A WebQuest for K-12 Teachers utilizing the WebGuide Template

Links verified on 1/1/2012
Designed by Bill Byles

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion

There they are! They even smell new! Four new computers have arrived in your classroom! The district technology experts connect you to the Internet and install software. Now they expect you to use those computers! Ack! What do you do?

• A friend of yours has told you horror stories about students on the Internet...
• Your principal expects you to integrate the technology with your curriculum...
• You just want to teach...

In desperation you visit the teacher next door. You see the computer has been set up as a center. The program the children use is drill and practice. You also observe the computer is an interference as the teacher instructs the remainder of the students. Walking from that classroom you are even more confused. How do you manage to deal with everything that is expected of you?

The Internet is a rich source of material, but you (the teacher) need to provide some structure to your student's use of that resource. To do that you will build lessons around two different Internet sites.

• The first lesson will be based on sites from four subject areas which will be provided for you.
• Lesson two will be based on a site which you find using two collections of high quality Internet sites which will be given to you.

Your lessons are to be produced using the WebGuide template. Modifying this template will produce a lesson in HTML format for viewing on the web. You may also use the application MS Word. Location of Internet sites in your Word document should be in the form of Hyperlinks. If you are not familiar with how to do that, see a tutorial on the procedure.

Lesson one-

From the following list, pick one Internet site related to a subject that you teach (note - each of the twelve sites were found on an Internet4Classrooms collection):

• Language Arts 
  • elementary - Draw Me Shapes
  • middle - Power Proofreading from Houghton Mifflin
  • high - The Word Detective
• Social Studies
  • elementary - Africa's Geography
  • middle - Battle of the Battlefields
  • high - Matters of Life and Death; Medicine and Health
• Science
  • elementary - Tongue rolling
  • middle - Chembalancer - online game to teach balancing equations
  • high - How do physics laws affect amusement park ride design?
• Math
  • elementary - Welcome to Lemonade Stand!
  • middle - Abacus: a mechanical aid used for counting
  • high - Learn probability with the Coin Flipping Page

After you have selected the Internet link, it's time to start planning your lesson. A WebGuide template has been prepared to help guide you as you write this Internet-based lesson plan. When the page with the template opens, go to Netscape's File menu and select Edit page. That opens the template in Netscape Composer. Save the page as a new name, not as webguide_template.htm. To see the template, follow this link. The template will open in a new window and this browser window will still be open also.

Lesson two-

Visit one of the following collections of high quality web sites. Find one web page which could be used in a lesson you will teach. After you have found just the right page, follow the directions related to opening the template that you see above and write lesson two.

• Grade Level Help - [for grades PreK-8] Internet sites which could be used to support standards-based instruction - pick a subject and your grade then begin
• Links for K-12 Teachers - Internet sites for teachers to use when planning units, activities, or projects. Thousands of sites have been categorized into subject area and interest area pages. Use this as a starting point for your web searching.
• Daily Dose of the Web - Activities designed to be used on a daily or weekly basis in any classroom. No matter what grade level or subject you are teaching, there are places on the Internet which can be used to enliven your class daily.

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Site Description	No specific descriptions were given, or students would have been unsure what part of the web page was to be used for this lesson	A description of the site was given but if only a part of the page was to be used, students were not directed to the proper place on the page.	The site description was clear. Students should be able to recognize the page from the site description, but might need to ask questions about where to go on the page.	Instructions were clear, students could visualize the site before following the link, and would have no problems finding the right part of the site for this lesson.
Site Purpose	No purpose for using the site was given.	Students know only that they are using a web site for the lesson, no clear description of the purpose of this site was given.	A purpose is given, but students might be unsure how the purpose fits with the subject they are studying.	Students know exactly why they are going to the web site and what to do when they get there.
Lesson Introduction	No specific management instructions are given to the students. After students are told to begin work they will need to ask the teacher what to do next.	Instructions regarding group size is given, but no other details on how to proceed have been included	Group size or assignments are clear, students will know how to get started on this lesson, but will need to ask questions as they work.	Instructions given will allow groups of students to begin work without having to ask questions
Final Product or Task	Students are only instructed to list facts from the web site on a printed sheet.	Students are asked to use one of the productivity tools applications, but they are only asked to list facts.	Students will use one of the productivity tools applications to produce a	Students will use more than one productivity tool to produce their product. Requirements are outlined regarding the appearance of the final product
Complexity of Task	The emphasis of the lesson is simple recall of facts, or listing information	Information from the site may be used to support a position, but the facts gathered do not need to be transformed in any way.	Some of the information collected by your students will be changed before the lesson is finished.	Students are required to work at higher levels on Bloom's Taxonomy. The information they collect will be transformed.
Lesson Description	No description was given, or a very incomplete one was included.	An outline or summary of the lesson was given, but much instruction remains to be given by the teacher on the day of the lesson.	The first steps of the lesson are clear enough for the group to begin working, but they will need to consult with the teacher before producing their final product.	Everything that the group of students will need to complete this lesson is included in the description.
Conclusion	This lesson is isolated from any lessons that might have come before or might follow.	The lesson makes reference to prior subjects studied. No reference is made to anything that might follow and no challenging activities for enrichment have been provided.	This lesson builds on previous work done by the students, and introduces how further study will be related. No challenging activities for further study have been provided	This lesson builds on previous work done by the students, and introduces how further study will be related. at least one challenging activity have been provided for further investigation.

The next step in this process is to expand your pool of choices. Check back on Grade Level Help,Links for K-12 Teachers and Daily Dose of the Web from time to time. However, broaden your search to find great sites that have not yet been added to those two collections. One place to look is a list of sites with large number of links. Another strategy would be to use a search engine to look through a larger portion of the web. If you want a list of suggested search engines, follow this link. If you are unfamiliar with searching the Internet, look at some tips on searching before you begin. As you find great sites, please tell the author of this WebQuest about them. (for email address, go to Internet4Classrooms home page)

Anything you want to teach can be supported by a page of information somewhere out there on the Internet. Anything! I wish you success in finding just the right site!

Last updated on January 1, 2012. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page