UNIT 3--FINDING SITES
Objective
Upon completion of this unit, the participant will be able to:
- Find useful websites which they could use for their own webquest.
Finding Sites for your Webquest
When finding websites to use for your webquest, you want to make sure that the sites are reliable and readable for the proper grade level. If you are creating a webquest for the 4th grade, then using a site which is geared more toward the college student would not be appropriate. Click on the following link to see a checklist you should go through to make sure the sites you have chosen are reliable and readable Reviewing Sites.
Tips for finding sites.
- Check out the following websiteTeachers First. This site offers thousands of web resources listed by both topic and grade level. By checking this site first, you should be able to find at least 2-3 sites to get you started.
- Once you have found a couple sites that you like, review the links that are found on those sites. By reviewing those links you are looking at other sites of the same topic and may find a couple more resources to add to your list.
- Use search engines.
Search Engines
When looking for reliability and readability of websites, it is recommended that you use Google as your search engine for the following two reasons.
- Google ranks results by combination of both popularity and reputation. Those will be the sites that are listed at the top of your search results.
- Google is the widest reaching search engine available, and is able to find just about anything you type into the search bar.
Reviewing List of Resources
Once you have your list of possible resources to use for your webquest, you need to look at all your sites as a group. When you do this, you need to ask yourself the following two questions.
- Are there common themes or contrasts that your webquest could incorporate?
- Do the various sites offer different opinions, approaches or perspectives on the topic?
The strength of a webquest is its ability to combine resources to bring out these themes.
After going through your list of resources you may find a site or two that although maybe a good site, it’s just not a good site to use for this particular webquest. Bookmark the site anyway, you may end up using it for another webquest or a different activity.
Task for Unit 3
In Unit 2, you were to write down 2-3 topics that you would like to create a webquest on. Now it is time to search for web resources to use for those topics. Your task for Unit 3 is to search the world wide web and find at least 5-6 web resources to use for each topic you had written down in Unit 2.
Reflection
You should now have a list of resources that could be used for a couple different webquest topics. Review the topics and resources you have found. Of your choices it is now time to narrow them down to one. Pick one topic that you would like to create a webquest on. Take a few minutes to write down why you have chosen this topic. Was it because you were finding more web resources to use that were reliable and age appropriate? Or was it that, that particular topic you felt would be more interesting and relate more to the students with what you were teaching them in class? Or was there another reason for why you chose that particular topic?
When you have finished reflecting on Unit 3, you may continue onto the last unit UNIT 4--CREATE A WEBQUEST
- Click here to return to UNIT 2--CHOOSING A TOPIC
- Click here to return to the homepage Creating a Webquest
