Going around Lisbon

A Travel Guide

by Cristina Costa

Introduction

This activity was developed  for my level 4 semi-intensive English Language course (MArch2006).

"The WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by students is online. By providing links necessary to complete the quest, the student is able to focus on the material rather than spend time looking for it. The five-part WebQuest (Introduction, Task, Resources, Process, Evaluation, and Conclusion) promotes critical thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation." in
www.netnet.org/students/student%20glossary.htm  

This assignment also develops cooperative and collaborative work and research skills, stimulates students’ creativity and brings a fresh, dynamic, motivating  perspective into the teaching/learning world.

The lesson requires the students to research about their own country and create an e-travel guide (in a wiki format) through role play based activities.

Learners

This lesson is designed for Intermediate - advanced adult EFL learners.

Learners are expected to read the information provided through the links made available at the resources section and be able to compile and transform the data they find most useful into coherent texts. This lesson plan engages individuals into cooperative and team work and also stimulates collaboration among the involved parties.

Goals

General Objectives:

• develop reading skills through clear guide lines presented in the WebQuest page as well as through  the provided links to complete the WebQuest;
• learn more and have a deeper look into the Portuguese culture through the eyes of a foreign person;
• develop writing techniques;
• enhance critical thinking by having to make the choice about the items they are going to choose to complete their tasks;
• Increase their cultural knowledge awareness;
• stimulate creativity by creating a photostory;
• Introduce students to some webtools, such as photostory, podcast (Mp3), wiki, etc.

Specific Objectives:

• develop reading and writing skills
• develop research techniques
• develop cultural knowledge and awareness
• develop collaborative activities among the group members in order to gather the researched and data select the relevant information, as well as create the final task.
• enhance critical-thinking
• improve speaking and listening skills through group discussions.

Process

This lesson deals with cultural issues and focuses in some different areas related to a country (traditions, history, food, music, etc) and can be used with the purpose to make students aware of their own culture through the eyes of a foreign individual. It can also be adapted for students to work about other countries that are foreign to them and thus provide them with a different perspective and culture awareness, in comparison to their own country.  

The student completion’s schedule can vary according to the students’ proficiency level and can also depend on how the teacher has planned to assign the webquest. It is advisable to have the students complete one task per session,if they are working in the school computer lab.  

Resources

• Access to computer lab with Internet connection;
• Acess to a wiki;
• Acess to a mp3 recorder;
• Acess to an external server or Podcast;
• Acess to photostory software.

This will also require students to display basic computer skills.

The teacher will prepare a computer lab pre-session, explaining the students what a webquest is and what it is expected of them, concerning their performance.  The students will be asked about their computer skills and the teacher will always be available to explain how things work before and through the webquest tasks develop..

Evaluation

The evaluation process will be carried out by guest teachers, who will examine the final products according to the grading criteria. 

The group grades will be qualitative and will reflect the number of points given.

1-4 points = needs improvement

5-8 points = satisfactory

9-12 points= good

13-16 points = outstanding

Conclusion

This lesson plan gives students the opportunity to learn in a contextualized situation and engage in meaningful tasks. The webquest can also be regarded as a new, innovative way to motivate students and enhance learning. The main concern about this kind of activities is, in the teacher's perspective, to create a different learning atmosphere, to make the students interact more closely with the teaching/learning  contents and ultimately develop their language skills. 

Back to the Webquest