Introduction
This WebQuest is about writing a story, when using tweets and also explain how these two things can be combined.
When writing this type of story it is important to understand that things like a hashtag(#) or tags(@) can be used, and most importantly to remember that each tweet only can contain 280 characters.
This WebQuest can be used in different types of genres, anywhere from romance to horror. In this WebQuest, we will focus on the genre "horror".
There will be a link to a website, where the tweets can be created(the link can be found under task)
This WebQuest will focus on developing the students' written skills, teaching them the ability to think critically when reading things online because it could be fake stories or fake news. They have to be aware of this, also it is one of the 4 c's and we will mention more about them later on.
Task
The Task - Story writing (Horror)
In this task, the students must write a horror story using only the twitter-platform to create the so-called "tweets" that are like posts you see on Facebook and other social media. The students can decide themself what the story is about, as long as it a horror story.
Writing a horror story can be scary, maybe the students have experienced something scary themself. It could be seeing a horror movie or reading a horror story, all of this can be used as inspiration when they have to write their own story.
We as teachers will inform the students about the structure of a story. They have to remember the basics: the structure (beginning, middle, and ending), characters, setting, and a conflict.
We would help the student with coming up with sentences they could start their stories with such as "It was dark and cold when.." "All the lights shut off.." "I heard a sound coming from.." or simple things like "The Ghost" "The scary clown" or "the dead body".
Just remember you only have 280 characters in each tweet, which can be scary in itself ;)
That is a challenge, but you could also choose to write more, but remember one "tweet" only can contain 280 "characters", so if you want to continue with writing your story, it has to continue on another tweet.
Process
The four processes
First process:
We will start the lesson by talking a bit about the genre "Horror". The warm-up is used to make the students think and talk in English about a new theme. They will start with making a mindmap that will be written individually, this would last about five minutes and then they would also talk for five minutes with a peer, about what the student has written down. As the last thing in the warm-up will the students have to make chunks, hashtags, or small sentences from the words they have in their mindmap, all this ends in a short plenum follow-up, where each student presents one of their chunks or sentences for the class.
Second process:
The students will be given a short introduction to the site, where the "twitter-stories" will be created and the teacher will show how the platform works, this will primarily focus on expanding the student's ITC knowledge. They will also be given information on how long the story should be and that it´s allowed to write more than that, that they can choose to write with one account or two different and lastly they will be giving some different ideas on what they can write about. This all enhances the differentiation and will hopefully motivate the students.
Link to tweet site: https://www.tweetgen.com/create/tweet.html
Third process:
The active writing process for the student. The students will be given time in class to start writing their story and they also have the opportunity to get feedback from either the teacher or from their peers. The feedback type will be inspired by John Hattie's feedback model. This process will focus on the students' written skills, vocabulary, and genre knowledge.
Fourth process:
The students must be done with their stories by now. In this last process, the student will either read their story out loud in a small matrix group consisting of 3-4 students in each group. When they all have read their stories out loud, each group will choose the best story, which will be read out loud in plenum. Now the class will choose the overall best story, which contains a structure, characters, setting, a conflict, and follows the criteria that have been made for this task. It does not have to be "the scariest" one or the one that included most horror words. It will be up to the students to decide the best horror story. This adds a motivation element through the competition, without anyone feeling bad about their story. This process will mostly focus on the student's reading and speaking skills.
Evaluation
When evaluating if this WebQuest was a success or not, this evaluation schema can be used, and maybe write some words down after you have filled out the schema.
