WebQuest & Tribune Website

My students did the Othello WebQuest yesterday and I was surprised by the amount of difficulties some students had and the ease other students had. In the 50 minute class period, some students only completed 1/3 of the assignment despite the fact that they worked hard all hour. Of course, I did not punish them for this...rather, I scored the assignment by looking at what the majority of the class was able to complete during the class time. However, I was still very surprised to see that many students struggle with basic Internet research skills. For example, one of the questions ask students to look up the images of 3 different people who have played the role of "Othello" in film or in live theater and copy that image into the Word document. It also asks them to note the actor who played that role and the year they played it. Many students were easily able to do the copy and pasting part, but it was the searching part where they struggled.

At the same time, I had some students who did remarkably well on the assignment. In fact, it was almost like polar opposites. Students either completed nearly all of the assignment, or only 1/3 of the assignment. Either way, I think all students benefited. Those who were able to complete more obviously benefited from more knowledge gained and more exposure to the topics. Students who completed less learned much less in terms of the content, but the practice with search the Internet will benefit them in future assignments. Students need to become much more skilled in this area, and I'm glad this activity served that purpose as well.

Just wanted to make the note...I use my super cool projector with seniors everyday in replacement of an overhead...but today I was able to use it to make the content more relevant to the students. We have been doing daily mini-lessons on the importance of reading, and have been focusing on the aspect of improving vocabulary through reading (particularly in the way you learn words simply by reading them in context, like a sponge soaking up information). During the warm up I logged onto the Columbia Daily Tribune website and we read a news article searching for new words with which they were not familiar. They really like looking in the news paper because the info was fresh off the press, and thus, more relevant to them.

Anyway, not much technology use this month...will let you know what in store for the future, though.