Penguin WebQuest

Young children are naturally curious; they question everything around them and try to make sense of their surroundings- and then they come to school. Very often when children enter the school system, they are taught not to question, nor to explore or make connections to their out of school experiences.

With these points in mind, I began to reflect on my approach to teaching a thematic unit on penguins. Although I support a constructivist approach to learning, I felt that most of my teaching was using a “top down” approach, especially when it came to the teaching and learning of the individual penguin characteristics. During whole group discussion, I did make use of the KWL chart (What I Already Know, What I Want to Know and What I Have Learned) but something was missing- I knew I was doing too much “teaching”, I was not providing my students with enough authentic learning situations, nor was letting them be in control of their own learning. I decided to change my approach from “teaching” the students about penguins to providing them with opportunities to explore, question, inquire, debate, make sense of, and convey meaning to others- in essence, to become active participants in their own learning. Instead of reading the students books about penguins and then as a group filling in information on a matrix to represent penguin facts, I decided I would create a penguin webquest. Although the design of the webquest was in my hands, the path of learning that each child chose was intended to be individual- I would play the role of a facilitator or guide. Throughout the webquest, there would be opportunities for students to construct their own knowledge and convey meaning to others; they were to become active participants in their own learning.

Prior to beginning the webquest the following activities and discussions would be completed:

o Read and discuss various Tacky the Penguin books, by Helen Lester.

o In an effort to bridge the gap between what students already know about penguins and what they might learn, students work together in small groups to make a list of things they “know” about penguins and write penguin “wonderings”- questions they may have about penguins.

o During whole group discussion each group presents their list of things they “know” about penguins as well as their penguin “wonderings”.

o As a facilitator the teacher raises the questions:
How could we find answers to these “wonderings”?
How can we find out if what you “know” is true or false?”

o Students discuss the sources they could use to learn about penguins: i.e, internet websites such as National Geographic for Kids, reference materials, videos, magazines, non-fiction books.

This discussion would lead us into our penguin webquest, entitled:

Tacky Finds His Home
http://teacherweb.com/WQ/ElementarySchool/Penguins101/index.html