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A WebQuest for
Teachers
All Groups Tasksheet
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1. First you need to make and save a copy of this worksheet so that you
can write in it. Do it like this:
- Select this whole page (Click on this page. Hold down Ctrl and press A)
- Now make a copy of it (Hold down Ctrl and press C)
- Now open Word (Click on
 on the bottom left of
your screen or via the Start menu)
- Paste the Tasksheet into Word (Hold down Ctrl and press V). This
should now appear on your screen as a black and white document.
- Save the document according to your tutor's
instructions
2. Read the first situation and the Question/Task.
3. Click on the link (and follow any instructions given with it) to go
to the website and try to answer the Question or complete the task. You
can either write or copy and paste the answer into the Answer box (it will expand to fit).
4. Go back to the same website and spend a few minutes exploring it.
Make notes on the following:
- What else can you find there that may be useful in your teaching?
- Does it make you think of any ideas for teaching with this material?
- Anything you have to bear in mind? (eg American English)
- What's your general evaluation of this site?
Write your comments in the Comments box of your tasksheet.
5. Now do the next two tasks following instructions 2-4 above.
Task 'A's: These sites are for resources that you can use offline in
class
Task 1A
| Situation |
You're teaching weather vocabulary.
Students will be more interested in tomorrow's weather for
wherever you are (rather than the weather forecast in the book). |
| Question/Task |
According to the forecast, what's the maximum
temperature here tomorrow? |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
Go to Yahoo. In the directories on the page
click on Weather. Directories such as these are great for
searching; they often take you where you want to go more quickly
than a search engine, particularly for more general enquiries. |
| Comments about this site
(Yahoo Weather) |
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Task 2A
| Situation |
You want students to talk about their countries
in a multicultural class. If each had an outline of their
country, they could use it to illustrate their talk. |
| Question/Task |
Paste an outline of the country where you are now
in the answer box. |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/ |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 3A
| Situation |
You're looking for
some short but interesting reading texts to use off-line with
your learners. |
| Question/Task |
Go to the site below
and find an amusing story that you think would interest them -
look under 'Quirkies'. What language focus do you think could
arise from this text? |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://www.ananova.com/news/ |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 4A
| Situation |
Visual aids are invaluable for eliciting and
clarifying vocabulary. You are teaching prepositions to a
beginner's group in the morning and food to an advanced group in
the afternoon. |
| Question/Task |
Paste two images in the answer box. One of
the preposition "next", and one of "toad in the
hole" . |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://web.uvic.ca/hcmc/clipart/
(look in the Topic Gallery there) or in Google click on the
Images tab. Then go to Advanced Image Search. Several
people have called their house "Toad in the Hole" -
how can you avoid getting pictures of those! |
| Comments about these sites |
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Task 5A
| Situation |
There's an awful song in your coursebook so you
ask your students if there's a song they would prefer to work
on. They suggest a song and give you the CD. But you
haven't got time to transcribe all the words. |
| Question/Task |
Paste the first verse of "Don't Know
Why" by Norah Jones in the answer box. |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
www.lyrics.com |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 'B's: These sites have activities that students can do online
at a computer.
Task 1B
| Situation |
Everybody loves a quiz. And a lot of
students like Harry Potter. You're going to use some
extracts from Harry Potter (not on the web as far as I know) to
work on describing personalities. But first you want to do
a quiz about the books to lead into the topic and find out how
much your students know. |
| Question/Task |
Find a quiz about Harry Potter. What level
students would be able to cope with this? |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/quiz/ |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 2B
| Situation |
Students are doing a speaking task: deciding
which famous people have influenced our lives most. For
this they have to choose one person, think of some questions
they'd like answered about them, do a bit of research to find
the answers on the internet and then give a short presentation. |
| Question/Task |
Think of a celebrity
(there's a list of the top 10 searches on the biography.com site
if you're stuck). Look up that person and write 3 comprehension
questions about their entry for intermediate students. Write the name
of the celebrity and the 3 questions in the box below.
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| Answer: |
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| Link: |
www.biography.com |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 3B
| Situation |
You want to revise vocabulary in a fun way.
Perhaps by making a wordsearch puzzle. Even better, the
students could make puzzles for each other later. |
| Question/Task |
Make a wordsearch with names of six different
vegetables. Paste it in the Answer box. |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 4B
| Situation |
Your students are interested in the news, but
they find the newspapers too difficult to read. There's
just too much vocabulary that they don't know. |
| Question/Task |
What are the advantages of students doing this
online rather than printing it off for them to do in
class? And why is it better than an ordinary newspaper? |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/index.shtml |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 5B
| Situation |
You've been studying the
phrasal verbs with your class and they need more practice. |
| Question/Task |
What are the advantages of using this activity
rather than a similar one in the coursebook? Any
disadvantages? |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://www.englishforum.com/00/interactive/ex07.html |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 'C's: These are various sites that are useful for teachers.
Task 1C
| Situation |
Your colleagues envy
your amazing computer skills!! They want to be a computer
wizard like you. You suggest they try the link
below. When you look at the link yourself you realise that
there are a few things that you don't know how to do
either. You'd better learn them quickly before you're found
out. |
| Question/Task |
Find three bits of
computer advice that are new to you or your partner.
Either make notes or copy and paste in the box below. |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://www.volny.cz/brabbs/shortcourse.htm |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 2C
| Situation |
Help! You've got nothing to teach this
afternoon. What you need is a ready made lesson plan about
a topical subject. |
| Question/Task |
Find a lesson here that you would like to use and write a brief description of it
in the answer box. |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://www.onestopenglish.com |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 3C
| Situation |
Your students really want to chat to native
speakers or people whose English is much better than theirs, but
there is not much opportunity for this where they are. Perhaps the answer
is "chatting" online. Your students are
preparing for an exam in which they have to write and speak
about world issues. |
| Question/Task |
Find the Current News discussion forum. Read
a few threads (topics being discussed). What do you think are the benefits and
drawbacks of this type of forum? |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/student/index.php |
| Comments about this site |
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Task 4C
Task 5C
| Situation |
Your students ask you which is right:
a)"different to", b)"different than", or
c)"different from". You are about to give an
answer, when you suddenly start to doubt yourself. You
decide to check what most people say. |
| Question/Task |
Note below how many instances you find of these
three phrases. To do this enter 'different' into
the web concordancer and then press 'Go'. |
| Answer: |
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| Link: |
http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/ |
| Comments about this site |
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