Travel Plans Webquest
Description:
I designed this Webquest for 22 EFL high school students in China who were about to move to the US to begin their undergrad studies. The aim was to help students learn how to find information online, report it by paraphrasing and summarizing, and express their own views by selecting information that interested them individually.
Students worked on this activity at the school’s computer lab during 4 two-hour long sessions. I assigned a city to each one of them, and at the end of the activity, all students did an in-class presentation about their research and what they learned through this Webquest.
Analyze:
This activity demonstrates my belief in the need to find alternative methods to motivate students to express their own opinions based on sources. I believe that young students are motivated by topics that are relevant to their lives. This Webquest provided students an opportunity to learn how to do something useful and relevant, such as planning their own trip, while also fostering the use of academic skills like paraphrasing, citing, and summarizing. Another reason why I have included this activity in my portfolio is because it highlights my belief in scaffolding activities and providing sufficient models for students to have a clear understanding of the lesson’s goals.
Appraise:
Students were engaged in learning about the city that had been assigned to them and exploring different websites that they had not seen before. The level of motivation was much higher than usual, as demonstrated by the fact that 90% of all students turned in the worksheets I requested after each session at the computer lab, whereas usually only approximately 50% of students would turn in completed classwork.
Another indicator of the success of this lesson is the fact that students did presentations in which the vast majority of the information presented was completely in their own words.
Transformation:
I have always believed in the need for authentic and relevant materials to motivate students to learn academic skills, however, I often found this difficult because of the lack of materials available. This activity allowed me to begin developing lessons using readily available resources, such as Wikipedia or search engines, which students would be able to use for purposes outside of language learning. I now continue developing lessons in which all steps are clearly laid out for students and the materials used are both of interest to students and useful for language learning.
Description:
I designed this Webquest for 22 EFL high school students in China who were about to move to the US to begin their undergrad studies. The aim was to help students learn how to find information online, report it by paraphrasing and summarizing, and express their own views by selecting information that interested them individually.
Students worked on this activity at the school’s computer lab during 4 two-hour long sessions. I assigned a city to each one of them, and at the end of the activity, all students did an in-class presentation about their research and what they learned through this Webquest.
Analyze:
This activity demonstrates my belief in the need to find alternative methods to motivate students to express their own opinions based on sources. I believe that young students are motivated by topics that are relevant to their lives. This Webquest provided students an opportunity to learn how to do something useful and relevant, such as planning their own trip, while also fostering the use of academic skills like paraphrasing, citing, and summarizing. Another reason why I have included this activity in my portfolio is because it highlights my belief in scaffolding activities and providing sufficient models for students to have a clear understanding of the lesson’s goals.
Appraise:
Students were engaged in learning about the city that had been assigned to them and exploring different websites that they had not seen before. The level of motivation was much higher than usual, as demonstrated by the fact that 90% of all students turned in the worksheets I requested after each session at the computer lab, whereas usually only approximately 50% of students would turn in completed classwork.
Another indicator of the success of this lesson is the fact that students did presentations in which the vast majority of the information presented was completely in their own words.
Transformation:
I have always believed in the need for authentic and relevant materials to motivate students to learn academic skills, however, I often found this difficult because of the lack of materials available. This activity allowed me to begin developing lessons using readily available resources, such as Wikipedia or search engines, which students would be able to use for purposes outside of language learning. I now continue developing lessons in which all steps are clearly laid out for students and the materials used are both of interest to students and useful for language learning.