Greek Mythology Tabloid!
We live in a world where tabloids have over run us. The rapid, in your face nature of it appeals to students. They like the salaciousness and the bigger then life antics of the famous for being famous crowd that frequent the articles and news reports. What more over the top literary genre can you get then Greek mythology. Gods, heroes and monsters living, fighting and loving their larger than normal lives.
This webquest brings together Greek mythology and tabloids, it allows for multiple disciplines (the artist, the writer, the computer whiz, and the spatial learner) to all have their moments to shine. There's a writing aspect for all the students. They have freedom to chose the actual gods & heroes they discover in there webquest.
For me it covers important aspects of creation and freedom of choice. It covers several levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and creates a co-operative learning situation - part of the rubric mentions whether or not students had to be prompted by their peers to contribute their portions. The students are accountable on a additional level to each other.
This webquest is the best at combining real world interests with educational goals!
here's the link
http://questgarden.com/45/47/9/070105194800/t-index.htm
One thing that I really liked about this WebQuest was the fact that there were so many different disciplines involved. Every student would be able to have a role where they could shine.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked that the assignment was not presented as a research project. Many WebQuests have a series of questions to answer and then the students are to share the information with the rest of the class. While this is a perfectly acceptable way to do a WebQuest, it often times ends up being mediocre at best. Students don't just look up facts or answer simple questions. They feel that their main task is to create the tabloid. Research is certainly a fundamental component, but in the students' eyes it almost seems secondary. This is what makes this WebQuest so engaging.
I also liked the part that you pointed out about the rubric holding students accountable to each other. That's so important when students work as a group and all receive the same grade on the final project.