Today is the first day of my unit implementation. My consultee is explaining the assignment to her students, and we are putting them into groups. So far, it has gone very well. The students seem to understand the assignment, and are--I think--genuinely excited about it. Because it is a history class, the students have become accustomed to the lecture/note-taking model, so this webquest will be a nice departure.
The only foreseeable problem at this point is time. I'm a bit concerned that my consultee's students will not have enough time in the computer lab to complete the necessary research. Though they have three days to complete it, that's really only about two hours because of the time it takes to get settled in, etc., and because most of them do not have computers at home. We'll see in a couple of days!
Tiffany, it's a good point. The NTeQ model is based in constructivism theory. In my experience, constructivist (or problem based learning, etc.) always takes longer than direct instruction. Teachers almost always say, "This took much longer than I thought it would." So, I won't be surprised to hear that students didn't get to finish an activity. What I will be surprised to hear is that they didn't learn something. I'm betting, even if they aren't able to finish everything you designed, they will learn more from it than a direct instruction (note taking, memorizing) type of situation.
ReplyDeleteDr. T