MY HERO Website Exploration: MY HERO Scavenger Hunt

by Jerrilyn Jacobs, Taft High School

Grade Level 5-8
Subject English/Language Arts

Overview

The scavenger hunt is a good way to introduce a Web site, as it requires students to explore and search for answers.

Planning for a scavenger hunt is simple. The teacher determines what is important to know in order to use the site effectively and get students interested. Questions are chosen or designed to obtain the desired information. Like all scavenger hunts, the student is asked to go out and find small things, in this case pieces of information, but the process of getting that information is the real lesson.

Students with minimal reading or Internet skills can be guided through the process, using simpler stories and questions. Choose stories in which the content illustrates that MY HERO is a global Internet project, featuring heroes around the world from all walks of life. Encourage students to join this international community by submitting their own hero stories.

Objectives:

Students will develop an understanding of the purpose and content of the MY HERO Website.
They will learn how the hero stories are organized and how to access information on the site.
To motivate students to contribute their own stories to the MY HERO Web site.

Procedure

Prompt students with the following questions:

What information can one find on MY HERO?

How is that information generally organized?

What are the main navigation elements?

How are the stories organized?

What are the standard parts of every story?

What kind of variety exists in the story content?

(e.g., Where are the stories from? Who writes them? Why are people recognized as heroes? What kinds of things are important to heroes? What value choices do heroes make?)

Step One: Preparing the Handout of Questions (or use the Handout provided.)

Create a form with space for short answers to questions about the main elements and content of the MY HERO site. Use your own questions or choose from the following to get started. Note that some questions are very basic and the answers easily found, while others require actually scanning or reading stories for the answers.

Adapt the level of questions to match your students’ computer literacy skills.

Choose the number of questions based on the amount of time you have to spend on the computer looking for the answers.

Choose a mix of easy-to-answer questions and ones that require scanning or reading stories to find the answers.

Step Two: The Hunt is On!

Students log on to www.myhero.com and search for the answers to the Scavenger

Hunt questions, filling in the handout as they go along.

Step Three: Discussing the answers

You can have a straightforward question/answer session or you can turn it into a game as follows: (The game requires that there be more questions in the Scavenger Hunt, so that every student in the class has an opportunity to answer at least one question.)

If you have Internet-connected computers in the room, open up the MY HERO website. Otherwise you may want to copy several MY HERO pages to show the class what the pages contain and how the site is used. The most useful pages to copy include the home page, the main pages for Search, Create and the Directory, along with a sample story.

A. Number students 1-2-3-4, and have them divide into groups.

B. Ask each group in turn, calling on a different person in that group each time, to read the answer they found to a specific question. If the answer is correct, group gets 1 point.

If the answer is incorrect and no one else in the group can answer the question, it goes to the next group.

Whichever group answers the question correctly gets the point. After the correct answer has been given, discuss why there was a problem arriving at the answer, highlighting the process the winning individual went

through to find the correct answer.

C. The team with the most points wins. To reward the winning team, use the heroes they found interesting as

the first MY HERO stories to read together as a class.

Assessment

Teachers can assess student collaboration and final Scavenger Hunts with the following rubric.

1: Unsatisfactory: Students work in a minimal collaborative fashion and get less than half of their items correct.

2: Satisfactory: Students work well in a collaborative fashion and get 80% of their questions correct.

3: Exceptional: Students shine in their collaborative work and get at least 95% of their questions correct.

Standards

ISTE NETS Standards - Students

Research and Information Fluency: Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

ISTE NETS Standards - Teachers

Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility: Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.

Common Core English - Writing K-5

Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

Common Core English - Speaking and Listening K-5

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Common Core English - Language 6-12

Conventions of Standard english: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Common Core Media: 6-12

Speaking and Listening, 2, Grade 7: Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.

Common Core English - Speaking and Listening 6-12

Comprehension and Collaboration 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.