My first WebQuest with QuestGarden

  This WebQuest has been designed for young learners aged 5-7, studying English for 1-2 years to learn about animals and practice their computer and Internet skills. The task follows the process of KWL (What do I know?, What do I want to know?, What did I learn?). For each step of the process students have to create their own slides on the website of StoryboardThat. The slides are easy to make, using only the 'drag and drop' function. As students have limited reading skills they can listen to the instructions by clicking on me, the Voki Dobermann.

Skills students practice:
 

Listening skills: students have to listen and understand the instructions, also they have to watch an online story-telling with subtitles as their first input material

Reading skills: students read the instructions, read the story together with the story teller, read the labels of the two pictures as their second source of input material

Writing skills: StoyboardThat online programme enables users to create texts as well as speech bubbles for the characters of the slide, so when students create their own slides they will also have to add some sentences. Students also practice typing the new words when they label their picture in Kid Pix.

Click on this link to look at the WebQuest: Ducks and crocodiles

I've designed this WebQuest just to give you an idea what it is all about without the need for perfection. The process was quite time consuming but the WebQuest has its individual advantages that make it worth. It is a very good tool to introduce autonomous learning, and working alone for even very young learners with some computer skills. Other online tools like Voki scaffold their limited reading skills, also makes listening for instructions different\ interesting. On the other hand, the slightly robotic voice may make the instructions more difficult to understand. Although creating slides and labelled pictures of the animals with StoryboardThat and Kid Pix can be substituted with a piece of paper and a few coloured pencils, these apps can provide new experience and they are really easy to use for a 5-7-year-old child.