Webquests Teaching Guide

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Teaching Guide

Teaching Guide

Aim	Rationale	Objectives & Standards
Audience	Prerequisites	Description of Subject Matter
Instructional Plan	Materials Required	Plans for Evaluation and Assessment
	Handouts for Unit

Aim:

To provide participants with a better understanding of the writing and design process of a WebQuest by delving into the parts of a WebQuest.

Rationale:

Unlike Scavenger Hunts or fill-in-the-blank lessons seen many times for educational use on the Web, WebQuests require students to use higher order thinking skills. Too often students are asked to recall information but not process what they've learned or thought about, how it impacts the world, their lives, or what they think. WebQuests, if written correctly, ask the learner to think about a topic and make inferences, judgments, and critically assess information they've acquired via the Internet and in some cases primary sources or printed materials.

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Objectives:

Upon completion of these workshops you should be able to:

Write a WebQuest of your own.
Have a better understanding of the six components in a WebQuest, specifically, the task, the process and the background.
Quickly assess a WebQuest to see if it will work for your students.
Know the difference between what is and is not a task for a WebQuest.

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Standards

"All states and schools will have challenging and clear standards of achievement and accountability for all children, and effective strategies for reaching those standards." President's & Secretary's Priorities, January 2000; quoted on the US Department of Education's website.Links to websites devoted to the standards and their place in education:
Standards by state and subject and McREL's site on standards.All good educators look to the standards which coincide with their lessons when planning and striving to meet the needs of their students. Pitman Valley Schools reminds us that upon setting up a lesson the idea of a "standard" represents a specific idea of what the teacher expects a student to recall, replicate, manipulate, understand, or demonstrate at some point down the road - and of how the teacher will know how close a student has come to meeting that standard.

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Audience:

While this workshop is available to everyone, it will be most beneficial to someone who works with students. As stated in the goals and objectives, this workshop will provide the user with a clear understanding of the three components of a WebQuest- the task, the process and the background.

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Prerequisites:

Participants who wish to successfully complete this workshop should be able to do the following activities before beginning:

Launch Netscape Navigator or any other Web Browser
Access the workshop notes by placing an address in the URL location field
Follow the instructions and notes for the workshop
Feel comfortable enough to ask questions or for clarifications from the Mentor
Work with others who may share your common interests.
Be able to "copy and paste" information and save documents.

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Description of subject-matter:

This module is designed to be used with cooperative groups. However, the subject-matter is such that it can be used by an individual to gain more knowledge of existing WebQuests as well. It is designed mainly for educators who wish to promote higher order thinking skills and challenge their students to go beyond recall.

Instructional plan:

This module is designed to be used with cooperative groups and a mentor guiding participants. However, the participant should be able to click on the workshop page and follow through the site at their own leisure. Throughout this site there are links to other sites with relevant information.

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Materials required:

For this workshop participants will be required to have access to a computer. Since participants may leave this site and access other sites, it is recommended that they have at least a faster modem so they will not be waiting for many sites to download.

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Plans for evaluation and assessment (including performance objectives):

Handouts and rubrics have been provided to go along with this module. They can be printed and should be referred to on a frequent basis as your WebQuests are designed. Visual learners may wish to see the flow of a WebQuest by printing it out and using it as a reference when designing their WebQuest.

Also, participants can use the Feedback Form to send comments.

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