WebQuest Memo

Mr. Castillo,

Recently, I have had the pleasure of experiencing an emergent techonology called WebQuest, and I feel strongly that you should be aware of its implications in the classroom. Further, with your permission, I would like to present this new technology at the next faculty meeting because it can take our students to the highest levels of thinking and better prepare them for standardized testing.

To begin, I will give you a brief synopsis of the concept of a WebQuest, and direct you to an example that could be used in the classroom here at FCTHS. A WebQuest is an online adventure for students that is safe, engaging, student-centered, challenging, and which allows teachers to incorporate KY Core Content and Program of Studies into their lesson plans quite easily. This is essentially a tool for researching that prompts students to analyze data, create a plan for completing a research project, and synthesize all their findings for the final task. The teacher creates a scenario online to guide the students to very specific, safe websites that will allow them to complete the research, and the students then take over in small groups or individually with the project. Just to give you a chance to see what this means, please check this link: http://questgarden.com/46/54/6/070210123705/t-index.htm. This particular WebQuest is based on 11th Grade Social Studies, which Mr. Haire would be thrilled to see!

I hope this memo has at least introduced you properly to the idea of a WebQuest, and communicated my advocation of its use in the classroom at our school. It can be such a great tool, and anytime we can encourage students to reach new heights academically, we should certainly do it! I would like to take this suggestion a step further, however, and say that we could teach faculty members to use the tool at the next faculty meeting or even create a PD session centered around it. I would be more than willing to help.

Let me know what you think!

Kristie