SCAFFOLDING ACTIVITIES THAT CAN BE USED TO ENHANCE THE PROCESS OF THE WEBQUEST

A. Reception scaffolding: Brainstorming activities, discussions, any background materials, dictionary links, glossaries, quizzes, etc.

B. Transformation scaffolding: quizzes, diagrams, tables, treasure hunts, interviews, etc.

C. Production scaffolding: outlines, examples, formats, templates, etc

DESCRIPTION OF SCAFFOLDING ACTIVITIES; LINKS AND TEMPLATES ON THE WEB

Brainstorming:

It is a good way to activate background knowledge. “Brainstorming is the act of defining a problem or idea and coming up anything related to the topic - no matter how remote a suggestion may sound. All of these ideas are recorded and evaluated only after the brainstorming is completed”.

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/processguides/brainstorming.html

Graphic Organisers:

They are tools used to organise and illustrate the ideas and concepts around a topic. Among them we may list: concept maps, events chains, diagrams, outlines, and matrixes.

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm

Interview techniques:

“Experts, grandparents, historians, scientists, authors, and many others all have interesting and important stories to tell.” The Internet also gives you the opportunity to interview all kind of experts. The interview can be prepared and conducted by using some of the hints on this page:

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/processguides/interviewing.html

Persuasive Arguments technique:

Sometimes the task requires convincing or persuading someone about something.

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/processguides/persuasive.html

http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/thesis.html

Problem-Solution Charts:

It is a variation of column notes “to help students focus on the four areas critical to problem-solving: identifying the problem, listing the consequences or results of that problem, isolating the causes, and proposing solutions”.

http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/problem.html

Production outlines and templates:

They are used to help students with the creation of a final product and may be of many different types.

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/patterns2000/production.html

As an example:

Prompted Writing Templates to help students write a composition or essay.
http://www3.your-net.com/%7Ehinesj/ugrrpresenting.html

Research organisers:

A list of topics and subtopics to help students organise their work.

http://thinktank.4teachers.org/

Quizzes:

All kind of quizzes can be used to promote learning about the topic and especially to focus on language form and meaning.

http://www.isabelperez.com/webquest/taller/creating/index.htm

Scavenger or Treasure hunts:

It is formed by a set of questions and the links where the answers can be found. This way the students can collect information about the selected topic.

http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/Scavenger.html

Surveys:

About the topic of discussion or about any other related aspects.

http://meta-learningtools.com/tutorials/surveys/survey.htm

Timelines or History frames:

They are graphic organisers that help students arrange the information about people and events (time, place, problems, key facts, outcome, main features, etc.) in order to comprehend it.

http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/storymaps.html