Creating a WebQuest

Wow!  Making a WebQuest is a lot of work!  But, the benefits for the students are great.  I think if you do a WebQuest well, students will become engaged in the material and will learn it better than if you just stood up and lectured to them. 

I liked thinking about a task that they could complete.  I knew I wanted to create a WebQuest about explorers, a third grade SOL.  I knew what facts that they needed to know, so it just was up to how they were going to get that information.  With the help of Dr. Coffman, I gave each student in the group a job: Captain, First Mate, Map Maker, and Cook.  Each job has different information that they need to discover and then the whole group will come together to make a PowerPoint presentation at the end.  There are four explorers that third graders need to know.  Each one then has a page for Captain, First Mate, Map Maker, and Cook.  That was a lot of pages to create!  That was the most time consuming – making all those pages and making sure the information on them was accurate and the pictures on them were cited correctly.

However, hopefully it was all worth it!  I’m looking forward to using it in my classroom this year.