Teacher Page

This page provides useful insights to teachers who want to engage their learners with this literary Webquest based on Rick Riordan’s novel The Lightning Thief as part of the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. The activities are designed for B2/B2+ level adolescents and aim to engage them with the text in new ways through the use of technology, maps and multimodal elements. Through the WebQuest the learners will practice their language skills, as well as develop competencies that are considered necessary for today's participatory culture, in a virtual environment. All worksheets and online links are provided so as for learners to proceed autonomously and at their own pace. Clear instructions are also given at every stage.

Camp Half-Blood :

Battle training video: The learners will watch a clip from the movie "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief" and will complete a chart on padlet with some information about the gods of Olympus. Each team will be responsible for a few gods (the number of gods per team depends on the number of teams). Through this activity, the students will practice writing and develop the participatory skills of Networking as they will have to search for and synthesize information about the different gods as well as distributed cognition and collective intelligence, as they will have to interact meaningfully with tools like padlet and work together as a group to complete the activity by gathering knowledge and comparing notes.

Video of Percy finding out he is the son of Poseidon: The students will watch the clip from the movie and then will take turns completing a quiz to find out who is their god parent. This is a fun way to get more into their role as demi-gods as well as practice their English.

The Oracle and the Quest:

After reading the excerpt from the book that introduces them to the Percy's quest and reading the Oracle, students will now have the opportunity to visit the Oracle themselves through the site of UCL-London's global university. In the site, the students can ask the Oracle a yes or no question and the Oracle will provide an enigmatic answer that the students will have to understand. This way the students will get more into their role in a fun and interactive way while practicing their writing and reading.

Aunty Em's Gnome Emporium:

After reading the excerpt of Percy Jackson and his companions meeting Medusa, the students are invited to imagine Medusa's point of view and then write one short diary entry from her perspective while being stuck at the Gnome Emporium. The diary entry should be written in the padlet provided. This activity gives students the opportunity to adopt a different identity, collaborate and improvise. They will also practise their writing skills as well as develop the participatory skill of performance.

Gateway Arch and Mississippi:

After reading the excerpt of Percy Jackson and his companions visiting the Gateway Arch with Percy meeting Echidna and Chimera and falling into the Mississippi, the students will have the opportunity to take a virtual tour at the top of The Gateway Arch themselves by watching a video from the National Park Service. This way the students will learn more about the famous monument and will practice their listening skills.

The Diner:

After reading the excerpt of Percy and his companions meeting Ares at the Diner, the students are invited to think about the modern representation of Gods in the story based on Ares' appearance. Afterwards, the students have to choose another god and describe how they think they would look like in the 21st century in a short paragraph. Through this activity they can practice their writing skills as well as the participatory skill of simulation.

The Lotus Hotel:

After reading the excerpt of Percy and his companions visiting the Lotus Hotel and Casino, they now have to think how the Lotus hotel would look like, the activities and the food available to be a perfect trap for them. After they brainstorm and discuss with each other, they should write a paragraph describing it. Through this activity, they can practice their writing skills in a fun and engaging way through which they can share their favourite hobbies, food and activities.

DOA Recording Studios and the Underworld:

After reading the excerpt of Percy and his companions visiting the Underworld and meeting Hades, the students are invited to look at an interactive map of the Underworld and based on that, complete a memory game created through Educaplay. This way they can check what they learned in a fun and engaging way.

The Fight:

After reading the scene of Ares and Percy's fight, the students are invited to create a playlist with songs, whose melody and lyrics fit the general atmosphere of the scene, the different events and the two characters. A popular music platform is provided to the students where they can make and share their playlist. Here the students are invited to use their creativity in order to connect the text with a different mode of expression. This activity caters for those who have an inclination towards music/ musical intelligence. If the students cannot create a playlist in youtube, they can just write their words on a word file or post them on a padlet board.

Empire State Building:

After they read the excerpt of Percy visiting Olympus, meeting his father and returning Zeus' bolt, for the first part of this task, students will brainstorm and think of words and phrases related to Greek mythology that they have learned so far so as to create a word cloud in the shape of the Empire State Building, by entering the items of their list into the generator provided and adding the image provided after downloading it. This is a fun way for the students and the teacher to see what the students remember, encourages the use of digital tools and helps them develop the participatory skill of distributed cognition. The students can also download their word art. In case the students are not familiar with the generator, the teacher can show them beforehand how it works.

Standards:

This WebQuest was created for my MA Thesis with the title "Introducing Young Adult literature in the EFL Classroom: A Proposal for the Digital Age" for the requirements of the MA program "Language, Literature and Digital Media in Education" offered by the English Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.