Links to Blooms Taxonomy.
Questions are generally referred to being open or closed. If the answer is closed, the answer is non negotiable. These sorts of questions have their place in the curriculum and in this topic. However if a question is open, it invites the students to interpret and discuss their thoughts. For open ended questions, there may be more than one response, no definite answer. Our philosophy is that when a question engages students and motivates them to ask further questions or challenges their idea, it requires more complex thinking Task 1: Remember Task 2: Understanding
Bloom's taxonomy is a continuum of cognitive complexity and pans out the steps involved in encouraging higher order thinking. Each main task in this webquest is mapped to an aspect of the theory. Students begin their webquest with many closed multiple choice questions and then develop their higher order thinking through the deliberate wording of open ended questions. The following activities are broken down below.
This process involves the retrieval of information from ones memory.
Closed ended questions and verb stems such as " List" demonstrate this component.
Many of the activities in this task only require a one word response and allows the children to begin the task with a positive sense of achievement. A willingness that says " I can do this" which encourages them to go further with the task.
The information provided in this task aims to give the children relevant background information to allow them to see that their task is real and purposeful.
This process involves the students to extend their cognitive capacity slightly further.
Once again, all students are expected to excel in this task.
These tasks utilise the child's ability to interpret, summarise, explain and comprehend the information that is given to them
Tabulating information begins the process of developing aholisticunderstanding of the topic and allows the students to be aware ofdifferent means of data representation
The table that they co-construct will be utilised further on in the quest.
Task 3: Applying
This task asks the students to collate the information they have already gathered into a visual representation.
This requires higher order thinking and more than mere comprehension. They need to understand how each, person, event and place relates to each other.
Students are required to transfer the information that they have learnt into other, more meaningful situations
This task includes an optional "extension" activity involving the students to create a time line. We believe that many students will be engaged in this activity through the use of quality timeline creators. Having the same information represented in a different format, allows the students to synthesize their ideas and make connections between people, events and places.
Task 4: Analysing
This particular task builds on the understandings, skills and concepts learnt in the previous 3 tasks.
It asks the children to breakup and extend their knowledge of the qualities of significant people and their contribution to Australian History.
They arerequired to be critical thinkers to decide on who would be best for their nomination. As all candidates are worthy; they must back up their nomination with sufficient evidence, gathered from reading about each person. The child analyses the information presented to draw conclusions on who they feel is the best. This task is largely open ended, by giving the children a number of people to read about, the teacher is certain that their nomination is worthy, no matter who. It is the group's responsibility to provide evidence.
Task 5 : Evaluate
This task requires the children to generate a deeper understanding of the content by associating real people with real events. Children are asked to connect their nominated person with an event at the time.
The children are critiquing and making judgements as they are researching their event. They are evaluating the effect of such an event at this time.
Task 6: Create
Students are synthesizing all the information that they have gathered through the weeks of completing the webquest to create a final product. An authentic product is produced whereby, they have to essentially argue their point of view. It will be the group with the best set of arguments- backed up my considerable evidence that will be the winner. Through this activity they are generating their own information, planning producing and critiquing which evidence is of most worth. All students will be given the opportunity to work within this frame, the teacher facilitates discussion for students who are experiencing difficulties and questions their arguments. "Just because he was good at cricket, does that mean he deserves the award? What are some other things he has contributed?' These type of questions, although challenging for the teacher to ask, support dialogic pedagogy.
Inquiry Learning- Kath Murdoch
Kath Murdoch's philosophy of inquiry learning is centered on the students and their needs. She focus' on the idea of equipping students with the skills to acquire their own knowledge. We believe that we have achieved this by exposing the children with an array of resources and directing their reading to the key points to make the digestion of the information easier for the students. Upon completing this web-quest the students have the skills to determine quality and reliable sources and look out for various logos on websites that they recognise and, therefore trust. This will assist them in other subject areas and mainly preparing the students for their independent high-school journey. We feel that the quest begins by tapping into the students prior knowledge. This is more apparent throughout the web-quest where the children will be able to recognise people and events that they have previously researched about and make coherent links with these. |
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Murdoch highlights that inquiry learning must be authentic, we have increased the authenticity, by introducing real people and events and making the activity purposeful by allowing the students to present their findings.We believe that the webquest also maps quite closely with, not only Blooms Taxonomy but Murdoch's sequence of activities where their knowledge is refined over time. These key stages and their mapping to Blooms is as followed.
