Objectives and Standards - for WebQuest

We need two special things for our WebQuests: objectives, and standards.

1. Let’s start with the teacher’s objectives. They tell us your expectations of what your students should know after having done your WebQuest, and what you will grade them for.

Of course, you can write down more than one objective, but one is a MUST.

How to write instructional objectives (ABCD formula) according to educational research:

Audience (A)
Behavior (B)
Condition (C)
Degree of Mastery (D)

Cognitive Objectives (comprehension level): sample sentences

(C) Given a paragraph in a newspaper article,
(A) the 5th grade student (be specific!)
(B) will be able to accurately identify the grammatical subject of each sentence and explain his or her decision
(D) for all sentences given.


Look at the sample sentences on this webpage, and formulate an ABCD objective for your WebQuest lesson plan in the same manner.

http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/research/Write_Objectives.shtml

TASK: Write your objective(s) on your site of the WebQuest that says “TEACHER PAGE.” This is where other instructors will look to find the purpose of your lesson plan (your expectations of your students; i.e., your objectives).


2. Standards

Look at my sample WebQuest about Anne Frank and the Holocaust: Under the link “STANDARDS” you have to insert the Illinois Learning Standards that are important for the lesson you teach. They can deal with reading, writing, oral communication, technology, research, etc.

Go to the ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) homepage, http://www.isbe.state.il.us/

Then, click on Illinois Learning Standards (http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/Default.htm) and select the ones for the subject you want to teach in your WebQuest. For English it would be English Language Arts (http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/ela/standards.htm). Down at the bottom of the page you find the five categories for the State Goals / Standards:

Goal 1: Reading
Goal 2: Literature
Goal 3: Writing
Goal 4: Listening and Speaking
Goal 5: Research

Open those goals as a Word document (not pdf file!), go to the grade level you want to teach (e.g., middle school or high school), and copy the goals that apply for your WebQuest lesson plan, and paste them into your WebQuest on the site that’s called “STANDARDS.”

An example for one goal would be:

LATE HIGH SCHOOL

Goal 5 (Research)
C. Apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats.

5.C.5a Using contemporary technology, create a research presentation or prepare a documentary related to academic, technical or occupational topics and present the findings in oral or multimedia formats.


You will have multiple goals to copy and paste, depending on what you want your students to do (research the Internet, read multimedia sources, write an essay, hold a PowerPoint presentation about their findings, fill in a worksheet, etc.).



REMINDER: MINI LESSONS

Next class session, Wednesday, September 10th, we will start presenting our mini lessons. The topic of the first lesson is "Clauses & Phrases." By now, you should all have our two textbooks (you had two weeks to get them). Some info for mini lesson topics can be found in our black textbook Grammar for Grammarians. So - if you don't have the textbooks yet - borrow them from a peer, or get them from the library. Mainly, you should google your grammatical topic, do some research (or use grammar books you have/find), and present your findings to the class (you're welcome to use online quizzes to assess your peers).

When you've done your mini lesson, please hand in your overview (at least one written page about what you did with the 6 E's) and any handouts you might have distributed!