Laura Mcdaniel's Webquest posting: A Wrinkle in Time

http://www.lifestreamcenter.net/DrB/Lessons/Wrinkle/index.htm

This webquest for the novel A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle asks students to become Meg, the main character of the text, and to time travel to outer space in order to save her father and brother from “the clutches of evil.” The resource includes a series of printable study guides that include vocabulary instruction, guiding questions (detail and inference) and chapter-by-chapter as well as end-of-book final projects. There is also a link for additional supplementary resources and a teacher’s page.
My kids would greatly benefit from this webquest for numerous reasons. My kids struggled with the higher-level thinking skills necessary to uncover the many dimensions of A Wrinkle in Time this year. I taught the book with weekly packet-type homework assignments, and rarely received thoughtful responses. In class discussions were beneficial and fruitful, however those only occurred every two days or so due to scheduling; therefore, my lower readers fell farther and farther behind. This resource in particular sparked my interest because it creates a sense of excitement by having the kids be “time travelers” and by using vocabulary such as “your mission” as opposed to “your task” or “your work.”
Also- my school only has one set of computers that are often taken by the composition instructor, so computer time is limited. Therefore, having printable worksheets along with a technological companion gives me a back-drop and mixes it up for the kids as well. All of the guided questions are differentiated for all levels/ types of learners, and spiraled with standards-based skills. The recommendations for final projects are also beneficial to different types of learners and include board-games, plot analysis, etc. Although the site is neither aesthetically pleasing nor incredibly interactive, it is a great introduction to the technology we have available but rarely use, and will allow my kids to all work at their own pace. It also comes with a rubric, which is GREAT!