Building a Better Webquest

Start with the Skills

Prior to a thematic unit or novel study, many teachers prefer webquests to build background over lecture. By providing students with links and questions, students are able to pace themselves and explore resources instead of being passive participants during lecture. However, with the increase of rigor and what feels like not enough hours in the day! Webquests must then serve two functions at the same time: prepare for the coming unit while building skills. 

Evaluate what skills I like to have my skills for the grading period written out. If there is a poetry standard, I know I’ll try to find a poem or song. Vocabulary and dictionary skills also tend to be TEKS for each grading period. I also try to use technology skills. Using the review feature in work for students to annotate the song “Imagine” for my Utopia/Dystopia webquest or using turnitin.com’s discussion board features or the synonyms feature of Word. 

Search for Varied Genres and Sources

When creating a Webquest, I want to take advantage of the media sources on the internet both audio and visual so I like to include things like YouTube/TeacherTube videos, a poem on Poets.org with an audio recording of the poet reading his work, and PBS LearningMedia pictures and videos. I also think that a Webquest opportunity is wasted if students are not participating in an interactive or Web 2.0 activities. To me, if a Webquest could be completed with library books, what is the point? PBS has some great resources like putting students in the shoes of a African-American man trying to vote during Jim Crow, or analyzing how advertising tries to trick the viewer, or learning about Edgar Allen Poe by investigating his death or interacting with his texts or exploring the nature of self-segregation with the Parable of the Polygons (my personal favorite!!!!) . 

Web 2.0!

Taking a couple days in the computer lab just to have students write answers on a Word document is a crying shame of the plethora of easy Web 2.0. Students can use the snipping tool to grab evidence. Some easy Web 2.0 to use:

• Read, Write, Think: Student Interactive
• Message boards and collaborative groups like Edmodo, Titan Pad, or Google Slides
• Make Beliefs Comix

Organizational Patterns with Video

Did you know there are goats with spider DNA? That little bit of info is the easiest hook for a student to be instantly engaged in introduction to text structures. After a matching activity using the handouts here , students practice applying the patterns to this video on spidergoats!

a.   2:30 – What organizational pattern was just used? (compared advantages and disadvantages of spider silk) What are the benefits and disadvantages of spider silk?

b.   4:30 – What org pattern has been used thus far? (problem solution) What is the problem? What is the solution?

c.    7:26 What org pattern? (sequential.) What are the differences between chronological, listing, and sequential?

d.   8:00 Looking at image, how do the graphics help you?

How the Backwards Bicycle is a Must See for Students and Teachers

Videos are a wonderful prompt for writing and class discussion. "The Backwards Brain Bicycle" by Smarter Every Day is my favorite video to begin a PD as well as totally accessible for my middle school students. The connections to be made are deep and rich. Watch it and see how many connections you can make to your own classroom!

The best rule of thumb for getting the discussion to be its best is for all individuals to write for 7-10 minutes after, making connections and expressing their thoughts. As Tom Ramano says in Clearing the Way, “During class discussions, I prefer to avoid the domino effect - the phenomenon that occurs when one student states an opinion emphatically and all the opinions after that one fall right in behind, unremarkably similar.” And so he always asks to his students to write prior to class discussion.

Great for the beginning of a faculty meeting or as a way of encouraging kids to not give up when faced with challenging learning.