DIDACTIC GUIDE

This section is for teachers. We believe that is convenient to give you some tips and advice on how to use this WebQuest, from a pedagogic point of view.

• To obtain the best pedagogic results with this WebQuest it must be taken into consideration that the authors have high expectation of the students of 6^th Grade of Primary Education. We aim that they learn as much as possible. That means that the responsible teacher of the group will have to assess and accompany the students to ensure that they will do the most of it and take advantage of it.

• We suggest carrying out the reading of the WebQuest instructions (activities, worksheets and so on) at class. So, the WQ it is not designed and thought to be carried out autonomously from the very beginning by the students. Teacher assessment is required, to help them with vocabulary, etc. Once the teacher have ensured the total comprehension of what are the main task and the activities requiring, then the students can proceed to work autonomously, in groups of five. 

• In the explanation of each activity it is specified how the team must organize the work. Remember that one of the main characteristics of a WQ is that the students must work cooperatively. It is not a matter of doing a simple school work in team, splitting what it has to be done and then sticking it together. That is not the pedagogic objective. As a teacher you must promote and ensure the cooperative working.

• We suggest to the teachers to manage and control a little bit the group composition, to avoid having non compensated groups (in terms of gender, learning capacities, etc). To take advantage of the cooperative groups methodology the groups should be as diverse as possible. We should promote synergic helping relationships within the students.

• Presumably, especially if the kids are not used to work according to cooperative methodologies, we must anticipate possible personal conflicts between students. It will be a very good professional and pedagogic opportunity for you as a teacher to work Emotional Education aspects. Help the students to express themselves with respect towards the others.

• Nearly all the suggested websites are in English. However, we also suggested a few internet resources that are Catalan, due to its high quality. We think that they bring very specific information to the students that will help them to solve some of the activities.

• In case you need the solutions of Activity 1 and the solutions of the Quiz of activity 3, please, do not hesitate to write down a comment at the blog and we will get back to you.

We hope that you will find interesting the didactic unit that we created through this WQ. If you have any suggestion or idea to improve it, please, let us know.

Yours faithfully,

The authors

Anna Ibáñez and Marta Naharro