Process

Process Notes for the Teacher

Time

This lesson is designed to take between 5-7 class periods.

Teacher’s Role in the Process

Organizing groups: Students work in a variety of groups, including a small jigsaw in the issues section (steps 2 & 3).  The teacher’s role is to have the groups organized in advance so that the final jigsaw grouping will include representatives of all of the issues.  For efficiency, all group assignments should be planned prior to the start of the unit, but not given until they are needed. If your students have not used the jigsaw process, they will need explanation and prompting. The assignment works best if the groups are heterogeneous in personality and ability.

Monitoring work: The teacher should be familiar with the information in the resources and have a strong working knowledge of the Internet.  For a quick refresher, look at www.searchengineshowdown.com or www.searchenginewatch.com. During the speech preparation, the teacher should serve as a coach, ensuring that students utilize the resources.

Assessing work: Make a decision of whether or not to evaluate the organizers used in steps 1, 2 & 3. I stress to the students that grades/points/checks should not have to be given for every aspect as the “reward” is in both the knowledge and the quality of the final project. These organizers are not included in the rubric

Guiding the conclusion: After the WebQuest has been completed, the teacher should guide her students into a discussion on using more than one search tool and the benefits of “presidency by committee.”

Student Misconceptions

Students tend to overrate their information literacy skills. Many feel they know all they need to know, yet are unable to list 10 different search tools. They also believe that all search tools find the same materials or that all materials can be found. The teacher will need to be insistent that students use the resources listed rather than persuading with the knowledge they already have. Otherwise, students will not move beyond their misconceptions.  The speech must contain more than common knowledge.

Opportunities for Greater Collaboration

While this unit can be taught in isolation, it can be used to introduce students to Internet research before any content area project.  If a teacher has more than one section doing this WebQuest, and has some flexibility in scheduling, class A can give the speeches to Class B which then votes to elect the president. Another approach would have the speeches given to a class that had not participated in the WebQuest, perhaps to a younger grade. Student speeches could be recorded and played to another class as well.