WebQuest
Are you the way you learn?
Teacher Page
INTRODUCTION
This didactic unit has been developed as part of the final tasks of the Postgraduate Course "Informatica y Didactica de Lenguas" at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain.
It
responds to my experience as a secondary school English teacher and my
students' need and interest in improving their study methods.
The main objective
is helping them to identify and understand their learning style and
improve their study skills. It starts by making reflect on their
learning style and then it leads them to designing a personalised study
method in order to become autonomous language learners.
TARGET LEARNERS
This webquest has been designed for Spanish High School students with English as a Foreign Language.
The required level of English is intermediate.
I think it can work better with students in Bachillerato (16-17 year
olds), but it can also be done with students of 4th ESO (15) with a high
level of language competence, especially if they like English.
The motivational value of this WebQuest relays on the fact that, in their last year of Spanish compulsory secondary education (ESO),
those students who want to study Bachillerato realise that they need to
become better students in order to go on studying, and this interest is
what makes this webquest relevant for them. A similar motivation
exists for students in their first year of Bachillerato (post-compulsory education), when many students realise that their study system for ESO is no longer working and that they need a new more effective one.
CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES AND CORE COMPETENCES
It
responds to my experience as a secondary school English teacher and my
students' need and interest in improving their study methods.
The main objective
is helping them to identify and understand their learning style and
improve their study skills. It starts by making reflect on their
learning style and then it leads them to designing a personalised study
method in order to become autonomous language learners.
TARGET LEARNERS
This webquest has been designed for Spanish High School students with English as a Foreign Language.
The required level of English is intermediate.
I think it can work better with students in Bachillerato (16-17 year
olds), but it can also be done with students of 4th ESO (15) with a high
level of language competence, especially if they like English.
The motivational value of this WebQuest relays on the fact that, in their last year of Spanish compulsory secondary education (ESO),
those students who want to study Bachillerato realise that they need to
become better students in order to go on studying, and this interest is
what makes this webquest relevant for them. A similar motivation
exists for students in their first year of Bachillerato (post-compulsory education), when many students realise that their study system for ESO is no longer working and that they need a new more effective one.
CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES AND CORE COMPETENCES
The
departing idea for designing this WebQuest is to enable students to
become autonomous and better language learners. While doing the
activities, they will be improving their English, since it is the
vehicular language in all of them, and also their ICT skills when
searching for information on the Internet and editing their texts and
presentations. It is therefore a Project that integrates several skills
and competences and that has relevance because it is totally connected
to the reality of students: the school context.
Linguistic and audiovisual communication
Speaking and listening
5. Can learn other languages and show appreciation and interest in their use and learning.
Reading
7.7. Can find those paragraphs or sections with relevant information in texts.
9.6. Can use the Internet as a source of information with a critical view.
Writing
10.5. Can use dictionaries, reference books and text processing correctors to check the meaning or spelling or words.
10.6. Can present written texts accordint to graphic conventions (format, font, punctuation...).
11.4. Can adapt writing to the conditions and restrictions of the context (support, format, instruments...)
11.6. Can plan and organising coherently and cohesively the ideas in the text to be written.
13.6. Can use other forms of graphic communication, apart from writing,
to convey ideas and feelings (drawings, images, graphs, audiovisual
productions, computer software...)
Information handling and digital competence
Internet use
6.4. Can recovering texts and other information elements from websites.
9.4. Can take advantage of online communication tools for working on collaborative tasks.
Basic software and computer applications use
10.15. Can insert graphics and images in a document.
10.16. Can adjust the graphics and images in a document.
Learning to learn competence
Self-awareness
1.1. Can get to know their own possibilities, difficulties and weak point, what they can do alone or what with help of others.
1.3. Can realise the processes and strategies needed to develop their own possibilities.
Personal attitude
departing idea for designing this WebQuest is to enable students to
become autonomous and better language learners. While doing the
activities, they will be improving their English, since it is the
vehicular language in all of them, and also their ICT skills when
searching for information on the Internet and editing their texts and
presentations. It is therefore a Project that integrates several skills
and competences and that has relevance because it is totally connected
to the reality of students: the school context.
Linguistic and audiovisual communication
Speaking and listening
5. Can learn other languages and show appreciation and interest in their use and learning.
Reading
7.7. Can find those paragraphs or sections with relevant information in texts.
9.6. Can use the Internet as a source of information with a critical view.
Writing
10.5. Can use dictionaries, reference books and text processing correctors to check the meaning or spelling or words.
10.6. Can present written texts accordint to graphic conventions (format, font, punctuation...).
11.4. Can adapt writing to the conditions and restrictions of the context (support, format, instruments...)
11.6. Can plan and organising coherently and cohesively the ideas in the text to be written.
13.6. Can use other forms of graphic communication, apart from writing,
to convey ideas and feelings (drawings, images, graphs, audiovisual
productions, computer software...)
