Resources for writing tasks
Recycling at Our School
Your school throws out several hundred tons of trash each year. Landfills are filling up quickly, and the costs of disposing of trash have gone up 40% in the last ten years. Our school is spending thousands of dollars to dispose of trash. Much of it could be recycled saving the school money that could be focused on education, and saving the environment. We will create a plan for our school that addresses these questions.
Your grandparents are from another state, and they are planning to visit you. While they are visiting they wanted to see some of the most important sites, and they need guidance. Take on the role of state tourism director. Create a video, pod cast or Website would convince your grandparents or tourists to come to your state. Be sure to answers the questions.
Wolves and other predators were wiped out in our region as farming expanded. In a large national park not far from our community, park managers have developed plans to reintroduce the wolf. Working in teams, take on the role of a rancher who raises livestock near the park, the park manager, environmentalist and homeowner who lives with their children near the park. Together you must answer develop a policy for reintroducing wolves to this park by answering these questions.
Recharge the Battery: Free Range for Fowl?
A recent TV news cast said that mass producing chickens in a battery- or factory like conditions- was bad for the chickens and bad for our health. Your job is to investigate. Is raising in chickens in a huge battery bad for the birds and bad for us? What can you and your parents do to that is good for chickens and humans? Use your answers to these questions to convince your parents whether they should buy battery raised chickens and why or why not.
(Adapted from the work of Dan Roberts, Saltash School.)
Writing Authentic Engaging Tasks
Creating Essential Questions
This Galileo site outlines the key components of effective essential questions.
Learning Activity Checklist
Use the categories titled Engaging Task and Problem-Based Task to help write a strong task. Using the checklist encourages you to write tasks that use action verbs. In the examples above students would: Make (a decision). Recommend (a plan of action). Change (an opinion). Solve (a complex problem).
WebQuest Taskonomy
This site, also by Bernie Dodge, describes the most common types of task formats, suggests ways to optimize their use, and links to examples of each kind. He says, "The task is the single most important part of a WebQuest....A well-designed task is doable and engaging, and elicits thinking in learners that goes beyond rote comprehension."
Your school throws out several hundred tons of trash each year. Landfills are filling up quickly, and the costs of disposing of trash have gone up 40% in the last ten years. Our school is spending thousands of dollars to dispose of trash. Much of it could be recycled saving the school money that could be focused on education, and saving the environment. We will create a plan for our school that addresses these questions.
- How can our school help the environment by identifying trash that can be recycled?
- Can we turn these recycled items into products that we can sell and make money for our school?
Your grandparents are from another state, and they are planning to visit you. While they are visiting they wanted to see some of the most important sites, and they need guidance. Take on the role of state tourism director. Create a video, pod cast or Website would convince your grandparents or tourists to come to your state. Be sure to answers the questions.
- Why should tourists visit our state?
- What sites should any tourist visit?
Wolves and other predators were wiped out in our region as farming expanded. In a large national park not far from our community, park managers have developed plans to reintroduce the wolf. Working in teams, take on the role of a rancher who raises livestock near the park, the park manager, environmentalist and homeowner who lives with their children near the park. Together you must answer develop a policy for reintroducing wolves to this park by answering these questions.
- What are the consequences of eliminating predators from our ecosystem?
- Should we reintroduce wolves to the park?
Recharge the Battery: Free Range for Fowl?
A recent TV news cast said that mass producing chickens in a battery- or factory like conditions- was bad for the chickens and bad for our health. Your job is to investigate. Is raising in chickens in a huge battery bad for the birds and bad for us? What can you and your parents do to that is good for chickens and humans? Use your answers to these questions to convince your parents whether they should buy battery raised chickens and why or why not.
(Adapted from the work of Dan Roberts, Saltash School.)
Writing Authentic Engaging Tasks
Creating Essential Questions
This Galileo site outlines the key components of effective essential questions.
Learning Activity Checklist
Use the categories titled Engaging Task and Problem-Based Task to help write a strong task. Using the checklist encourages you to write tasks that use action verbs. In the examples above students would: Make (a decision). Recommend (a plan of action). Change (an opinion). Solve (a complex problem).
WebQuest Taskonomy
This site, also by Bernie Dodge, describes the most common types of task formats, suggests ways to optimize their use, and links to examples of each kind. He says, "The task is the single most important part of a WebQuest....A well-designed task is doable and engaging, and elicits thinking in learners that goes beyond rote comprehension."