s your opinion on
capital punishment?
A WebQuest for 11th Grade English
Designed by
Haley Hofbauer
hhofbaue@emich.edu
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion
Introduction
For this assignment we will be using the internet to answer questions
that you may have on capital punishment, or the death penalty. The
novel we will be reading, In Cold Blood, deals directly with the death
penalty. What is your opinion on capital punishment?
The Task
By the end of this webquest you will have a better understanding on
what capital punishment is and how it affects our society. You will be
informed and you will be able to come up with your own opinion on
the issue.
While searching these websites, some questions to consider might be:
1. What is capital punishment?
2. Which states have legalized it?
3. What are the pros and cons of legalizing it?
4. How does this issue affect me?
The Process
To accomplish the task, you should follow the following steps:
1. Visit the following sites on capital punishment




http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
http://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment
http://salt.claretianpubs.org/stats/capitalpun/capitalp.html
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000
2. While researching these sites, I would like you to make your own pro/con list
that will help you determine your stance on the death penalty. There are no
right or wrong answers to this question, just make sure to back your opinion
with facts.
3. Once you have taken a stance on the death penalty, please make a concept
map of your ideas using Inspiration.
4. After creating your concept map, please write up an argumentative essay
defending your point of view on the death penalty.
Evaluation
Beginning
1
Gathering
information
on the death
penalty/
inspiration
Showed very
little effort in
acquiring
information
on the topic.
Did not
complete
inspiration.
Developing Accomplished
2
3
Exemplary
4
Found a couple
points for both Found strong,
Only found
thoughtful
sides of the
information issue, but could arguments
on one side of
for both sides
have been
the issue.
of the
stronger
Somewhat
argument.
arguments.
completed
Inspiration
Inspiration. Sloppy, hard to
was well
follow
done.
Inspiration.
Score
Writing the
Wrote an
Had strong
argumentative Did not write
essay not
arguments, but
essay
a cohesive
supported by the essay was
essay.
any facts,
poorly
evidence.
organized.
Wrote a very
well argued
essay that
was
organized
and well
thought out.
Conclusion
CONGRATULATIONS!
-You have successfully finished the webquest! Now you are able to
research a topic and formulate your own intelligent opinion on an
issue. Hopefully this webquest showed you how easy it is to research
a topic and create your own opinion based off of your
research.
-After all of this research, I hope that each of you are
able to justify your opinion on the death penalty.