TEACHERS' PAGE
SOME GENERAL ADVICE
WebQuests are designed to be a challenging form of student-centred learning. They are designed to allow students to progress at their own pace, use ICT in a meaningful way, develop familiarity with using internet based resources and they provide scaffolding to assist the student to achieve at the highest possible level. A general description of how a WebQuest works can be accessed here.
As in most WebQuests one way of assessing the task has been provided and it is very much a traditional approach. However there are many other possibilities and you should take into account the needs and abilities of your students when deciding whether to use this task or create your own.
One area which may benefit from being altered, but which is entirely dependent on the resources available to you, is in the presentation. You may choose to ask your students to provide a more ICT focussed task such as a video or PowerPoint presentation, or a simple Web Page or simply the use of Word with hyperlinks embedded into the text which makes it appear like a webpage but without having to know how to produce web work.
This task also lends itself to an oral presentation where the students may "tell the story" of their lives using illustrations from the Ancient China website as "examples" of their life (eg this is a picture of our farm).
A further development of this idea can be in the form of the students working in groups of three, researching each of the disparate areas but then presenting a combined task showing clearly how different people were affected by the same events in different ways.
This would then need to be a group presentation but could take the form of
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an interview in the local village or town between representatives of the three groups (each student taking on the role of each group), or
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a debate over a specific event or issue in the period under discussion or
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a generational argument within a family where the peasants may be represented by the grandparents, the artisans by the parents and the merchants by a grown up child - each in their own way showing change and continuity. This task would be an excellent choice for extension students.
Such a decision would depend entirely on your student cohort and what you wish to achieve with them
Feel free to alter any part of the task or use it complete as it is - either way - enjoy the exercise
