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Summary: One of the biggest challenges for any Latin teacher is finding a way to make a "dead" language come back to life. One of these ways, I believe, is by creating activities that allow students to compare and contrast their lives to those of the ancient Romans. I am interested in looking into various webquests already available, and/or websites with information available to enable a teacher to set up his/her own webquests with ease. Such webquests allow students to, e.g., explore the Roman Forum and compare its structures to those found in a modern city center. I will specifically focus on how using webquests can close the cultural gap between the past and present for Latin students.
Tech Module: Webquests in the Latin Classroom
Introduction
When most people think about a Latin classroom, they think about nuns in private Catholic schools, maybe in England, with a ruler in one hand and a book of Latin verbs in another, leading the class through a dreary conjugation chant, “Amo, amas, amat; amamus, amatis, amant…” Unfortunately, there are many Latin teachers who, although they might do a bit more than mindless chanting, fear to stray from the “classic” methods of teaching Latin, which are incessantly focused on grammar and translation. However, in a world where our students may spend more time in front of a computer screen per day than reading, it is essential to use learning strategies which not only appeal to their interests, but also prepare them to be literate in the technological world around them.
One of the most important ways to awaken a student’s interest in learning is by relating information to his or her world. That is, we as teachers must teach students by comparing and contrasting such foreign ideas as chariot racing to things the students themselves already know about – NASCAR, anyone?
Developing and implementing webquests in the classroom is a great way to engage students in a fun and exciting way. Webquests can be created online, in paper form, or even on a Powerpoint presentation. Students are presented with some sort of problem, issue, or ‘task’, and they are guided through various internet resources in order to complete this larger task at hand. The ways in which a teacher can choose to use webquests are nearly endless, which makes them a great asset in the classroom, as they are applicable to many types of learning objectives.
Specifically in Latin, webquests can be used to guide students in “discovering” the past, and ultimately realizing that people have not changed much in two millennia! With the appropriate planning and scaffolding by the teacher, webquests can lead students to discover for themselves how gladiator fights or chariot races, however distant in time they are from us, really are no different in premise than the WWF or NASCAR of today.
But, what is a webquest anyway?
Because they can be altered to suit so many different objectives, a webquest may be hard to define at its simplest. Nonetheless, there are a number of things that all webquests have in common. For starters, webquests lead students through a simple process of research, analysis, and synthesis.
According to Bernie Dodge, who created webquests in 1995 along with Tom March, a webquest is “an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing.” In layman’s terms, and for our purposes, webquests have become to refer to any type of activity which involves students researching a given subject or subjects online and reporting back that information either in the form of a simple question/response worksheet, or developing that information into a more complicated project or “task” of some sort. In essence, students are sent to the internet to search for information on a certain topic with a specific task in mind.
Typically, there are five main parts to a webquest, namely: the introduction (setting the scene), the task, the process, the resources, and the conclusion. The task can vary greatly, from something that can be completed in one class period, to a large project that spans half a semester. Most often, webquests are assigned to collaborative groups, in which students are each given roles of some sort, whether they are rigid (e.g., recorder, speaker, etc.) or more vague. Either way, the purpose and objectives of webquest are explicitly stated here. The collaborative nature of most webquests supports the idea of accountability within groups, assuring that all members most be actively involved to make the webquest successful. In the process section, the teacher may list the specific ways that students are to approach the assignment. Again, the steps to take are usually written step-by-step. A webquest may, for instance, state that students have to consul three different resources under various topics in order to meet the teacher’s requirements. Under the resources section, a teacher typically lists several websites for the students to go to, or may even suggest what search terms the students should use. In the conclusion section, students are challenged to synthesize the information they have found in a (typically) creative fashion, which can vary from creating brochures to formal group presentations. Either way, the conclusion of a webquest is meant to test the students’ ability to interpret the factual information they have uncovered, usually implementing higher orders of thinking.
There are various ways that teachers can approach the webquest concept. Because they have been in development for quite a while, there are numerous examples of webquests in every subject area available for teacher use online. As long as teachers make sure that links on a given webquest are still active, a teacher may simply cite the author of the webquest and give that assignment to their students without changing anything. Most commonly, a link or two is no longer active and teachers are able to change parts of a pre-made webquest to suit their own purposes, citing credit where it is due. For more teachers with more time on their hands, there are numerous programs available on-line for teachers to use to formulate their own webquests; creating a webquest from a pre-existing webpage is not required!
Some helpful links for developing webquests:
How to use webquests in the (Latin) classroom
Perhaps the most important step in creating a webquest is formulating a concise goal from which to create a webquest lesson. Whether a teacher uses a pre-made webquest or produces one from scratch, it is essential to have a larger goal in mind before even beginning to plan and organize a webquest. The prewriting link above, created by Tom March, is an extremely helpful tool for teachers to use when first thinking about using webquests in their classrooms.
Once a goal is in mind, for example, learning about the structure of a Romana Domus (Roman house), a teacher then should spend a good deal of time finding appropriate and active links to guide students in their research. Depending on the topic, a teacher may choose to make the webquest a short, individual assignment, or develop the webquest into a multi-stepped, complex, group project that spans over a month of classtime. Whatever the case, the teacher’s intentions for the assignment need to be clear and concise, and the objectives should be measurable.
Developing the conclusion is what the teacher should focus the procedure of the webquest around. For instance, if a teacher wishes for his/her students to create collaboratively create a poster outlining the archaeological structure of a Roman Domus, the websites the teacher chooses should be applicable and appropriate to helping the students create this assignment. Rubrics are also a good idea, as in any case, but especially in more complicated webquests which may have multiple parts due at different times.
If teachers are creating their own webquests from scratch, they can use one of many software programs online, or even simply type instructions with other appropriate information out on paper and hand it to students. Webquests can be published online with or without the aid of a pre-existing teacher class-site, or they could just be an interactive worksheet that students complete individually within one class period in a computer lab. There are seemingly endless resources available online to give teachers ideas for webquest themes, as well as webquests that are ready to be implemented in the classroom setting. It is, of course, always a good idea to periodically check webquests links and keep them active.
For the Latin classroom setting, webquests are a great way to get students actively involved in learning about Roman customs, mythology, history, etc. There a great number of ways to make webquests seem like a game! For instance, a teacher could send students (even younger ones) on a journey to identify the major structures of the Roman Forum, comparing the uses of the Roman buildings to the ones we use in America today. Another fun activity would be for students to look at information about chariot races and compare them with information about NASCAR’s history online! The greatest attribute for webquests to the Latin classroom is its ability to connect the customs of today to Rome’s ancient past, and allowing students to discover these ideas for themselves will only peak their enthusiasm for the subject.
Some examples of pre-made webquests online at present include the following:
Affordances of Webquests in the Latin classroom:
Some drawbacks:
Tips for teachers:
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This work is licensed by Whitney Slough under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.
Last edited by Whitney Slough on Oct 19, 2008 10:16 pm -0500.
