Introduction    Task     Process    Evaluation      Resources   Conclusion
 
 

Introduction
You are an educator of the 21st century, a time of current information driven by technology, and you must prepare your students to utilize this resource. Your goal this year is to integrate technology into your curriculum while increasing reading skills by involving your students in research projects that will include the use of  the internet.  You are well aware of obstacles such as time, county guidelines for the use of the internet, parental concerns, and of course  internet savvy students.  One way to effectively make the most of this resource while minimizing some of these obstacles is to create a Topic Hotlist for your research subject.

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Task
Your school has determined reading to be informed as a focus area this year.  You have chosen to work with your students on this skill through research.  Your students will use the internet to research a subject, and you will create a Topic Hotlist as a resource for them.

    This Topic Hotlist WebQuest will help you create a list of appropriate web sites for your students to use in their research.
 

Upon completion of this Web Quest you will have:

selected a topic that will be useful to you in your classroom

created a web page on which to save the links of your Topic Hotlist

used Anne Arundel County's Internet/www Materials Evaluation form for evaluating selected sites

created a Topic Hotlist of at least 3 appropriate internet sites for the students to use in their research

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Process

1.  Review! Review! Review!Take a few minutes to visit these sites for a review on Web Searches, Creating Links, and Web Site Evaluation

Basic techniques of searching the web.

Linking a web site to your web page

Evaluating a web site

2.  Use the Web Page Template to create a personal web page on which to save the links of your Topic Hotlist.  This page will be saved to your disk. Be sure to include the purpose for your Topic Hotlist and clear directions for your students on using the site links. ( If you already have a web page saved to your disk, go to activity 3 and create your Topic Hotlist. Remember to include the subject of the hotlist and clear student directions.)
 
 

3.  Create a Topic Hotlist of at least 3 sites for a selected subject.  This will be saved to your Web Page on your disk.

• Determine a subject that you will have your students research.
• Search the internet for web sites about this subject.  Remember there are many search engines and directories as well  kid friendly search engines and directories like AACo Approved Sites, Yahooligans, Super Kids Super Search. 
• Evaluate these web sites and complete the Anne Arundel County Internet/www Materials Evaluation form for each site.
• Create a link from the selected web sites to your web Page. Title your links with meaningful names.
• Save the sites to your web page on your disk

Evaluation
 

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Resources
Included here are a list of sites that may be of help to you as you are creating future Topic Hotlist pages.
Guide for evaluating web sites
Web Site evaluation
Flaming Text Clip Art
Animation Clip Art
The Spider's Apprentice
Zack's Evaluation

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Conclusion
Having completed this Topic Hotlist WebQuest you have developed a useful tool for your students, and at the same time you have become more familiar with using the internet as a reference resource.   Students can use this list of acceptable sites to research their topics in a safe environment.  Using the skills you have learned here, you can create other Topic Hotlists for future internet activities.  Keep the flames of learning burning.

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For questions or comments email Mitsn Mitchell
Mitsn Mitchell Web Page

Last update June 30, 2004