 Teacher
Information Page
Setting the
Stage
A major purpose
of our WebQuest is to give students the opportunity to better understand
the decade of the '60's. Before we forge ahead, we must ask ourselves,
"What do the students already know about the 1960s?"
We will begin by
asking the students this question as a group discussion. We will
list their reply's. They have learned about the sixties to some extent
from television and from school. Nevertheless, they may surprise
you. Now you will find out just how little or how much they know
at this point. The time you must spend initially exposing your students
to the decade will depend upon their previous knowledge.
Why A WebQuest?
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You have
all heard the old adage, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't
make him drink." Well, by using WebQuests as an innovative teaching
tool, we can lead students to an invaluable learning situation and make
them want to dive in. A WebQuest is an online learning activity that
allows students the opportunity to engage in higher level thinking while
learning about a real problem / topic. The WebQuest leads students
to water by structuring the investigation of a real problem / topic.
It provides resources/links to relevant information. The Internet
then acts as the diving board that leads students into a pool ofknowledge.
The WebQuest provides structure
that allows the students to easily swim through the unstructured environment
of the Internet. They ask that the students take on roles that are
relevant to a real problem or topic. By assuming these roles they
are then able to produce a product that illustrates their knowledge of
the problem and explains possible solutions. Each WebQuest should
contain the following sections:
| Introduction |
Tasks |
Process |
Resources |
Evaluation |
Conclusion |
.
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The introduction of the WebQuest serves to let
the students know that this activity will be fun, interesting, and relevant.
It will set students up for the learning experience that lies ahead.
It will explain the role we that will ask that they play in finding a solution
to an important problem.
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The tasks describe the objectives of the project.
The tasks will pinpoint what the students should learn by taking part in
this activity and by what means they should demonstrate their knowledge.
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The process gives the students a sense of direction
as it maps out suggestions of various routes to follow to complete the
tasks. It helps students define their strategies and their plan of
attack to solve the problem that lies ahead.
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The resources provide a list of links to various
web pages that will help structure the students research. They will
lead directly to relevant information that the students will need to solve
their problem. There will be a variety of resources to promote individual
choices.
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The evaluation allows both students and teachers
alike the opportunity to measure the success of the WebQuest. There
are as many different types of evaluations as there are types of WebQuests.
As the WebQuest forces students to use higher levels of thinking most often
an evaluation rubric is developed to measure the results.
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The conclusion allows both students and the teacher
a chance to review what they have learned and to comprehend the learning
process that took place. It also allows for reflective thinking and
a realization of the project.
Integrating a
WebQuest into the Curriculum
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Integrating
WebQuests into the curriculum will add another dimension of learning experiences
for the student. WebQuests will certainly make the curriculum more inviting
and interesting to the computer savvy generation of students we are now
teaching. Both elementary school and secondary school students can learn
about various subject areas that make up their curriculum. The tasks
of the WebQuests may differ as will their products but the concept of using
a WebQuest will provide each students with an innovative and challenging
method to learn. In order to integrate WebQuests
into the curriculum we would base our WebQuest on information that is already
part of the curriculum. Instead of using other traditional methods we would
use a WebQuest learning experience in place
of the traditional activity. The time we would usually spend in a
traditional classroom would now be time spent in a computer lab.
Or, if a lab is not available, and we only have one computer in our classroom,
we would divide the students into groups and allow them equal amounts of
time to discover information through the use of the WebQuest.
Theory Behind
the Quest
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Our WebQuest
is designed using the theoretical constructivist perspective to teaching
that allows for a type of discovery learning. We, as teachers, become
facilitators and guides to learning. We share the responsibility
of instruction with the students. The effort the students put into
the WebQuest will therefore affect the knowledge they will take with them
when the WebQuest is complete. The teachers' role is to oversee a
collaborative problem solving situation while showing students how to build
upon their existing knowledge. The teacher will guide the students when
they are having trouble in the collaborative situation or are having complications
with the research and need direction. The students will reflect upon knowledge
they have already learned to solve a relevant and interesting problem.
The WebQuest asks students to work together to solve realistic problems
of their choosing.
We ask that students work
together because we believe that students learn through interacting with
each other. "Two heads are better than one." Their combined
efforts and knowledge will lead to more effective reasoning and problem
solving.
The students
follow a path of structured resources to construct ideas and knowledge
while trying to solve a problem. The path that the students select
to follow is also their own, caused by collaboration with other members
in their group. After exploring the various resources their perspective
of their existing knowledge will change and become more refined. Their
existing knowledge will naturally increase.
