Introduction
A new activity is presented to you today: a Webquest. A Webquest is basically going through the internet to find information on a given topic and reinvest them in activities that will be explained later in this document. You will be working on a topic that you already know, but you will probably find new vocabulary you did not necessarily know, that subject is Christmas. All the following activities will lead you to learn and discuss new words related to Christmas. You will need to look at the task, the process (all the steps you need to follow), and the element you will be evaluate on during this Webquest, to make sure you know what to do and understand what is evaluated.
Task
The task that is presented to you will go through all three competencies of the Québec Education Program (QEP) and are places in a specific way to make the difficulty scale up. At first, you will work on competency #2, To reinvest the understanding of written and oral texts and to a lesser extent the competency #3: To write texts. You will need to search on the web for words related to Christmas; this will require reading and should introduce you to new vocabulary. Then you will need to write short complete sentences with these words to put them in a new context in order to verify your understanding of the words. The second task will be to write a short text about how you celebrate Christmas at home; working on the competency #3: To write texts. The text should be between 50 and 100 words long. You will be working in teams, so you can help each other correct the text to make sure there are no mistakes. Lastly, the final activity will require your team to pair up with another team and have a conversation about the words that you found and your short texts. You will be asked to talk about the differences between the words you found versus the words they found, and also the way Christmas is celebrated in each family, hopefully leading to a more spontaneous conversation and not a simple reading of the new vocabulary and short text.
Process
Step 1: Research.
Create groups of two students and start searching to discover words related to Christmas through Christmas songs’ lyrics. You need to gather between fifteen and twenty words and write them down on a sheet of paper, which is going to help during the whole activity. Those lyrics can be found in the link below.
Christmas songs lyrics
1. Jingle bells
2. The twelve days of Christmas
3. It's the most wonderful time of the year
Step 2: Write a text.
Write a text on the worksheet provided by the teacher (printed version). This text can be done in team or alone (which ever you feel more comfortable with) and need to contain between 50 and 100 words and also, a minimum of five words related to Christmas that was found through the songs’ lyrics. This text is about how you celebrate Christmas at home. Here are some questions that can guide your writing: What do you love about Christmas? How are your decorations? Do you have a Christmas routine on the Christmas day? Do you have a small party with your close family or a huge party with all the family members? What kind of food is served at your house on Christmas? Etc.
(Worksheet)à This will be provided to you on a hard copy.
Step 3: The discussion.
This step needs to be done by pairing two teams of students. Then, as a group you need to discuss and compare the words that you found in the songs’ lyrics and also about the text you have written.
Step 4: Christmas is coming to class!
To conclude the class, the teacher will ask the students what their favourite Christmas song between the four was and plays the favourite ones of the students.
You need to choose with your classmate what would be THE best Christmas song between the four you listened to and try to discuss why. The class will end with the song, which you can sing along if you want to.
Choices of Christmas songs
1. Jingle bells
2. The twelve days of Christmas
3. It's the most wonderful time of the year
RESOURCES
As previously included in the Process part of the Webquest, the resources that you will use are a worksheet and four songs that can easily be found on Youtube. Here are the links to them.
Worksheet: https://i.pinimg.com/236x/c3/3a/bc/c33abc2675031038fcaf16ff6f6907b7--fu…
Songs (Youtube):
Jingle Bellsàhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CWJNqyub3o
The twelve days of Christmasàhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyEyMjdD2uk
It’s the most wonderful time of the yearàhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-
k7BWDm_Lg
Winter Wonderlandàhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKSE-4B69VU
Evaluation
|
Criteria |
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Difficulties |
Average |
Very good |
Excellent |
Total |
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Activity 1 |
Students find less than 10 words. |
Students find between 10 and 14 words. |
Students find between 15 and 19 words. |
Students find 20 words or more. |
/20 |
|
Activity 2 |
Students write less than 50 words; the text is not coherent and does not include 5 Christmas words. |
Students write 50 to 70 words and include 5 Christmas words, but the text could have a better structure. |
Students write 75 to 90 words with 5 Christmas words included in well structure text. |
Students write more than 90 with 5 or more Christmas words included in well structured text. |
/40 |
|
Activity 3 |
Students barely use any English in their conversation. There are many pronunciation mistakes. |
Students speak English but still use French too often. There are many pronunciation mistakes. |
Students speak English with complete sentences and rarely switch to French when having difficulties to express themselves. There are some pronunciation mistakes. |
Students always speak English and never use French to express themselves. There are few pronunciation mistakes. |
/40 |
Conclusion
You have now finished this webquest and hopefully you have learned many new words related to Christmas! You could use some of them at your Christmas party! Have a happy holiday!
Credits
Worksheet. Images.
Author unknown. No date specified. Fun Christmas Activities Worksheets. Retrieved from: https://i.pinimg.com/236x/c3/3a/bc/c33abc2675031038fcaf16ff6f6907b7--fun-christmas-activities-christmas-worksheets.jpg
Songs
YouTube channel: childrenlovetosing. (2015, October 28) Jingle Bells with Lyrics | Kids Christmas Songs HD | Children Love to Sing. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CWJNqyub3o
YouTube channel: childrenlovetosing. (2013, December 13) Twelve Days of Christmas with Lyrics Christmas Carol & Song Children Love to Sing. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyEyMjdD2uk
YouTube channel: elena1111ful (2012, December 1) It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Lyrics). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-k7BWDm_Lg
YouTube channel: DisneyLyricsOnScreen (2009, December 18) Selena Gomez & The Scene - Winter Wonderland (Lyrics On Screen) – HD. Retrieved from : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKSE-4B69VU
Author unknown. No date specified. Jingle Bells. Retrieved from: http://www.41051.com/xmaslyrics/jingle.html
Author unknown. No date specified. The Twelve Days of Christmas. Retrieved from: http://www.41051.com/xmaslyrics/twelvedays.html
Author unknown. No date specified. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Retrieved from: http://www.41051.com/xmaslyrics/mostwonder.html
Author unknown. No date specified. Winter Wonderland. Retrieved from: http://www.41051.com/xmaslyrics/winterwon.html
Teacher Page
This WebQuest was created by Vincent, Bruno, Chelsea and Cédric. We are students at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) studying to become ESL teachers.
This WebQuest was created to introduce students to new vocabulary related to Christmas. By doing various tasks students will work on all three competencies seen in the Québec Education Program (QEP). That means they will interact orally in English, read texts and reinvest their understanding of them and write texts.