Brooke Haffner

TLCI 585A

April 6, 2008

While teaching fifth grade, it is important to make sure that students are learning to their individual level, easily motivated, and engaged in activities to increase comprehension when focusing to meet reading curriculum. Creating a Webquest, met these needs of all my students even with different levels of learning. I chose to create a Webquest because it is difficult to teach two different books, yet still meet their individual reading needs through instruction. First beginning this project, I had two challenges to face; I only owned one class size leveled book that was too difficult for half of my students and I had no idea how to create a Webquest.

After finding a book that its focus geared towards a similar theme that matched the social studies curriculum, I began searching websites with similar activities. With research, exploring on my own, and help of my schools technology crew, I was able to create what I had originally envisioned. Creating a Webquest for all fifth grade students was my main goal. Giving a short introduction on how to navigate around the site, would enable direct instruction with one leveled group while the others independently explored enriched engaging activities on the website. My other goal was to make the website kid, teacher, and parent friendly. I was able to make it kid friendly with pictures and activities that they were able to follow independently with little instruction. To make this site seem teacher friendly, I included this paper, state and technology standards, along with all resources (even those that I just stumbled across but did not use). Parents enjoyed the site as well being able to access homework links, contact information, and noticing their student’s excitement in engaged learning that could be accessed at school and home.

I was able to implement this project with my class prior to spring break and the three weeks following. My teaching partners also used the website and suggested final decisions on some of the activities. I feel confident with my final project, but tweaking is still in progress. I will continue to make updates in the future and explore Webquests for other subjects. My students were even helpful, by proofreading the site and offering suggestions for improvements. My fifth grade students and teaching partners just loved the user friendly activities. I feel it was a huge success!

Reports state, “99% of U.S. public school reporting Internet access” (Ikpeze, p.645) but “computers are oversold and underused in America’s schools” (Lipscomb p. 125). This quote proved to me that computers are available, but engaged activities need to be created for students to be able to participate. The article, A WebQuest for Spatial Skills, had a positive impact towards my project. Most of my connections stemmed from this well-written article. Washington Elementary School noted low state science test scores; I connected this with my students low reading scores. The teacher decided to take a main instructional themed unit and connect it to a Webquest hoping student connections would be met allowing for increased scores. “Students are quick to question school assignments they deem busy work, and Webquests provide students with a challenging and useful undertaking (Lipscomb p.156).” I thought this was an excellent idea, seeing that students are comfortable with technology learning. Through my research, Wood (2007) suggested access to a website, “http://webquest.sdsu.edu/ which provides users with the history of the Webquest as well as tutorials, samples, and templates for making your own Webquest (p.22).” This website was similar to the book I borrowed from the public library, SNMS: Teach Yourself to Create Web Pages in 24 hours, offered assistance with step by step instruction and visuals so I could read and follow along on my computer. This type of learning is better for me when learning how to do something new. My goal was to create something, “more than word processing and simple research” and “improve [my] classroom through technology (Lipscomb, 152).” I was not looking for activities to that extent, but engaged activities to complete individually. I was able to take the same idea from the articles and website but create my own activities that would work with my students and what I wanted. With the help from the technology instructor in the district, I was able to get my website uploaded to the Internet. She also suggested improvements and offered other programs that made the Webquest successful.

After implementing the Revolutionary War Webquest, my students exhibited a better understanding of reading comprehension, vocabulary, and expressed enthusiasm than doing the traditional worksheet/lecture they were use to. Results from my articles indicated similar final results, “Webquests – or any technology for that matter – guarantee effective learning of higher order thinking skills (Ikpeze p.646),” “I guess it was pretty fun, if an eighth grader makes a comment like that, the Webquest can be viewed as successful (Lipscomb p. 125),” and “students felt they learned more from the WebQuest (Wood p.25).”

Attached is a hard copy of my created Webquest consisting of a main page where the students can access which book they read. Choosing from The Fighting Ground by Avi or We’re Behind You, George Washington by Diana Star Helmer will begin the students journey from activities and investigations that connect to the topic. From this cover page, parents and students can also have access to their homework and contact their fifth grade teachers, school, and district. After the students enter the book they are reading, more specific pages are viewed where students can participate in activities from chapters or pre-determined sections. Each page is aimed towards the students’ learning level and easy to follow directions.

I created several introduction and conclusion activities, as well as other engaged activities along the way for all students to explore. The activities revolved around vocabulary, comprehension, or chapter tasks that relate to the books theme. Hot Potato, which is free for educators, where quizzes, matching games, cloze activities, and crosswords were able to be created, was the most helpful resource. As I explored this site, I was able to enhance my style of visuals and format. Also for teachers and educators I included the Illinois State Standards. While adding these I learned that Illinois does not have Technology Standards, but I was able to locate National Technology Standards for students and include them in the footnotes of the coverpage and for each book’s main page.

After a few days of implementation, I found areas that needed improvements. For example, as simple as adding a place for each student’s name, so when printed, I would know whose page it belonged to. I also made a place were vocabulary words could be looked up if they didn’t know for sure. Each task could take anywhere from five to forty minutes for the students to complete, but I always prompted them to print when I expected it, so they wouldn’t have to interrupt the other group. Better yet, some of the quizzes would automatically email me the scores as the students took the tests. I also had assistance from our school technology program, or I would have never been able to get this on the World Wide Web on my own. Each time I made upgrades to my site, I would email our districts technology department, and she gladly would make those changes that day, so it could be used immediately in the computer lab or my classroom. I will continue to make updates and enhancements as needed to my website, but for the most part I am pleased and proud of my final product. It really shows that hard work does pay off!

Reference Page

Healy PH.D., J. M. (1998). Failure to connect: How computers affect our children’s minds for better and

worse. Simon & Schuster.

Ikpeze, C.H. & Boyd, F.B. (April, 2007). Web-based inquiry learning: facilitating

thoughtful literacy with webquests. The Reading Teacher, 60(7), 644-655. Retrieved March 3^rd, 2008 from ERIC database.

Lipscomb, G. (January/February 2003). “I guess it was pretty fun”: using webquests in

the middle school classroom. Clearing House,76 (3), 152-155. Retrieved March

3^rd, 2008 from OCLC FirstSearch.

Melton, B., & Shankle, S. (2007). What in the world are your kids doing online? New York: Broadway

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Nekola, J. (2001). Helping kids with special needs. Learning Disorders 151-176. Nekola Books.

Snell, N. (1999). SNMS: Teach yourself to create web pages in 24 hours (second edition). Macmillan

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Wood, P.L, Quitadamo, I.J., DePaepe, J.L. & Loverro, I. (April/May 2007). A webquest

for spatial skills. Science and Children, 44(8), 21-25. Retrieved March 3, 2008, from ERIC database.