For my graduate course, I had to develop a lesson that used an instructional model that we learned about in class. Although I discussed my interest in using the internet workshop model in a previous post, I discovered that a WebQuest would best meet the needs of my students and help me to accomplish the objectives I set for this lesson.
I created a lesson that focused on the students comparing the daily lives of Pilgrim children versus themselves. I set the stage for this WebQuest by developing my students' background knowledge about the Pilgrims and their journey to America. In order to do so, I used resources such as Scholastic News and Brainpop Jr. Since my students had very little background knowledge, these tools helped to lay the groundwork of their understanding.
So, you might be wondering, what is a WebQuest and what did your students have to do? A WebQuest is an inquiry-based lesson in which students derive most of their learning from content on various websites and online resources. During this WebQuest (click here to check it out), my students worked in pairs to find out more about the daily lives of Pilgrims. They visited websites which shared more information about this topic and completed a comparison chart to show their learning (either a Venn diagram or a T-chart). The students later used their chart to develop a poster comparing Pilgrim children to themselves. They used this poster as a springboard to present their learning and to argue which way of life was/is better.
This lesson was differentiated immensely to meet the needs of my diverse group of learners. The differentiation strategies benefited students that might have trouble with executive functioning or students who are ELLs, just to name a few. Since this lesson was so greatly differentiated and engaging to 21st century learners, my students truly excelled. Nearly all students met the objectives set for this lesson and all students had fun. Following the completion of this assignment, my students were begging me to learn about other aspects of daily life using the WebQuest site! Clearly I couldn't say no to that!
One change that I will be making in the future is trying to add more multimedia to my WebQuest. My students were all successful gathering information from the websites linked to on the WebQuest. When originally trying to gather multimedia sources for this WebQuest, I had trouble finding sources that focused primarily on the daily lives of Pilgrims. Students would be required to infer many of the details of the Pilgrims' daily lives, which would be great differentiation for my higher performing students.
All in all, I could not be more proud of my students. This was not an easy task, but with appropriate supports, my students rose to the occasion.
I created a lesson that focused on the students comparing the daily lives of Pilgrim children versus themselves. I set the stage for this WebQuest by developing my students' background knowledge about the Pilgrims and their journey to America. In order to do so, I used resources such as Scholastic News and Brainpop Jr. Since my students had very little background knowledge, these tools helped to lay the groundwork of their understanding.
So, you might be wondering, what is a WebQuest and what did your students have to do? A WebQuest is an inquiry-based lesson in which students derive most of their learning from content on various websites and online resources. During this WebQuest (click here to check it out), my students worked in pairs to find out more about the daily lives of Pilgrims. They visited websites which shared more information about this topic and completed a comparison chart to show their learning (either a Venn diagram or a T-chart). The students later used their chart to develop a poster comparing Pilgrim children to themselves. They used this poster as a springboard to present their learning and to argue which way of life was/is better.
This lesson was differentiated immensely to meet the needs of my diverse group of learners. The differentiation strategies benefited students that might have trouble with executive functioning or students who are ELLs, just to name a few. Since this lesson was so greatly differentiated and engaging to 21st century learners, my students truly excelled. Nearly all students met the objectives set for this lesson and all students had fun. Following the completion of this assignment, my students were begging me to learn about other aspects of daily life using the WebQuest site! Clearly I couldn't say no to that!
One change that I will be making in the future is trying to add more multimedia to my WebQuest. My students were all successful gathering information from the websites linked to on the WebQuest. When originally trying to gather multimedia sources for this WebQuest, I had trouble finding sources that focused primarily on the daily lives of Pilgrims. Students would be required to infer many of the details of the Pilgrims' daily lives, which would be great differentiation for my higher performing students.
All in all, I could not be more proud of my students. This was not an easy task, but with appropriate supports, my students rose to the occasion.