Information handling and digital competence
Internet use
6.4. Can recovering texts and other information elements from websites.
9.4. Can take advantage of online communication tools for working on collaborative tasks.
Basic software and computer applications use
10.15. Can insert graphics and images in a document.
10.16. Can adjust the graphics and images in a document.
Learning to learn competence
Self-awareness
1.1. Can get to know their own possibilities, difficulties and weak point, what they can do alone or what with help of others.
1.3. Can realise the processes and strategies needed to develop their own possibilities.
Personal attitude
2.6. Shows interest in learning to learn
3.1. Can become autonomous by developing strategies that foster comprehension, concentration, memorisation, reasoning, and motivation.
3.2. Can develop effort and responsibility working habits.
3.7. Can apply new knowledge and abilities to similar situations and different contexts.
3.9. Can learn from and with others.
3.11. Can self-evaluate and self-correct.
4.2. Can plan the steps to follow in problem solving and project work.
4.3. Can plan and organise activities and time efectively.
4.6. Can use both individual and collaborative work habits and techniques.
4.9. Can present tidy well-organised papers.
Personal and social competence
Social skills and autonomy
2.3. Can get involved in helping others unselfishly.
4.5. Can behave responsibly and with a positive attitude.
5.3. Can appreciate negotiation and reaching agreements as
conflict-prevention measures; and when conflicts arise can carefully
suggest solutions.
6.4. Can make an effort to improve.
6.5. Can plan and organise both personal and team work.
7.3. Can understand that teamwork fosters contrasting opinions.
7.4. Can appreciate both personal contributions and those by the rest of team members.
7.6. Can appreciate feeling group decisions as one's own.
Social thinking
15.3. Can use constructive criticism to change what is not likeable, providing solutions and alternatives.
15.5. Can appreciate and accept criticism as an instrument for personal change and improvement.
TEACHER'S GUIDE
Concerning timing, this WebQuest can be carried out in class in 10 sessions and as part of their
homework.
Session 1 should consist mainly on presenting the WebQuest, making sure that all the students understand the steps to follow, and know how to use online dictionaries and the text-processing and slide-presentation software.
Sessions 2 & 3 should be devoted to the 4 individual work activities. Those students who do not finish these in class will have to do so as homework assignment for the next session.
Session 4 should be used for group formation. It is a good idea to have the teacher monitoring this process, since it is important to have groups with students the same or most similar learning styles as possible.
For doing this, first make three rows of students: those with right-brain predominance move to the right, left-brains move to the left and middle-brains go to the middle row. Then, within every row, make 3 groups, one for visual learners, another for the kinesthetic and another for the auditory.
Session 5 starts with the first activity in the collaborative work section of the WebQuest.
Sessions 6 & 7 should be dedicated to designing a study plan. The students in every group decide who is in charge of readng which website/s and afterwards they share their ideas.
At the end of the 7th session, the teacher should remind the students that in session 9 they will be testing their study plan on themselves.
Session 8 can be used for the task consisting of reading the study tips on two websites and then giving at least a new one. But some groups might be still finishing the previous task as well.
Session 9 should be dedicated to test whether their study plan works. To do this, they need to take the self-evaluation test appearing at the endo of the current unit of the text-book and then draw conclusions on the results.
Session 10 is for designing PowerPoint presentations. While they start working on this, the teacher should make sure that every group has at least an account on Authorstream and know how to post on a blog.
As their homework assignment, they have to post their slide presentation in the classroom's blog and leave comments on the other groups' presentations.
RESOURCES
In
addition to the Internet resources provided on the Students' pages,
this WebQuest requires access to an asynchronous discussion platform
such as a wiki or, preferably, a blog especially created for the group.
This WebQuest has been designed to be carried out in a school where students use their netbooks daily. As an alternative, it may become a blended process by which students work in the school's computer room during the first two sessions at least and then everyone works at home and communicates through chats and e-mails with their peers and the teacher.
Additional resources may be needed depending on whether teams decide to present their works orally in the classroom. In this case, two extra sessions will be needed for their (ten-minute) oral
presentations and an additional trait will have to be added to the evaluation rubric.
EVALUATION
The
tool used for evaluating students is the rubric provided in the
Students' evaluation section. This way, students can see what they are
going to be evaluated on, which gives them confidence because they get
the overall picture of the didactic unit.
Please note that the individual work objective counts double, so the quantitative values for Poor-Developing-Accomplished-Excellent are 2-4-6-8 instead of 1-2-3-4.
This WebQuest still has not been evaluated, so if you try it in your class, feel free to leave suggestions and comments to improve it in the Reviews section.
CONCLUSION
Hopefully,
you found this WebQuest useful to raise your students' awareness and
interest in their own learning process. Having students find out their
learning styles and sharing this information with you will also help you
as a teacher to better adapt your classes to the multiple intelligences
and for sure will enrich and improve the whole teaching-learning
process.
The Public URL for this WebQuest:
http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=68399
WebQuest Hits: 5,871
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