Literature Circle: Book Bonanza
By Jennifer Amedee
http://questgarden.com/134/44/5/111113141625/index.htm This is certainly one of the best WebQuests I have seen! This is exactly how I envisioned my own WebQuest, but with different novels. Ms. Amedee, at the time, was in her 15th year teaching reading and teaching the 5th grade. This provides excellent scaffolding and higher level thinking to allow students to research and create products, while building their background knowledge for understanding the novel they will read in the Lit Circle. Amedee stated her purpose to be “to read two historical fiction novels in literature circles.” However, it seemed as though the true purpose of the webquest was not for her 5th graders to read the books, but to really learn about the characters, setting, and period of history in which the story took place. The plan was to have her 5th graders go through the webquest with the accompaniment of their lit circle guide. The webquest addressed a large variety of standards including: identify and explain story elements, use reasoning skills, compare and contrast, sequencing, inferences, summarizing, and more. The complete list of her identified standards can be found at the end of this document.
The webquest is certainly scaffolded, the students are given a role and they continue to work through the tasks as they progressively get more challenging and require the student to dig deeper into the material. I would suggest specific differentiation between the roles with the students, assigning students their roles based on readiness. Students must also use inductive and deductive strategies to find and apply the information, relating it always back to the story and the context. Many of these roles may be independent study, depending out how Ms. Amedee divided and grouped her students. Much of this independent study would occur in completing the background knowledge during the before reading. She also uses a metaphor, asking the students to be reporters in this situation and they need to find the information to be able to complete their tasks as reporters. Thus, they need to use note-taking skills to keep track of their information and complete the graphic organizers. Lastly, compare and contrast is a strategy that the students must use, however, it did not seem specific whether all the students would be discussing as a class the race relations, or if they are comparing and contrasting the research they find and what occurs in the novel.
A lot of resource technology is used in the webquest. The students are given a variety of links to help their search for information, but then are asked to record what they learn. The highest level of technology involves using the internet and her powerpoint presentations for the chapters during their lit circles. Photocopying would not serve the same affect, as the students must actively research and read resources on the internet. However, I do feel that she could have used a lot more technology. None of the products created, were technology based. Also, all of the websites were given to the students. Although I recognize the importance of giving them safe, reliable sites, it takes the research aspect out of it; discovery may not have been a focus for the students, but rather just getting them the information (as is evident from her lack of use of technology standards).
Almost all of the webquest is still relevant and intact. There were a couple of links that no longer were active, and one that a student would have trouble navigating in the correct way. The author then adds a plethora of links at the very bottom, but does not necessarily direct students to navigate them. There are very few relevant images, which would not appeal to a visual learner. Also, to give the quest a more professional look, she should have linked images or phrases rather than pasting all the website names into the quest itself. The images are very simple, and I would have thought the book covers would have been larger or more prominent.
I would only make a few minor changes, and not really to the content. It is difficult to understand how the groups are set up, but I would either add another book to the mix, or more roles for the students to fulfill. She begins with a western theme, asking students to “put on their boots” and “lasso in a book,” and that theme has nothing to do with the novel choices. Then she brings in a reporter theme, giving the students this metaphor to work with, but does not carry it all the way through. Another change would be to include more during reading. It seems like this is very frontloaded getting their background knowledge, but then they are not asked to apply it while they are reading. I also think it would have been beneficial to divide the web pages between the two novels, having the jobs back to back and information all in one place may be confusing (which may be my misconception, as they all fall under the process tab). It is also unclear as to the structure of the lit circles, if I were a student I might be a little confused. It seems as though the students get to choose their books and what they research, which I would assign roles and stories based on readiness. Lastly, to better integrate technology into my classroom, I would have the students produce online materials to use various programs, such as a prezi, a glogster, a voicethread, etc.
Overall, I really enjoyed the webquest and would use it with another class. I could easily see adapting it to be used with other novels, but maintaining the general roles and steps to completion. There are just some additions I would make to further enrich my students.
