My final posting this week will also wrap up my re-discovery of WebQuests. I have enjoyed going back through the different hosting sites (there are a ton!) and also those that give good descriptions of how to create. I have tried to share some that I have come across with my blog group and I hope I have not bored them to tears!
For this posting, I decided to look into a subject that would be of interest to my son, who is a 4th grader and has just wrapped up a unit on the Civil War. Like many boys his age, this is part of American history that holds his attention. In fact, we took a family trip south of Tallahassee (to Woodville) and watched the reenactment of the Battle of Natural Bridge. It was fun seeing the actors portraying the Union and Southern troops and it was quite realistic as the Park Rangers passed out ear plugs (the cannon were very loud and you could feel the concussion of each report). Needless to say, my son was full of questions all the way home. So, I couldn't help but think about how great it would be to find activities that would relate to his interest in the Civil War and maybe even share them with his teacher. Thus, I found two that were interesting and appropriate for his age group. The first was a group project that dealt with researching and rating 5 critical battles from the viewpoint of a newspaper person. The second was also a group project and asked the participants to create a Civil War scrapbook from their research, which included soldier and civilian life, music, spies and codes, battles, etc. The rubric used for evaluation for this one was quite creative. Instead of "does not meet" to "exceeds expectations," it ranked the students from"deserter" to "general!" I can't wait to test this out on my son! After all, he has to have something to do educationally over Spring Break!
To close out this chapter, I will reiterate that WebQuests are great augmentations to virtually any curricula across disciplines and grade levels. They are not, however, meant to be day-after-day substitutes for creative instruction. A parallel may be drawn to all Ed Tech media in that none of it is meant to take the place of teacher and student effort, if if there are some who think otherwise!
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2 comments:
As before, I think WebQuests are a great idea. You're right, though, that they're not something to do everyday. I think they are very involved, and the kids would certainly tire of them after too many of them. Let us know how your son likes it!
ps. Your reenactment link doesn't work. You have two "http's" listed in the address. But I got it to work. Where did you hear about the reenactment?
I live just west of Tallahassee and the Natural Bridge Reenactment has been happeningfor some time now (usualy the first weekend in March). Thanks for the ps about the link. It was photos from the Tallahasse Democrat. I apreciate your feedback!
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