ELA Webquest

American Poetry WebquestFor 7th Grade English Language ArtsBy Marisa CatalinoIntroduction to American Poetry WebquestMy webquest was designed to frontload a unit on American poetry for an 7th Grade ELA ClassThe webquest promotes self directed learning, is scaffolded through its process, resources, guided questions to assist in evaluation and analysis of sources, and its explicit rubricThe webquest is meant to promote a sense of student authority over the new poetry unit as students will become experts on their chosen poet & present their findings and final product to peers

So What Does a Webquest Look Like?

Rationale:Why a Webquest?!Guides students throughCompleting a clearly defined task and providing students with sequential steps on how to accomplish the task on the Process pageDirecting students on how to evaluate and synthesize this information found through links on the Resources page Using technology to access appropriate online information sources, and models positive online academic resources for the futureProviding students with clear expectations with a rubricAnd promoting student authority through their final analysis and presentation on their chosen poet

Lessons & Activities (found under the Task & Process page)Students are to research the American Poets and their works and to become an expert on their chosen poet and one of his/her poemsStudents will provide a biography on their poet and political and historical context of his/her workStudents then explain & analyze one of their poets works and using other published opinions explain why their poet is important to American Poetry

How Does Technology Enhance my project?Writing-to-learn activity- Through their own writing, students will learn about a certain poet, his/her works, and why he/she is important to ELA todayProcess & Resources provide virtual directed readingResources page models what appropriate academic resource look like and how/where to find them Essentially students are learning about American Poetry while learning about appropriate uses of technology in the classroom

Why this way? I provide students with a detailed series of steps to take in the Process section of the webquest Virtual Directed Reading- The separate parts of their final presentation are outlined, with bulleted information they should be searching for and questions are provided to guide their analysis and to get them thinkingLike Devoss says, students need direction with how to best use technology in theclassroom

Why these sources? In the Resources section there are a list of different credible sources that provide historical and literary background information on American Poets and Poetry

These sources are provided to model appropriate academic sources for students, so that in the future students will be able to locate and discern appropriate sources on their own

How Does This Webquest Work with Core Content?My Webquest addresses the following 7th Grade Common Core Standards3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., soundletter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

In SummaryTo Create a Webquest You needAn Introduction and a clearly defined TaskAn explicit and systematic ProcessVaried Resources listed for studentsEvaluation or Grading RubricAnd a ConclusionFeatures of note in my WebquestI Created a separate page for resources instead of listing them under the Process pageI included an Acceptable Use Policy for the technology that the students will be using under ResourcesWant to know more about Webquests?!For more information on how to create and effectively integrate a webquest into any classroom click here

Thank You!!!