One of my favorite web tools
1. Name and URL
This is a link to an already designed WebQuest on how to deal with Shakespeare and his rather difficult writing in school. It is called: "Rewriting Romeo and Juliet"
http://chalk.richmond.edu/education/projects/webquests/shakespeare/t-index.htm
2. Application or purpose
For many students Shakespeare is very hard to read and to understand. Because of the Old English style, students are having a hard time to complete the reading assignments since they simply do not understand what is written. Consequently, they often mark Shakespeare as BORING. But this must not necessarily be the case: By deeply analyzing a specific scene of one of his plays and rewriting it into some kind of "modern language", students might gain a better access to the plays of the famous English author.
The WebQuest is designed for students in order to rewrite one scene of Romeo and Juliet and then to actually perform it on stage.
3. The basics of using the tool
As in this case the WebQuest is already designed, one just has to choose what to use from it. The WebQuest is originally designed for high school students in the US. However, I think that one can use it here as well, probably for the "Oberstufe" and especially for a "Leistungskurs".
The WebQuest provides an individual page for the teacher and one for students respectively. It is explained very clearly what to do as the teacher. The students basically have to design a comprehensive "theatrical portfolio" in which they collect all the different aspects they have to prepare in order to finally perform a scene out of Romeo and Juliet.
Different tasks on the page navigate the students through the various steps. Therefore, it is really quite self-explanatory what to do.
4. My ideas for classroom use
In this example the WebQuest is already designed. However, one might want to apply minor changes so that the task of rewriting a scene from Romeo and Juliet fits better into the context of a German Gymnasium.
If I am ever to teach Shakespeare in one my future classes, I will definitely try to do some similar project to the one presented. If the WebQuest is very well organized, it shouldn't take too much time of the actual classes since the students also have to continuously work on it outside of class. One reason why I think this is a very good task is also that it meets the various needs of the students according to their different skills. Thus, one student might be very good at understanding the Old English style and then rewriting it into a more modern language style while another one is better at performing the actual scene on stage. If the students complement each other, we will hopefully have very good results in the end.
In order to organize a task as presented, WebQuests in general are very suitable to do so. If one wants to create a WebQuest oneself, the following link leads to a very useful web site to do so:
http://webquest.org/index.php
This is a link to an already designed WebQuest on how to deal with Shakespeare and his rather difficult writing in school. It is called: "Rewriting Romeo and Juliet"
http://chalk.richmond.edu/education/projects/webquests/shakespeare/t-index.htm
2. Application or purpose
For many students Shakespeare is very hard to read and to understand. Because of the Old English style, students are having a hard time to complete the reading assignments since they simply do not understand what is written. Consequently, they often mark Shakespeare as BORING. But this must not necessarily be the case: By deeply analyzing a specific scene of one of his plays and rewriting it into some kind of "modern language", students might gain a better access to the plays of the famous English author.
The WebQuest is designed for students in order to rewrite one scene of Romeo and Juliet and then to actually perform it on stage.
3. The basics of using the tool
As in this case the WebQuest is already designed, one just has to choose what to use from it. The WebQuest is originally designed for high school students in the US. However, I think that one can use it here as well, probably for the "Oberstufe" and especially for a "Leistungskurs".
The WebQuest provides an individual page for the teacher and one for students respectively. It is explained very clearly what to do as the teacher. The students basically have to design a comprehensive "theatrical portfolio" in which they collect all the different aspects they have to prepare in order to finally perform a scene out of Romeo and Juliet.
Different tasks on the page navigate the students through the various steps. Therefore, it is really quite self-explanatory what to do.
4. My ideas for classroom use
In this example the WebQuest is already designed. However, one might want to apply minor changes so that the task of rewriting a scene from Romeo and Juliet fits better into the context of a German Gymnasium.
If I am ever to teach Shakespeare in one my future classes, I will definitely try to do some similar project to the one presented. If the WebQuest is very well organized, it shouldn't take too much time of the actual classes since the students also have to continuously work on it outside of class. One reason why I think this is a very good task is also that it meets the various needs of the students according to their different skills. Thus, one student might be very good at understanding the Old English style and then rewriting it into a more modern language style while another one is better at performing the actual scene on stage. If the students complement each other, we will hopefully have very good results in the end.
In order to organize a task as presented, WebQuests in general are very suitable to do so. If one wants to create a WebQuest oneself, the following link leads to a very useful web site to do so:
http://webquest.org/index.php
