Suppl_eMINTS

Top Ten Things to Consider When Writing a WebQuest

As you all begin the process of writing your WebQuests, I thought I would impart some knowledge and helpful tips to keep in mind.

10. Be creative. We really have to think outside of the box when writing WebQuests. David Warlick recently posted on his blog, 2¢ Worth, that the creativity we need to encourage in our students “will not come from lessons about creativity, but from a different kind of lesson that makes room for, invites, and values creativity.” Think outside the box and find ways to help your students do the same.

9. Think: What do adults do with this information? Think of your WebQuest as an opportunity for the students to practice applying what they learn in school to the real world. Thinking this way can also help you understand why the topics you teach are so important for preparing students for their adult lives.

8. Web 2.0 is your WebQuest’s friend. Not only can you provide resources from which your students can gather information, but you can also utilize all the great tools online for their WebQuest work. Wikis, like those at Edublogs or PBWiki, can be useful for group plans, note-taking, and even final products. Additionally, there are always things like blogs (Edublogs, Blogger, etc.), Moodle, various media hosting sites (TeacherTube, Switchpod), online productivity tools (Google Docs), and even social networks ( Youth Twitter, Edmodo).

7. WebQuests are best accomplished in groups. Here is your chance to put together a cooperative learning activity that is positively interdependent, able to hold each individual accountable, provides equal participation, and gets all the group members simultaneously active. However, WebQuests could also be valuable as tools for distance learning or independent studies.

6. Hook your students’ interest with great role-play. This doesn’t only mean you have to come up with great scenarios and characters for the students to carry out. You can also incorporate some “fake” email addresses for the students to contact clients, mysterious informants, or any character needed to make the project feel real.

5. Provide scaffolding for the learning whenever you see fit. It’s OK to link graphic organizers to the WebQuest that help students organize their learning. This could be a good opportunity to use software like SMART Ides or Inspiration. Just remember that this sort of work is to help the process, not to give you something to grade. You could also add a section for “learning advice” that could suggest techniques for organizing or how to aggregate the information.

4. Include brief descriptions of each of your resources with the links. This will allow students to know exactly what sites they should be researching. It’s sort of a preview of the site that prepares them for the other side of the hyperlink.

3. Be clear. Whether it’s the task, process, or expectations, you will want to be crystal clear for your students to be as successful as possible.

2. Consider including a teacher page in your WebQuest. A teacher page can provide others who want to use your WebQuest with contact information or tips for implementation. It may also be a good place for you to keep notes for the next time you use the WebQuest.

1. A WebQuest is a work-in-progress. Just because you assign a WebQuest to your class and they complete the task doesn’t mean that you are done with it. A WebQuest can be revised over and over in order to keep the links updated, the task fresh, and the strategies effective. If something doesn’t go smoothly, change it before you use it again. If you see a way that it could be altered to give students different perspectives, make the revisions. It’s your creation for you to mold into the perfect learning experience.

A WebQuest is a great way to provide real, student-led inquiry in your classroom. The best part is that it is also something that you can create to fit your students’ unique needs and gifts.

Assess this!

With the mad rush to cram all kinds of information into our students’ heads before MAP testing, I thought it might be important to think of some other, less threatening ways to assess our students’ learning.

Emmet Rosenfeld wrote a blog post on formative assessment.  Like its summative step-brother, it can tell a teacher where a student is in his/her development.  However, formative assessment can do so much more and can be a vital part of a student-centered classroom.

Rosenfeld identifies some key characteristics of formative assessment that make its value quite clear…

1. It’s ongoing. Kids don’t always know it’s happening; and teachers aren’t always trying to distill it to a number.
2. It’s dialogic. Evaluation is characterized by dialogue; standards are often negotiated, rather than handed down. The discussion about value is as important as the assigning of value; and even that is a task frequently done by self- and peer-assessment.
3. There is a feedback loop. The teacher often assumes a coaching role. Low-risk practice leads to perfect.
4. It’s metacognitive. Self-reflection is cultivated so that a learner can understand how he learned, not just what was learned. Every student becomes their own teacher.

For more on formative assessment, read Rosenfeld’s blog, Eduholic.

More Online Tools

I thought I’d take some time and share a few online resources that are free. (I bet that got your attention.)

In keeping with our last module (Tools for Thinking), the first resource is bubbl.us. This website allows you or your students to create webs and brainstorm online. You can save and share this work on bubbl.us, print it out, or even embed it onto your website or blog. It’s very easy to use and is somewhat similar to the mapping software with which we have already worked.

Quizlet is a vocabulary tool that when used for good (and not evil) can greatly enhance vocabulary skills in any and all subject areas. There are flashcard tools, instant quizzes, and (eMINTS friendly) collaborative tools. Think of the collaborative All you have to do is enter or upload your vocabulary list and let the kids go to work.

ClassTools.net allows for teachers personalize flash games, graphic organizers, and lesson templates all for free! This tool gives a teacher plenty of opportunities to create interactive learning activities that take the content to new levels.

Click here for full screen version

The State of Handwriting

We are at a crossroads in education. As we move further into the 21st century, the way we teach and learn is evolving. Some subjects and skills once thought to be essential to succeeding have now become obsolete. The art of handwriting is one of those disciplines.

Technology has made the handwritten word unnecessary. Whole novels are written on cell phones. Some of those novels have even topped best-seller lists. Other professional authors often type or use voice-recognition software to write their books, not the pen. Our governor, Matt Blunt, has made a sincere commitment to improving technology in the classroom. Many people do not even write personal letters anymore with the advent of email. Applications for most jobs are now primarily done electronically. (You’ve seen the kiosks at Target and Wal-Mart, I’m sure.) The art of penmanship is slowly fading.

Sure, there is a solid argument in support of handwriting. We do not exclusively use computers to communicate even as advanced as we have become. It is important to have a unique signature and many jobs do require hand-written notes and records. Also, until we go completely electronic, a premium has to be put on a student’s ability to write clearly.

However important handwriting is to you as a teacher, you have to ask what is the real purpose of being able to write beautifully with a pen or pencil. Isn’t the goal for a student to write a clearly stated and well-supported thesis? Does it matter if the writer properly constructs a cursive “v”? Or is it more important to write clear message with concrete examples?

I recently read an article in Good Magazine on this very topic. The author, who is an English professor at a prestigious college, laments her son’s struggles with handwriting. The teachers have frustrated the young boy over the appearance of his writing instead of concentrating on the validity of his arguments. The result? The student now hates to write. Was this the intention to make a student hate to write? Shouldn’t the intention be to improve the structure and eloquence of his written work?

As testing season draws nearer, consider how you are using your time. Is the learning in your classroom advancing their thought processes? Are they partaking in the “drill and kill” of memorization and basic skill preparation? Are they learning to think for themselves?

Where does handwriting fit in the eMINTS model? Are we focusing on form over function? Which GLE addresses cursive handwriting?
Consider these ideas as you plan your days and weeks completing this school year. Use your time wisely. I’m not completely trashing handwriting, but we must consider its proper place in our facilitation of student learning.