6.3.4 :thinking about WebQuests

"For never was a story of more woe
 Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 5.3

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember.
I do and I understand."
— Confucius

The marriage between the overriding question of my Webquest ‘What drives the choices we make?’  and my experience in creating a WebQuest resulted into  the image and quotations above.

"A WebQuest," according to Bernie Dodge, the originator of the WebQuest concept, "is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to allow learners focus on using information rather than on looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation."  

WebQuests give students a task that allows them to use their imagination and problem-solving skills. Communication, group work, problem solving, and critical and creative thinking skills are encouraged more than having students memorize predetermined content. The answers are not predefined and therefore must be discovered or created.

WebQuests allow students to explore issues and find their own answers particularly with controversial issues – My overriding question was ‘What drives the choices we make?’  Through a careful study of the characters in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the students were expected to process the information in meaningful ways and reach moral and ethical decisions guided by facts from the play and their life experiences.

Creating the WebQuest was a challenge to me in that I had to learn how to navigate the pages and also discover that I could use Microsoft Word to work my responses and copy and paste it to the Web Quest. In that manner I was able to save my data bundle, work better and smarter. WebQuests forces me to organise my information into manageable sections and also gives me the flexibility to work as I edit my work on the go.

6.2.4: EXPLORE. ANALYZE. PRESENT Shakespeare's tragedy ROMEO AND JULIET

EXPLORE. ANALYZE. PRESENT

Level:

Grade V Teacher trainees of English Language and Literature in English:  PBL Romeo and Juliet Program

Project Overview Duration:

5 weeks

Text:

William Shakespeare’s tragedy ROMEO and JULIET 

Project idea:

Great tragedies resonate throughout time. After a close reading of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet you will explore the story of these star-crossed lovers and examine the problems the characters in this play face. These problems reflect the problems people, especially teen-agers, face today.  You will think carefully about the motivations of the characters and the circumstances surrounding the tragic outcome of the play. You will research the real-world problem of what motivates people to do what they do in your groups and collaborate using google Docs in to developing its solution using evidence to support the claim, and presenting the solution through a multimodal approach.  (Combining print text, visual images, soundtrack and spoken word as in film or computer presentation media.)  Finally, you will respond effectively in a text response essay at the completion of your study.

We will be looking very closely at developing in you the following 21st century skills: critical & creative thinking, collaboration, self-monitoring and self-direction, leadership and project management skills.

We will be looking at achievement this curriculum standard:  Students create a wide range of text to articulate complex ideas. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, building on others’ ideas, solving problems, justifying opinions and developing and expanding arguments.

Driving Question:

What drives the choices we make?

6.1.4 Project Based Learning

 According to http://bie.org/about/what_pbl Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.

 Problem Based Learning is learning through a team of students identifying and trying to solve a real-world problem over several weeks. It is a type of inquiry or learning through doing. It is the ongoing act of learning about different subjects simultaneously achieved by guiding students to identify, through research, a real-world problem (local to global) developing its solution using evidence to support the claim, and presenting the solution through a multimedia approach based in a set of 21st-century tools.

Students show what they learn as they journey through the unit, interact with its lessons, collaborate with each other, and assess themselves and each other. They do not just take a test or produce a product at the end to show their learning.

The videos have given me a new perspective about learning – the strongest point about PBL which will be contrasted with the traditional mode of learning:

Traditional learning- which is the guiding approach of the Ugandan Education system prescribes what is to be learnt on a specific day. The daily lessons that teach a skill fit within a unit based on a topic or theme. However, each lesson works independently and can function without being embraced in a unit that connects them all in a learning story. Instead, PBL couches lessons in a tale- a tale about a problem that must be solved or an activity that must be developed. The learning happens along the way towards the presentation of the solution. With PBL, you learn this when you need it. Learners use the knowledge they get guided by real world professional experts who enrich the teacher’s knowledge.

The strongest aspect of PBL is its flexibility and the working relationship among the collaborative partners. Each partner brings different resources to the table: space, material resources, facilitation skills, academic knowledge, or time. Partners work together to allow each to lead in their areas of strength, to create learning opportunities for each other, to provide feedback, and to support each other’s work throughout the project they are involved in.

PBL does not ask the teacher to replace the subject content. It asks that the teacher create a vehicle in which to communicate their content. If PBL is a play, then the math or science or history or writing -- or whatever the teacher wishes to teach -- make up the scenes that propel each act toward the final curtain call.

The challenge with PBL for both the learners and teachers is in coming to understand one’s own power and privilege and the unwillingness to engage in critical self-reflection and introspection. This   perception can affect both community work and the co-creation of knowledge causing challenges in the service-learning environment.