“Descubriendo Leyendas de Latinoamerica”
(Discovering Legends of Latin America)
by Carlos Diaz, Fremont SHS
WebQuest link: http://questgarden.com/46/88/2/070219201117/index.htm
WebQuest Evaluation by: Jennifer Prouty
Synopsis:
Audience: The intended audience is high school native Spanish speakers in Spanish I.
Goals: This WebQuest is created to “help students become familiar with the myths, folk
tales, and legends of Latin countries. At the end of this quest students will not only be
able to write their own legends but they will understand the importance of myths, folk
tales, and legends to cultures.” ~Teacher Page Introduction.
Curriculum Standards:
Communicate in Languages Other Than English: Students engage in conversations, provide
and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions & Students understand and
interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics
Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures: Students demonstrate an understanding of
the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied
Connect with Other Disciplines and Acquire Information: Students acquire information and
recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures
Develop Insight into the Nature of Language and Culture: Students demonstrate
understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.
Participate in Multilingual Communities at Home & Around the World: Students show
evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.
Pedagogical Stategies:
The process involves reading several
legends/folk tales in Latin America on websites. Students are to “analyze, and discuss the
vocabulary, themes, and historical/cultural” context. The teacher outlines different roles
for students in each group in order to accomplish these goals. We could call this a
Deductive Instructional Strategy because he is teaching them what legends are like and
then they must create one. HOWEVER, on the evaluation page there is no mention of
grading the first portion of the work (which will take a long time to accomplish as a
group). The only part the is to be graded is the CREATION of a legend/folk tale. There is
absolutely no instructions, scaffolding, nor modeling for this GRADED section of project.
The only links students are provided are a link to a graphic organizer (that they can’t even
copy/paste and use as a base) and a link to Latin American history. The teacher does not
create roles for the students in the group for the writing portion – which could easily fall
on one team member’s shoulders to complete the entire story. The lack of scaffolding,
modeling, or even instructions on HOW to create the project from the WebQuest make it
an impossible task for a group of high schoolers.
Link to Scholastic site’s
graphic organizer
Use of Technology:
The WebQuest does link to one good website that
allows students to explore/research culture in a way that a packet or information probably
couldn’t provide: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/
However, most of the links to the legends could easily be printed off for students
to read at their leisure. I think it would be very difficult to read a story on a computer
screen with other group members reading at different paces.
The teacher states that the project should take four weeks in the computer lab.
However, if the students did the readings in class or on their own, worked one/two days
in the lab researching historical background for the legend they will create, and the rest of
the time in the classroom writing their legend (maybe a few more days in the lab to type
& print the story), the teacher could cut down on the time spent in the lab. The project
may even go smoother/faster this way, limiting time to “mess around” online. I think a
project like this should last no more than two weeks (who has four weeks of instructional
time to devote to one project anyway?!)
Technically:
All of the links work and all of the sites are still available on the
web. Although some links lack the traditional royal blue underlined text, so you have to
run the cursor over the words to realize there is a link. There are NO PICTURES on the
whole site, so there’s no way for them to malfunction! There are no other graphic
elements, nor variation in the layout. The credits are given to “Nuevas Vistas Uno,” but
I’m not sure what it is/who they are and how they contributed to the WebQuest. Also, the
textbook authors “Holt, Rinehart & Winston” are credited, but again, we don’t know how
they contributed or where on the site they are quoted. The links are not credited at all.
Shouldn’t they be all listed on the credits page too?
Criticism:
~The introduction is too LONG. I copy/pasted introduction into a Word document and
formatted the font to 12 point Times New Roman and it was almost a full page ALL in
Spanish. If a teacher were to use this for high school upper-level Spanish students, they
might have to translate more than 30% of the words. By the time a student uses the
translation dictionary more than once in one sentence, the student loses meaning and
context. In my opinion, most teenagers would skim/scan this introduction trying to get
the gist and move on. Scanning for important information is a difficult for high schoolers
reading in their native language. This is too difficult a task to for second language
learners. After some investigation, on the “Teacher Page” it states it is intended for
native Spanish speakers. Then why are there so many misspellings?
~There are NO ACCENTS throughout the entire website and MANY other misspelled
Spanish words. Maybe it is difficult to type accents in the program he is using (it’s easy
in Microsoft programs). However, people DO have accents on websites. He should have
found out HOW, instead of misspelling every other Spanish word.
~Another problem that native Spanish speakers would have as they work on this
WebQuest is the links are in English. How are they supposed to research when the
research is in another language? This site says nothing about the intended audience being
English as a Second Language Learners. Couldn’t the author find more authentic
websites created by people native to the culture studied? I think that would be more
meaningful than an American telling a Latin American about Latin American heritage.
Also, if it is indeed intended for native Spanish speakers, why doesn’t the introduction
build on their prior-knowledge of hearing legends/folk tales past down in their families.
~ The lime-green font makes your eyes sore and is very difficult to read because it
disappears on the white background after reading the page for a while.
Every page has this
boring layout, no
graphics & lime text on
white background
Improvements: It might be beneficial for a Spanish teacher that teaches nonnative students to take the basis for this project and create a new one. The new one could
have simpler introduction, correct spelling/accents, an individual portion of reading
legends online/researching Latin American cultures (that is graded seperately) and a
group portion of creating a legend (with scaffolding and modeling of legend requirements
– could easily include instructions on how to create a “storybook” in PowerPoint).