It was only a few days ago that I had even heard
the term “WebQuest.” Unfortunately, the high school I attended never took
advantage of the WebQuest and all it has to offer any classroom. Thankfully, I
have learned at just the right time that WebQuests are an amazing tool that I
will surely implement in my classroom. WebQuests are great activities to use in
almost any content area that will keep students engaged and taken an
interactive role in their learning. WebQuests emphasize inquiry and discovery
of the content area as well as computer and internet skills.
One creative example of a WebQuest that I
particularly admired is an activity based around John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and simultaneously
reminiscent of Bill and Ted’s Excellent
Adventure (try to count the references). The WebQuest is entitled “George and Lenny’s Most Excellent Adventure.” The WebQuest is based upon the novel’s two main characters and
their backgrounds. According to the task provided, George and Lenny have been
transported through time into the 2000s. Students are required to brainstorm, research,
present, and reflect on how to get the men jobs in modern-day California.
Students analyze Steinbeck’s novel and transfer
their knowledge into the real world of today. They apply what they know of
George’s and Lenny’s skills from the book and access their prior knowledge of
current job markets to find the protagonists employment. After researching and
brainstorming, the students prepare a presentation (without the help of
historical figures stuffed in a phone booth) on how their plans will help
George and Lenny find work. Afterwards, they write reflections about what they
have learned about the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s novel, job opportunities,
and how they can use what they have learned. Lastly, they must consider and
explore how discrimination, mental disabilities, immigration, and homelessness
might affect George and Lenny and their opportunities to find gainful employment.
There are many aspects of this WebQuest that I
like. I particularly enjoy the relevance to today’s world. Everyone knows how
difficult finding work can be in today’s economy, but having the students
really research the extent of unemployment as well as how to find jobs for
specified labor skills brings the assignment into the real world. I also like
the added realism of bring Lenny’s disabilities and George’s racism into the
assignment—these issues would most certainly affect people seeking jobs in
today’s world. This WebQuest seeks to answer how. Furthermore, I greatly
appreciate the excellent references to Bill
and Ted.
Overall, this is a great activity for students
studying Of Mice and Men who also
want some exposure to technology. One of the best suggestions toward the end of
this WebQuest is to turn this assignment into a service learning project to
advocate for a particular group of people at the students’ discretion. This
service learning will surely help students be excellent to each other. And, as
Abe Lincoln advised, party on, dudes!
Ms. Hood,
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent Web Quest. I also appreciate the allusion to Bill & Ted! I also love that the creator of this WQ was able to create an interesting way for students to understand the gravity of the Great Depression and still apply that to the book. That is the glory of WQs because students are able to explore and learn at the same time. I think that if I had to add one (or two) criticisms it would be that students should be put in to groups and that the website would be better if the links to the "Task" and "Information" etc. were connected to a fresh page.
It's hard to create the perfect WebQuest but, I look forward to eventually creating my own WQ for a future classroom.
Thank you for this awesome blog!
Ms. Watkins
Ms. Watkins,
DeleteI completely agree with your criticisms. Having all of the information on one page on which you can scroll to see everything else could be too overwhelming for some students. All that information in the same place could cause some students to shut off. I like your idea of linking the different tasks, processes, conclusions, etc., to a fresh page. That allows students to absorb and handle only the information necessary to fulfill that particular requirement. Your other suggestion for students to be placed in groups actually reminded me of another critique for the WebQuest. The "Process" tab of the assignment indicates that students will be placed in groups of 3 or 4 as assigned by the instructor. However, this grouping is not made explicitly clear throughout the WebQuest. The creator of the Quest should have made it abundantly clear to the students what sort of working situation in which they would be placed.
Thank you for your suggestions and your common love for Bill & Ted!
I always adore when teachers make use of pop culture or film references to help ground an understanding of another concept or literary work. However, like Ms. Watkins, I was a little put off by the design of the site and the color scheme - the tabs up top were helpful, but once you clicked them, you would have to scroll all the way back up the page to get to another topic unless you were to begin at the top of the page and scroll continuously down to each topic. Considering the WebQuest was designed for 10th grade, the amount of material seemed a little sparse. The rubric seemed pretty vague and I'm not sure that I, as a college student, would be able to feel confident about my work after reading it. I would have also liked to see more structure in the process and task sections. Overall, I liked the general idea of the WebQuest, but I believe it could have been carried out a bit more efficiently to give the students the full benefit of learning. One idea might be to craft a better conclusion and introduction to help students understand why they would be comparing the 1930s job market to the current job market.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the color scheme and background could have been significantly more attractive. The design, as you and Ms. Watkins indicated, is in need of improvement as well. Having all of the information available on one page could prove to be too overwhelming for some students. The creator of the WebQuest should have linked each requirement to a fresh page so that students are only exposed to information on a single aspect of the WebQuest. With a fresh page, a link could be inserted to return to a central home page or to navigate through the rest of the Quest.
DeleteThe amount of requirements did not deter me because WebQuests could be used for assignments with various weights in the grade book. But, I do agree that there should have been more links for the students to glean information. Having more links in a WebQuest is much better than having too few.
Rubrics can be difficult from the student-perspective because each student responds to information and expectations differently. I actually liked the clear, direct nature of the rubric. For me, there would be no doubt about my success or failure based on the language and expectations laid out in the evaluation. I also admired the extension of learning in the conclusion. Having students explore other issues that would affect Steinbeck's characters today adds an interesting spin and pause for reflection. However, I definitely agree with your suggestion to more explicitly connect the job market in the Great Depression to today's in the introduction. I can see how some students might not see the correlation. Adding it in would help cement the connection between the novel and the real world.
I really like the idea of having a WebQuest to go along with a novel. What a cool idea to get the kids engaged with language arts. Through this webquest, they get to look deeper into the issues and main themes found within the book. I would definitely consider creating a WebQuest to go along with a novel in my classroom! Thanks for sharing!
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