Tuning in.............................. Remembering........................Task 1
Finding out............................Understanding.......................Task 2
Sorting out.............................Applying................................Task 3
Going further.........................Analysing...............................Task 4
Making Connections..............Evaluate................................Task 5
Taking action.........................Create...................................Task 6
Differentiation
All activities are differentiated throughout. The tasks however are not differentiated based on ability due to the philosophy that we believe each child should be given equal opportunity to succeed. We have however, attempted to differentiate for different learning styles those learners who are: Auditory, Visual and Kinaesthetic learners all have the opportunity to be communicated to effectively. As primary educators we have provided the children with abundant choice that is interest based. We feel that if a child is interested in their learning and has power in what they learn, they will in turn become better learners. Examples of differentiated activities are detailed below. Learning Styles |
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Kinaestheticand creative students are given the opportunity to make products. In activity 2 they have the option of creating a poster andtowardsthe end of the quest they are given the opportunity to communicate their findings in an appropriate way. They maybe interested in presenting the speech inan authentic way by dressing up and acting. The short Youtube clips appeal to those students who need some type of external stimulation. They are able to interact with the content in a unique way by simply viewing the clip, as words ( accompanied my music) appear. The wide variety of tasks ensures that there is a task to appeal to each student, weather that being in the creation of a mind map or a written report. Each student is motivated to learn during aspects of the task. The organization of information is also important. By giving the students choice in the way they represent their material, they are exposed to ways in which good historians record ideas and events. ( tables etc) Manyinstructionsare clearly and explicitlyexpressed. All are written and all tasks provide an example or visual representations. This ensures that eachchild understands the activity. Many like to see an example before they begin, which is why we have shown the mind-map and historical recount. Through being involved in classrooms ourselves we have discovered that groupweb-questsdo not succeed with each child being aroundthe computer. Many children find itdifficultto read heavy amounts of information on a computer screen. We have placedgreat emphasis on the use of published resources. This appeals to students who would prefer to see the physical information and may be sceptical about theinformationon the internet. Thislogisticallymeans that less children are surroundingacomputer, and these children are able to flick back and forth,immersingthemselves in the literature.
Many Youtube clips show images of the person or event. These resources allow the children to develop an authentic approach to their learning. The stories and people shownare real people who have lived this earth. This inspires others to be like them.
Choice: As pre-service teachers we can't highlight the significance of choice enough. This is the child's education, they should have a say in what they learn and how they learn. While one may argue that this web-quest provides the children with too much choice we believe that there is just enough. At this stage in their learning they begin to critique information that is presented to them. By providing the children with a large number of websites and books they are able to compare and contrast different sources. There is no minimum or maximum on how many resources the children can use. It is not expected that they read each resource word for word, but look for commonalities between a few. Students are given the choice of who they work with. Our philosophy behind mixed ability groups stems from Vygotkys view of social-constructivism. We believe that children learn well from a 'more educated' person. Vygotsky stresses the 'more capable adult' however we believe that children themselves can assist other children in their zone of proximal development, through effective scaffolding and communicating. Through the different levels of ability, it is evident that each child processes information differently, the children then discuss their understandings. This leads to a deeper understanding of the content. An effective element of this activity is allowing the children to choose what people they would be interested in. This provides the children with control over their learning whilst still working in the parameters of achieving an outcome. Stereotypically many mixed ability groups have the same interests, take a group of boys who may be interested in sports. ( Giving the most stereotypical scenario) they may not be interested in medicine, or music. They would be more inclined to research sports people who have been awarded. By doing this, the children become more intrinsically motivated to learn. Allowing the students to choose what method they will present their information is another way of incorporating choice. It is not only interesting for the students in the group, but makes presentation in the classroom more interesting as there will be a mix of hand drawn posters, as well as digitally constructed tables. Children essentially have control over their learning.The new Australian Curriculum highlights the idea of multi modal texts. Not everything needs to be written on an A4 sheet of paper. This is clearly demonstrated through the choice of activities, many including, poster making, and the use of multimedia elements. Giving the children choice in how they find their information is also important. Providing a variant of websites, which include a mix of images, text, sound and movie allows the children to choose how they learn, in a way that interests them. As a partnership, we agreed that, although a "web"quest, we felt that books should be used also. The logistics of four children crowded around a computer doesn't allow for deep learning to occur. We felt that using the books as a quality resource will enhance the learning that took place and make the task a less congested.
Meeting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: The new Australian Curriculum has what is called an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander priority. This priority provides opportunities for all learners to deepen their knowledge of Australia by engaging with the world’s oldest continuous living cultures. This knowledge and understanding will enrich their ability to participate positively in the ongoing development of Australia |
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