for Teachers

Instructional Purpose:

Topic is a good excuse not only to prepare students for the upcoming trip to the country of their ancestors but also work on literacy, social studies and so called, soft skills.

This WebQuest is a combination of two Design Patterns: the Decision Task (Recommendation) and the Design Task (Travel Plan). Students will learn about Poznan, Poland while developing their research, organization and literacy skills. They will review their thoughts, theories and multiple points of view to create a single group recommendation. Ultimately students will reach a consensus before progressing to the final step of creating a well-balanced and interesting itinerary. The travel plan needs to be in a appealing and easy to use during the trip format. Each major entry needs to be enhanced with the QR codes that will provide deeper multimedia support for the itinerary.

The Skills/Objectives :

Students will be able to integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7

Students will be able to integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, photographs, videos, maps, qr codes…) with other information in print and digital texts. Iowa Core RH.6–8.7

Students will be able to give the examples to support the notion that each culture has distinctive patterns of behavior that are usually practiced by most of the people who grow up in it. IowaCore, SS-History Gr 6-8

Students will be able to provide information about people, places, and environments by analyzing the thematic maps (demographic, topographic, climate, etc) IowaCore SS-Geography, Gr6-8

Students will be able to gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data while avoiding plagiarism. Iowa Core W.7.8

Alignment with ISTE E

This project aligns with the following ISTE Standards for Educators

#3 Citizen: Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world.

3b Educators establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources and fosters digital literacy and media fluency.

• While designing this WebQuest we spent a lot of time critically examining resources available on the web and trying to select ones that are age appropriate, interesting, and most helpful for the students to complete the task. The task and introductory page are crafted to spark students interest and to promote their curiosity. Gadgets, apps and other resources are provided to increase students media fluency

#7 Analyst: Educators understand and use data to drive their instruction and support students in achieving their learning goals.

7c Use assessment data to guide progress and communicate with students, parents and education stakeholders to build student self-direction.

On a Conclusion Page we created student self-check assessment in a format of a Google Form. This for will allow us to see the aggregated and individual responses from our students related to their achievements of ICAN statements provided for students in a Task section of the WebQuest

Alignment with ISTE S

This WebQuest is aligned with the following ISTE Standards for Students:

#1 Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

1a Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.

• Each student has clearly defined individual set of the responsibilities. Student is responsible for becoming an expert in their assigned roles. Student have a great amount of choices provided in the resources and it is up to them to decide which resources are the most appropriate.

1b Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.

• Students work in groups to design an itinerary. It is up to the team to come up with the format and the resources included in the itinerary.

#3 Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

3a Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.

• Before students will be trusted to work individually on their roles we will have a classroom training related to effective Web Search techniques.

3c Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

• In order to be well prepared for the team work each student will have to prepare the proposal of the itinerary based on the large amount of the resources suggested by the teacher

3d Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

• Students in this course will actually travel to Poland. The winning team itinerary will be important part to the successful trip

Alignment with InTASC standards (FYI, not required) :

• In this project we supported the component "designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences" from standard # 1 LEARNER DEVELOPMENT: because this WebQuest challenges our students to find the Poznan locations they want to visit but also provides suggestions for resources to support their success. I understand that students differ in their approaches to learning. To better address their diverse learning preferences, I prepared audio and video resources for auditory and visual learners. I included gadgets, interactive websites and spreadsheet tools for learners who prefer "learning by doing". The traditional resources such as books and travel guides are also available for students with the more traditional approach for finding information.
• In this WebQuest we also supported component "support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation." from standard #3 LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS because we created a learning environment for our students in which collaboration and peer interaction are necessary to successfully complete the task. Each student assumed an individual research role where s/he collected information/resources that were relevant to his/her role. Once the members had completed their research, they needed to collaborate with one another to complete the final task of creating a 6-day schedule. This required them to collaborate through negotiation and compromise. Ultimately, they created a balanced and interesting itinerary.
• This project supports the component "encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections" from standard #8 INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES because each of the students needed to learn about the physical structure of a city, the transportation framework that connects the city, and social/commercial regulations that will regulate their access to the places they wish to visit. To do that students will have to combine their knowledge of topography and use of other geographic tools (IC, SS, Geography), research and develop a coherent understanding of how the City function and City customs, and regulations