WebQuests in the Intermediate Grades

 

Part 1: Exploring WebQuests

Besides serving as ways to post reference sites or communicate assignments, Web pages can be used to organize instruction. Since 1995, WebQuests have been the premiere method for doing this. These resources will help you learn about the structure and function of WebQuests. They are part of a much larger WebQuest site.
  Learn about the different parts of WebQuests. Building Blocks of WebQuests
  The task is the heart of the WebQuest and these pages give lots of examples and strategies. WebQuest Taskonomy: A Taxonomy of Tasks
The WebQuest Taskonomy Cluster

Now we'll try to develop your own skills for reviewing and selecting WebQuests. Using the Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests to help you make judgements, find a sample WebQuest from the Matrix of WebQuests that you would recommend to your colleagues.

Find one that meets curriculum goals for your classes and would help your students meet the standards. Also consider how "doable" the WebQuest would be in your classroom.

Part 2: Developing WebQuests

Developing a WebQuest requires two types of skills: curriculum development and webpage development. The WebQuest template can help work through both of these.

Developing Curriculum Developing the Web page

To make sure you are focusing on the curriculum rather than the Internet, it usually works best to work in this order.

  1. Describe a task through which a student can exhibit his or her achievement of the goals you have set.
  2. Create a rubric for evaluating the task that includes all of your aims for the unit.
  3. Describe the process and the resources for students to use. The younger the student, the more detailed each step should be.
  4. Create an introduction that grabs their attention.

To use each of these templates, follow these steps.

  1. Click on the appropriate link to bring the page into Netscape Navigator.
  2. Choose File, Edit page to launch Composer to begin editing your page.
  3. As your first step in Composer, chose File, Save and save the page with a new name in a space where you'll be able to find it later.
  4. From there you can edit each of the elements with the curriculum you want to use.
  5. You can still add all the color and style you want as you would in any other page.

Background Readings


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