Action Research

How can We Differentiate the WQ

I've found a wonderful example of how we can support learners in using a WebQuest. I would like for you to take a look at this Grammar example.

It helps students in a variety of ways....by already preparing the skelton PowerPoint presentation as the guide students can fill in the "blanks" with their research information. The focus would be on information rather than on the pretties of PowerPoint. Isn't that where we all fall down in helping our students stay with the content instead of the snap, crackle and pop of technology?

Look this over and see if anything would be useful to you in your WQ efforts?

50 Ways to Scaffold a WebQuest

Tonight we're exploring ways in which we can support students in tackling material that might be too complex or complicated for them to do without some help. Scaffolding gives them structures and help to process information, transform it or produce outputs. These are temporary structures that allow them to function at a higher level than really are capable of performing without those structures.

All of this springs from the belief of being constructivists teachers and the models of WebQuests is clearly a of constructivst bent. Towards that Bernie Dodge offers this as evidence, " WQ offers useful inputs, it gives transformation of information into new forms and WQs guide students into making products that represent new knowledge". To me, that seems to personify what constructivist learning is all about.

We will explore the three major ways we can support students as they go through a WQ tonight.

As they begin to receive the information--------------Reception
As they begin to thrink about the informtion.---------Transformation
As they begin to report out about what they learned-Production

these structures combined with your links will then begin to form the heart of your WQ. When we return in January, we will combine all of this with some of the Templates that you may have already thought were possibilities and plunge ahead in writing. We can write the first WQ as a simple lesson with links and see how that goes and then add the more complex tasks after a trial run on the simple level. So by the end of TT2 , you will have a full blown WQ!!!!

Getting the Message Out---Production Scaffolds

OK....we've used Reception Scaffolds to help students acquire information and Transformational Scaffolds to process it into new information... but without the ability to express this learning in clear and concise ways, we would be remiss in our task. So the last form of Scaffolding is Production.

Production Scaffolds help learners to demonstrate something that is observable and conveys what they've learned. These are particularly useful when there are some "conventions of genre, publication or presentation format" that should be followed".

How the Heck to do You Customize The Looks of these Things

Now all of our blogs look pretty much the same. It's the default look. But we want to break free of the widget mentality and express ourselves with color, font and who knows what. Here's a few tips on how to use the features of TypePad to do that.

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See if this can help you learn how to do some of your customizing. Then don't forget that we have digital cameras so you can go hog wild and use digital photos and do even more. There's no end of trouble or fun that you can have with getting a look that expresses your individuality.

TT the Second

We're going to begin at the END. Yep at the end.

And for a very good reason. By knowing what our students should know and be able to do at the end we will always keep asking ourselves all throughout the creation of this WQ, will this student activity get them closer to being able to complete that end task. It's a pretty clever idea that has really caught on fire through the work of Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins over the past few years.

So take 5 minutes and write what you would like for your students to know and be able to do at the end of this WQ. In light of all we're trying to do these days in hooking everything back to the BV curriculum see if you can't stay within close proximity to the curriculum.

Then I want you to read other's posts keeping in mind the following things and react to their ideas specifically with these items in mind

will this curriculum indicator lend itself to use of information from the web
will be require understanding
will it require analysis
will it require synthesis
will it require problem solving
will it require creativity

Help our other classmates avoid WQs that only requires our students to do lower level projects that only ask for recall and comprehension tasks. If you find these, then bring it to their attention and suggest ways that they could leverage up the idea to something that is more powerful and/or engaging.

Here's where we're going to harness the power of the blog....to critique each other and to build a community spirit of leaning on one another and to ask for help from each other. Maybe you have create idea but are stuck on how to do something. Well, put it out there on your blog...ask for the help and someone will answer, you'll see. Probably more than one. So venture from your zone and you'll be amazed.

So typing fingers engage and let's hear about your ideas for an engaging WQ.

How to write a Top Ten list comedy joke writing humor from Jeff Justice corporate humorist

So folks....a challenge....can you do it. Check my spot to see how I faired on this. OK Lisa, how did you do?

How to write a Top Ten list comedy joke writing humor from Jeff Justice corporate humorist

Last Assignment for the Evening

Go to you journal and write reflectively about what you're thinking at this point.

Ideas to consider including in your reflection:
Consider that you'll need to find a topic for creating a WQ. How will you do that?

What blog style are you going to pick....purely professional, partially reflective; some mix

What burning questions do you have? Why are they burning?

What most excites you about this evening"s work and the work in which you'll be engaged?

What is the most terrifying?

Now that you know a bit more, are you sure that you made a good choice in enrolling. Is this class going to point you in the direction that you want to go...does it help you attain a professional or personal goal?

West Nile Virus? What can we Do?

WebQuests demand consideration of topics from multiple vantage points. All of which provide value insight that is critical to understand the whole scope of a topic. It IS NOT a glorified basic facts research project. This asks a real question that many of us have had to answer in our minds....What are we going to do?

Here's a good example for you to examine.

Use the rubric from Tom March's site. Print it out and then spend a few minutes reviewing what you read and how it stacks up. Be ready to share.

TypePad Dissection Tool

I've created a worksheet for you to use during our Dissection exercise. Print one out for use in class today.
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