Today in class, our main focus was webquests. Webquests are interactive methods of targeting a content in the curriculum where the students are to complete a task for a grade. It is an ideal method to use in the classroom because it takes the students beyond the textbooks and promote group work and effort.
We broke up into groups and reviewed selected webquests to specific grades. In the middle school curriculum, I noticed a lack of variety throughout the content areas. Most the webquests targeted English or Social Studies. In the choices given, they ranged from challenging to mediocre in presentation, the task given and overall affect of what the students will gain from the activity.
Some were appealing, but seemed overwhelming to the students with information. Others were not so attractive to the appearance and seemed not to fulfill the requirement of how the students will gain knowledge through the activity. Some ideas were good, but not well executed. But I was able to gain a better perspective of the point of webquests. I also was able to see how we as teachers can create our own webquests for our classroom, not rely on others.
1 comment:
I agree about creating your own WebQuests rather than relying on others'. It helps if you can craft an online activity specific to your own instructional objectives and curriculum standards. I hope you will use the WebQuest resources posted at the course site as a place to browse for ideas. There's no harm in "stealing" from or adapting an existing WebQuest to suit your needs. As we discussed in class Thursday evening, I think lesson plans are right up there with recipes and other content that can't be copyrighted!
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