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Bad - 1 |
Good/Okay - 2 |
Fine - 3 |
Great - 4 |
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Introduction |
The students didn't understand the information given about how to write their story. The information was too complex or incomprehensible. |
Most students understood the information given. The information was still a bit too complex and wasn't differentiated enough for the class. Maybe spend more time explaining the task or try to explain it differently. |
Almost all students understood the information given. The information is given in the right way to the class, it is understandable. Look at how almost every student can understand what they have to do. |
Every student understood the information given. The information was presented the right way to the class and the differentiation was just right. |
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Warm-up exercise |
Zero or only a few students completed the warm-up exercise. They didn't come up with sentences, mind maps, hashtags, or chunks to use in the future. The students must be given more information beforehand, some chunks they can use to help or look at if the warm-up exercise is too hard. |
Some students completed the warm-up exercise. Some students only made the mind-map or small sentences. The warm-up needs more differentiation, it could be like they do not have to read their work/story out loud. |
Almost all students completed the warm-up exercise. There are still a few who didn´t read out loud or make a mind map/the sentences. Look into if these students ran into some problems or needed some extra help. |
Every student completed the warm-up exercise. The students had enough pre-knowledge to complete the warm-up exercise and felt comfortable in class to read out loud. A safe environment is created. |
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Story writing |
The students only wrote little to nothing in their story and didn't have enough pre-knowledge to make their own story. The stories were full of spelling errors or didn´t make any sense. There is not structure and many or no criteria are used in the story. Look into students' pre-knowledge about writing, vocabulary, and knowledge about the genre. |
Most students wrote a short story, still with spelling mistakes, and some have not written a completed story. Some didn´t understand the genre right or were confused about the "Twitter platform": How do you write a "tweet" Differentiation must be looked into, also pre-knowledge. Explain again or differently. |
Almost all students wrote a story, still with some spelling errors and a few didn´t really understand how to write "the tweets". The students who didn´t understand the information given may need some extra help. |
Every student wrote a story with few or no errors. The students understood both the genre and how to write the tweets. |
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Read out loud |
Few to no students wanted to read out loud. Some didn´t have a story to read out loud and some didn't feel comfortable doing it. Or those who read out loud had a lot of pronunciation errors. The students may have needed more time to write or practice their reading and pronunciation skills. Make sure to make time for the students to ask questions about their story, pronunciation, and also give the students feedback. |
Most students read out loud, only a few didn´t because they didn´t want to or didn´t have a story to read out loud. Those who read out loud had pronunciation errors. Make sure it is a comfortable and safe environment for every student to speak, make errors (without being laughed at), and also safe to practice the pronunciations, etc. |
Almost every student read out loud. They had only a few pronunciation errors. The few who didn´t weren't comfortable with reading out loud. The ones who weren´t comfortable could sit with the teacher, when reading it out loud in a matrix group or sit by themselves and record for the teacher to listen to later on. |
Every student felt comfortable reading out loud and had only a few to no pronunciation errors. The students were motivated throughout the whole story writing process and also when they had to read the stories out loud. And lastly, find the best story. The competition element motivated them. |
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Overall score: |
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What could I do better to work with till next time? |
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Conclusion
Conclusion
This WebQuest can be used to include ITC platforms in the student's school day. It can also be used as a new form of writing and reading out loud, both in general but also how to make their horror story scary. The motivation of including the student's own ideas in the process of writing their story may also help to include differentiation in the class.
Also by adding a competition element, we hope for the students to be more motivated to write a great horror story.
Lastly, this may also teach the students not to believe in everything they read online.
Credits
List of theories used:
Theory behind chunks - https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/chunks
Feedback model - John Hattie
The four C´s - https://www.aeseducation.com/blog/four-cs-21st-century-skills
Differentiation/motivation - Brodersen, P., Laursen, F. P., Agergaard, K., Nielsen, G. N., Gissel, T. S. (2015) Effektiv undervisning, didaktiske nærbilleder fra klasserummet (3. udg.). Hans Ritzels Forlag.
Teacher Page
While using this WebQuest is it important to understand some of the theory behind it.
One of the theories behind this the use of chunk. Chunks is a group of word or small sentences, that the students can practice and use in the future. Around 70% of learner language consist of chunks, it is therefore important as a teacher to provide chunks to the student when introducing a new topic.
When a teacher provides the students with chunks, it is also a type of scaffolding and motivation for the student to have active language use and evolving their communication competence.
When using feedback is it the John Hattie feedback model that will be used. Where the student will be proved with both feed up, feedback, and feedforward. To ensure that the student understands the assignment, to help the students with their self-regulation when working with the assignment and so the teacher can find out where the students are in the language learning process.
This assignment will also use the four C´s, critical thinking, collaborations, creativity, and communications. This can be seen when the students have to collaborate and communicate in the first part. When starting to make their mindmap and talking about the mindmap with their peers. The goals are that they use creativity when writing and that they will train their critical thinking when reading online.