Then, to share their
knowledge, we ask that the students present their findings to the class
using a presentation medium of their choosing. We will measure the
effectiveness of their presentations using an evaluation rubric. The students
will have the opportunity to give input into the development of that rubric.
They can allow the teacher to know what they feel are the important elements
of this exercise. We allow for tailor-made plans for the individual student
by allowing the students to have choices in the way they learn what they
learn. It allows the students to be an integral part in developing
their own strategies for learning. They know what learning methods
will work best for them. Now they have options.
The conclusion of
our WebQuest allows students to use reflective thinking. We will ask that
they use their observations about the project to expand what they have
already learned. Again, they are building upon existing knowledge
and that will lead to continual refinement of that knowledge. As
teachers facilitating a WebQuest we must show students how to reflect on
their previous knowledge in order to develop a new understanding of their
past experiences.
The WebQuest will
allow students to develop skills in leadership, cooperative learning, product
development, planning, execution and evaluation. It will open up
a whole new world of learning experiences for the student regardless of
grade level.
Objectives
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1. The students will be able to use
a word processor to type and save all research information to disc.
2. The students will be able to view
a Power Point demonstration with images from the 1960's and discuss what
they know about the images they have seen in a classroom setting.
3. The students will be able to identify
a problem that occurred in the 1960's that they would like to change. The
students will then define the problem that they would like to change in
their presentation and type a paragraph about it in their word processor.
4. The students will define why they
believe the problem needs to be changed in their presentation and type
a paragraph about it in their word processor.
5. The students will be able to
demonstrate in their presentation how they would change the problem and
write a paragraph about it in their word processor.
6. The students will list the links
that they used in researching their problem, describe them in their presentation
and type them into their word processor.
7. The students will choose a presentation
method to disseminate the information they have learned to their classmates.
Each group must cooperatively agree upon this presentation method.
It may be one of the following but not limited to the following methods:
Power Point demonstration, HyperStudio demonstration, website, desktop
presentation, song, a dramatic skit, rewrite a chapter in history, conduct
a mock interview, write a pen-pal letter to a student in their group, as
if they were a student growing up in the 1960's and were part of
the setting, or another method agreed upon by the teacher.
8. The students will be able to show
through their presentation that there is a connection between historic
events.
9. The students will be able to describe
in their presentation the real events that took place and what happened
because of those events.
10. The students will be able to describe
in their presentation how they would change the events, describe the changes
and the impact those changes would have on the world now.
11. The students will be able to present
their presentation to the class.
12. The students will be able to discuss
the results of the project in groups of four and document the results
in a word processor.
13. The students will be able to decide
what impact the decade of the sixties had on their lives and document their
findings in a word processor.
14. The students will be able to list
the five most influential events of the sixties and describe how those
events effected their lives.
15. The students will be able to select
one member from their group to read the list of the five most influential
events and have them read it to the class.
16. The students will be able to work
collaboratively as a class to decide the five most influential events of
the sixties.
WebQuest
Links
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The WebQuest Page This site provides examples,
training materials, an overview and a spot for frequently asked questions.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html
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A WebQuest about WebQuest This site contains a
format for web-based lessons. It is a WebQuest about WebQuests that
was developed by Bernie Dodge who initially came up with the concept of
WebQuests. http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquestwebquest.html
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WebQuests for Learning This is a good place to
start to learn about the concepts of WebQuests. It answers the question:
Why WebQuests? http://www.ozline.com/webquests/intro.html
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Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educator's WebQuests
in Our Future This site contains a slide show presentation on WebQuests
and links to Bernie Dodge and WebQuest templates and more. http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/webquest/webquest.html
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WEBQUESTS are dynamic lesson plans using an inquiry
approach designed by teachers to help students use the Internet to solve
imaginative problems. http://www.erols.com/allnutt/webquests.html
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WebQuest Index (MISD) These lessons are based
on a concept developed by Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University. This
site provides an index of some interesting WebQuests. http://www.macomb.k12.mi.us/wq/webqindx.htm
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WebQuests This site includes an article on the
background of WebQuests. The WebQuest Page also includes: Some Thoughts
About WebQuests by Bernie Dodge, San Diego State University Tutorials,
Building Blocks of a WebQuest, WebQuests in Our Future by Kathy Schrock
and an outline of the Web Quest Design Process. http://connect.barry.edu/
Please E-mail me!
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