AR#5
This week was one of the hardest for me. First, we are on spring break so all of my resources (including links I like to use) are on my work computer. Second, All the thunderstorms near my house has caused us to lose power. Once I have tackled those hurdles, I am feeling quite overwhelmed by the task I am to undertake this week. I was to create a Curriculum Page/Web Quest. In order to start this very daunting task, I needed to find out more about what a Curriculum Page/Web Quest was.
In completing research I found that a Web Quest is an inquiry-based lesson (webquest.org). I found this to be a comfort since I use DBQ’s in my classroom (Document Based Questions). The students are provided a very open ended question that they have to look at multiple documents to form their opinion and argue the evidence to support the opinion. I also use History Alive to provide a real connection the past and how it relates to the student. I can do this I can come up with a Web Quest!
A curriculum page is a teacher-created document containing hyperlinks to teacher-selected Web Sites. (Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom by Shelly, Gunter and Gunter) Now I just have to decide what to research to be able to provide links for my students. I looked back on my last blog in where I wanted to do a Story of Us scenario. This was just to broad a topic and I really wanted to be able to use this to get the students excited in the beginning of the year. Then it came to me, I have the students read a book called Blood on the River, Jamestown 1607 by Elisa Carbon and a DBQ on Jamestown: Why did so many colonist die? I could then ask them why would anyone leave England to come to the New World. There is a lesson in my History Alive book that the students need to create a colony booth and have a colonial fair (much like a job or college fair). They are required to visit the booths to find out about each colony. What if I morphed it into…an infomercial with “personal” story on why they decided to move to the colony?
Although I had an idea that I feel very confident in and I have no clue where to start. Luckily for me I was provided a one page template to get me started. I started to try to fill in the blanks and get started. I also spent time looking at different web quest. I really enjoyed the one on Jamestown. I was off to find pages for my students to use. Since I have so much information on Jamestown, I decided not to allow groups to use Virginia as one of their colonies. I will instead use this as my example. Finding web sites was fairly complicated as most of my favorite links are bookmarked at school for this unit. I have since learned of Diigo and see the benefits of having web sites bookmarked on-line. I have to live and learn J
I am still playing with the different pages and adding links as I find them. There might need to be a few zipped files added at some point. I need to get a folder created so I can compress the entire folder I wish to upload and not each item at a time.
So did I make you curious, do you want to see what I have so far for my students to create an infomercial on their colony? Your wait is over! May I present you my web quest: Commercial for your Colony.
Just in case the Hyperlink does not work: http://petersonusamerican.wikispaces.com/
What an innovative idea to have your students design an infomercial! That is certainly a great way to make history come alive for them. You are providing them with some great resources to help them.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate to being exposed to History Alive during my internship and I found so many of the activities great because they were interactive. This was World History and it was a challenge to motivate the students. However, when I could do a History Alive activity and they were able to move around, become engaged, have some fun-they were truly learning.
I see the value of collecting resources and having them available. If you don't have access to them, I could see being totally lost. Thanks for sharing!
I like you idea of integrating an infomercial with History. I briefly was able to learn about History Alive from one of the other teachers in our school that is using it for our gifted students. From what I saw from this teachers examples, there was not much technology that I saw she was using. I feel that by you creating these curriculum pages with all the resources that the students will need will help the students focus in all the important details and important websites that you evaluated and felt they were valuable. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteOf course you can create a WebQuest! I completely understand when you are displaced from any teaching tools or resources. You must live near Orlando because I was there on a work-related trip and besides the Rosen Hotel not having wireless available, there Internet was horrible! I know exactly where you’re coming from on this one!
I’ve taught how to create WebQuests in Word, but I did not have any experience with a wiki at all. I quickly created my Wikispaces account and got to work. It sounds like you were able to use your background knowledge of inquire-based learning to learn about research-based WebQuests. I actually haven’t ever used document based questions like you described in your post. That sounds like a really good teaching and learning strategy. Thanks for the different links to resources that you provided in your post. They should come in handy.
The idea for your digital story is really good. I started out very much like you with wanting to teach students how to create an “All About Me” digital story which would be a simple digital autobiography. This idea has now changed into students creating an electronic resume for one of the top jobs predicted for the year 2020. I’ve also changed the software they will use to create their digital story from PhotoStory 3 to Prezi. That was a huge change for me because I’ve had a big learning curve when it comes to learning how o use Prezi. PowerPoint is a snap, now, but Prezi has been a real challenge. I think I’ve finally overcome my obstacles and now I am excited about using Prezi in addition to PowerPoint.
I started out very much like you with an idea, but no real idea of where or how to start. The one page template we were given was a great help and I did use it to model my wiki. You mentioned using Diigo. Isn’t it a great social bookmarking tool? I’ve used Delicious for a couple of years now, but I’m definitely interested in find out more about Diigo and all of its capabilities.
Yes, you have definitely made me curious, and I thank you for sharing your Commercial for Your Colony WebQuest. Best of luck with completing this project and the course.
:-) Ruth