Designer 

Designer Artifact: Webquests

5th Grade - Figurative Language Webquest 

Students are to click on each of the links at the beginning of each category for figurative language. Once they read the attached link, they follow the directions for each section. Some link to poems and they have to identify simile and metaphors. Others are questions for the students to answer.

I chose this WebQuest in particular because it was the first WebQuest with definitive instructions I could find. I spent the week attempting to create my own, but the lessons never worked correctly. This WebQuest can be used in any grade when working on figurative language in English/language arts. It can be used to introduce the topic in elementary school and in high school, it can be used as a refresher tool for students. This WebQuest can support the standard: 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes. (RL.5.4) (DOK 2,3)

I am not a fan of WebQuests personally. They consist of very passive learning in my opinion. When a student is sitting to do a WebQuest, they are just looking for the answers to fill in the blank or the questions being asked. They are not necessarily thinking about the information they are being presented. WebQuests are also very complex and fit better for certain types of lessons than others. Science classes are a place where I have used them frequently and they worked for the lessons. However when we used them for other classes I felt as though they were “busy work” and not necessarily informative about topics. They can be beneficial to students who learn well reading articles and using self-guided learning ideas. For students with disabilities, the WebQuests may be a little more challenging to complete as they are not all necessarily designed with all students in mind.

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