A WebQuest Approach to Teaching English Reading – and Recommended Resources

Why use WebQuests to teach English reading?

WORKSHEET B

WebQuests are a technology-enhanced approach to learning that allows teachers to direct students to appropriate online resources, and allows students to participate in a coherent series of scaffolded, inquiry-based activities.

To assess students’ reading abilities, for example, teachers often assign students some comprehension questions, following a reading text as shown in Worksheet A. Yet, regardless of the questions teachers ask, students have to write down their answers as if it is a writing task. A major issue of this approach is that students who achieve little in writing might find themselves struggling with reading assignments too, even though they are fluent readers.

By contrast, students who are assigned activities like those in Worksheet B can simply demonstrate their understanding of the story by creating drawings, no matter how they struggle with their writing. Even if they do have problems in understanding the story, teachers can easily identify where the problem is and support them with immediate feedback. In other words, Worksheet B can better illustrate students’ learning in English reading as an independent language ability, compared with Worksheet A, which focuses more on integrated abilities.

Another potential issue with Worksheet A is that the answers teachers expect are all extracted from the story, thus students who are not fluent in reading can also give correct responses by copying and pasting. There is a real chance that students learn much less than expected (hover over Worksheet A).

Students doing Worksheet B, on the other hand, are directed to search online and explore a wide range of eResources for questions that are both authentic and attractive. For example, the second question serves not only as an extension to the previous question, but also as a reflection of students’ real lives.  Given a variety of online resources, students can choose the resources that are most relevant to them and answer as much as they learn from the resources. Most importantly, they can practice their higher order thinking skills, such as analyzing, evaluating and creating, during their inquiry-oriented learning experiences (hover over Worksheet B).

What eResources can be used for a WebQuest?

Below are 2 eResources we suggest for a WebQuest approach to teaching English reading. Choose one or two eResource to begin with and prepare your students with a demonstration lesson of how to use them and what you expect. 

1. Features

2. Functions

How eResources can be used for a WebQuest?

Now that you might have better ideas about what online resources you are going to use in your classroom, you can share your ideas with us at info@eteachers.online. We will be thrilled to hear what you like about the apps and how you plan to use them.