Webquest 101 – Putting Discovery into the Curriculum

• Are there common themes or contrasts that your webquest could incorporate?
• Do the various sites offer different opinions, approaches, or perspectives on the topic?

The strength of a webquest is its ability to combine resources to bring out these themes.

Figure out how to write your quest so that students move logically from one site to another. Ideally, you would like to have a single, obvious path from one site to the next. In reality, you may have to make suggestions to students on how they should view sites, depending on their progress through the quest. Remember, though, that your students will be relying on you to provide the connections that hold your quest together. The old speakers’ adage: "Tell ‘em what they’re gonna see; tell ‘em what they’re seeing; tell ‘em what they saw," also applies to webquests.

You will undoubtedly find some sites that offer great resources, but they just don’t fit into your webquest plan. Save these anyway, because you’ll likely find a use for them later. The easiest way to do this is by bookmarking them in your browser.