TEACHER PAGE - Poetry Webquest Lite
Introduction Tasks Process Evaluation Conclusion Teacher Page
Introduction/Content
This is the "lite" version of the regular Poetry Quest which has been successful for many teachers. However, given the constraints of scheduling, sometimes a full 5-7 days of block schedule time is not practical. Essentially, this "lite" version halved the amount of work, without sacrificing content.
This Web Quest allows students to explore various types of poetry and use technology to create a product that demonstrates the knowledge acquired. The Poetry Quest then takes this knowledge a step further by having the students try their hands at creating poetry using the forms and techniques learned in their quest. The culminating activities are a reflective essay and a poetry reading in class.
This Web Quest serves as a jumping off point for the Poetry Portfolio Project – a two marking period endeavor in which students discover, research, and write about poetry.
Note: This was designed for a class schedule that consists of 90 minute blocks. Any reference to a “work day” or “class day” assumes 90 minutes of class time, so you may need to make adjustments depending on your schedule.
Learners:
This Web Quest was designed with high school level English Language Arts students in mind. I designed it for use in my 10th grade English class as an introduction to poetry. This assignment provides an opportunity students to work independently and utilize technology for poetry exploration.
This assignment also addresses different types of learners. Many parts of this Webquest are aligned to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory, particularly:
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Visual / Spatial Intelligence (with the layout and design of task 1) |
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Verbal Intelligence (in almost all aspects of both tasks) |
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Logical/Mathematical Intelligence (in identifying and repeating patterns in the language of the forms of poems) |
Standards:
This assignment meets all four standards for English/Language Arts set forth by New York State:
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Standard 1: Information and Understanding |
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Standard 2: Literary Response and Expression |
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Standard 3: For Critical Analysis and Evaluation |
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Standard 4: For Social Interaction |
New York State Standards (Adobe Acrobat File)
As related to Bloom’s Taxonomy:
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Task 1:Knowledge, Comprehension, application |
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Task 2:Application, analysis, synthesis |
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Essay: Evaluation |
Process:
Check out the Concept map (this is a large file and may require some patience while loading)
Time frame:
Task 1: about 2-3 class days
Task 2: Allow one for creation day per type of poem, and one day for revision before final submission. Students should work on these as homework. Task one and two can be worked on concurrently, and both tasks should be complete within ten work days. You may want to cover some of the poetry writing resources listed on the Additional Resources Page.
This Webquest is designed to be student directed, but you may be more comfortable giving a demonstration of how to navigate the site and follow the links. For the transfer of information form the websites to their word document, you may want to demonstrate basic copy and paste skills, including “paste special/unformatted text” in order to allow them to format their own documents more easily.
Resources:
Resources needed:
In order to complete this Webquest, you must have enough computers to accommodate ½ of your class (because they can share for task 1). Ideally, each student will have access to their own computer and partners can work side by side on different portions of the assignment. Students will need access to the internet, and I recommend using Microsoft Word to lay out the booklets, however, if it is on you computers and your students are familiar with the program, Microsoft Publisher may be a better alternative. You may also want to have alternative sizes of paper on hand, as legal size paper is better for a booklet type of printing.
Click here for additional poetry resources
Recommendations:
Portions of this assignment could be used for any unit where there is a good deal of vocabulary or major concepts that need defined. Rather than doing rote memorization, allowing students to manipulate the information for an audience increases their chances of retaining the information, and they now have a guide that they can use as a reference for later assignments.
While this particular web quest is designed for a sophomore level English class, it can be easily adapted to fit any ELA curriculum that introduces poetry and poetry writing grades 7-12.
Evaluation
The following link is the rubric for this Web Quest.. Students to print out the rubric (also located in the “evaluation” section of the Webquest) for their own reference. It is probably necessary to teach students how to read the rubric before the Poetry Quest begins.
Conclusion/Reflection
Please Note: this "lite" web quest (as of the last update) has not been implemented in a classroom, so it is difficult to reflect on and modify areas that are unclear or difficult for students to complete. I will update this section once I have tested it out, and welcome any feedback from teachers who have used the web quest. Please email me at rkeim@rccsd.org with any feedback, questions or suggestions.
In creating this Poetry Quest I essentially had three goals (objectives) in mind. My primary objective was for students to discover on their own the different types of poetry that exist. Most students have really no idea just how many forms of poetry there are. As a matter of fact, during the creation of this web quest, I myself discovered many types of poetry of which I was previously unaware.
Another objective is for students to attempt to expand their poetry writing into areas that they had not done before. By encouraging them to write in different formats with different rules, their poems will be better and more poetic because of the restrictions placed on their writing.
To finalize the project and take it to another level of cognition, students are asked to reflect on the process and evaluate whether or not they feel that the restrictions have helped increase the quality of their poetry. Ideally, they’ll see a positive correlation. If nothing else, they may develop a newfound respect for the art and the science of poetry. Students may discover a much more mathematical side of poetry that they did not know existed.
I thoroughly enjoyed creating this web quest, and I hope that it is helpful to other teachers as well as an effective tool for my own students.
Credits
Web quest resources provided by http://www.oswego.edu/~hyang2/edu506/assignment.htm
And
Gardner’s multiple intelligences:
http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html
http://www.america-tomorrow.com/ati/nhl80402.htm
Technology resource:
Yang, H. (2004). Applied Educational Technology: Learning by Understanding, Doing, and Reflecting Productivity Tools
(2nd Edition). Ann Arbor, MI: XanEdu OriginalWorks.
