Introduction

This lesson was developed during Using the Internet for Curriculum Application, a  graduate class at the University of Delaware,under the direction of Pat Sine, director of the Office of Educational Technology and with information gleaned from Internet Literacy, written by Fred T. Hofstetter, who is Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Delaware.

This webquest was developed as a means to enrich and expound upon a traditional book report.  It enables the students to extend the book by reading reviews of the work or about its author.  Students engage in critical thinking by reading and writing reviews of a book and by organizing their own thoughts about the book.  They also have the ability to publish their works.  The final products will used to encourage further reading by other students.

Learners

This webquest is designed for sixth graders using fiction books and can be used as a language arts assignment or as a project for the library.  It could be used at lower or higher grades based on the technical skills of the students. 

Prior to tackling this web quest, students should know how to do simple research on the web, how to copy notes onto a word document, basic copyright laws, and how to do power point.  When working in a group, students can benefit and learn from the skills of others in their group.

Technology Standards

• Knows the differing capacities and trade-offs for computer storage media, such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, hard disks, and tape drives.
• Uses advanced features and utilities of word processors (e.g., uses clip art, a spell-checker, grammar checker, thesaurus, outliner)
• Understands that when an individual creates something on a computer, the created work is that person's property, and only that person has the right to change it

• Students will use written and oral English appropriate for various purposes and audiences by: using a logical order of presentation, reporting information clearly, citing sources when appropriate,  using illustrations to support information. 
• Students will construct, examine, and extend the meaning of text by: identifying title, author, and illustrator, gathering information from different sources, using information to complete a task, and evaluating different sources.
• Students will access, organize, and evaluate information gained by: choosing a source appropriate to topic, using guide words or tables to quickly locate information, present basic informaiton but avoiding plagiarism, and using proceedures for gathering data.

Process

To accomplish the task, you must:

Get Organized:

1.Gather the members of your creative team.

2.Choose a book to represent.  Using a book that has multiple copies available would be preferred.  You must have the book approved by the company president. 

3.Make sure that all of your creative team members read the book. 

4.Discuss the computer and creative skills of your team members. 

5.Brainstorm on what format your advertisement campaign will use.

6.Assign jobs for all team members.

1.See what promotion others have done for your book at:  Scholastic or Amazon.com. 

2.Read reviews about your book at:  Barnes and Nobel or Yahooligans

3.Research your author at Scholastic , Yahooligans, or Internet Public Library

4.Check out the book's publisher by using a good search engine such as Yahooligans or Searchopolis

5.Remember to bookmark websites about your book or its author and then reference them in your final project. 

1.Determine what your final project will be.  Consider creating: a poster, PowerPoint presentation, web page, or video clip. 

2.Determine what information and skills each team member can contribute.

3.Locate supplies and resources for you project.

4.Set a time deadline when all team members will be ready to contribute to final product.

5.Submit your final project in to the company president.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on their ability to use language to summarize the story, gather information, report information clearly, site sources, persuasively support the book, and their ability to use the book, the web, a word processing program, and other computer applicatioins. 

Conclusion

This method of assigning a bookreport is exciting, extends the learning, offers critical evaluation of the text, combines technical skills, and promotes others to read the work. 

Credits & References

Special thanks to the following people for their encouragement and technical support:

Pat Sine, director of the Office of Educational Technology at The University of Delaware. 

John Hintz, computer lab assistant.

Fred T. Hofstetter, Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Delaware.