Week Six.

This week we explored and created Webquests. I actually remember one of my middle school teachers using Webquests in the classroom when we were doing a social studies assignment. The Webquest covered the history of the Egyptians and had us visit various websites and complete different assignments. When researching webquests this week I found two that were interesting to me. One was a biography project on Marc Brown, the author of the Arthur series, and the other webquest went along with one of the Magic School Bus books, Under the Sea.
The biography of Marc Brown had students research his history as well as look into how he got his start in writing. Not only did students learn about Marc Brown, but they were challenged to use their own creative writing skills. The Magic School Bus Webquest went along with the book Under the Sea, and had students not only read the book but utilize various websites to learn more about oceans and ocean creatures.
From both of these webquests it was interesting to see how they used literature in combination with the internet to challenge students to seek more information. In this digital based world we live in , Webquests are a great way to teach students, particularly young students, how to use the internet in a responsible and beneficial way.

http://questgarden.com/165/29/4/131129205043/
For my individual webquest, I had students learn more about Dr. Seuss while also using their critical thinking skills and creativity. After completing the webquest my "class" would be reading the book "Who is Dr. Seuss?", so the WebQuest was utilized to give them background information on Dr. Seuss before they read the book. My hope was that the Webquest would help with comprehension of the actual book being read in the class.
My WebQuest focused not only on the historical background of Dr. Seuss but challenged the students to use their critical thinking skills and creativity skills. I will say I felt like WebQuests are pretty time consuming but is a great resource in the classroom if they are used in the right way.