Literary Fan Club

by Joyce L. Morris Ed.D. , University of Vermont, adapted from Deanna Boshoven, M. P. Henck Intermediate School

You are the president of a fan club for your favorite author. Eager for literary discussion and insights into your author's works, you set up a mailing list and wait patiently for the flood of subscribers. After a week one member signs up. His first message asks the question, "What books did this author write?" This is not exactly the kind of literary discussion you had in mind. You decide to create some promotional materials to target the right audience for your fan club.

Background Information

A WebQuest is an inquiry oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. Web Quests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on gathering and interpreting information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

WebQuests were developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University. His site at http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html contains a matrix of subject and age grouped WebQuests as well as supporting information about webquests.

Critical Attributes of WebQuests
Web Quests of either short or long duration are deliberately designed to make the best use of a learner's time. There is questionable educational benefit in having learners surfing the net without a clear task in mind, and most schools must ration student connect time severely. To achieve that efficiency and clarity of purpose, Web Quests should contain at least the following parts:
1. An introduction that sets the stage and provides some background information.
2. A task that is doable and interesting.
3. A set of information sources needed to complete the task. Many (though not necessarily all) of the resources are embedded in the Web Quest document itself as anchors pointing to information on the World Wide Web. Information sources might include web documents, experts available via e-mail or real-time conferencing, searchable databases on the net, and books and other documents physically available in the learner's setting. Because pointers to resources are included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift.
4. A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task. The process should be broken out into clearly described steps.
5. Some guidance on how to organize the information acquired. This can take the form of guiding questions, or directions to complete organizational frameworks such as timelines, concept maps, or cause-and-effect diagrams.
6. A conclusion that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains.
(the information above has been copied or adapted from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about_webquests.html, by Bernie Dodge, San Diego State University.

Some other good examples of webquests can also be found at:

WebQuests created by teachers from the Burlington School District in Vermont http://www.bsdvt.org/webquest/

Created by students at UVM in Elementary Education during the Inquiry Block http://www.uvm.edu/~inquiryb

Shrocks Guide of WebQuests http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/webquest/webquest.html

WebQuests written by Memphis K-12 teachers http://www.memphis-schools.k12.tn.us/admin/tlapages/web_que.htm

Saskatoon East School District in Canada. http://sesd.sk.ca/teacherresource/webquest/webquest.htm

The Task

To attract members to your author's fan club you have decided to create your own web pages. You design an advertisement for the fan club and create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list to distribute to new members. You can create these in Microsoft Word and will receive help in putting them up on the Internet.

The Process

Choose an author whom you have read and enjoyed. Research your author to find out details of his/her life:

where and how he/she grew up
his/her personal relationships
his/her works
how his/her work has generally been received
any other area of his/her life which interests you

Develop an FAQ list about your author. What should be obvious to fans of this author? What pieces of trivia would fans enjoy knowing about this author? Remember, your FAQ list should include answers to what you believe may be the most common questions, curiosities, and confusions about your author.
Create a full-page advertisement for your fan club. Include:

a catchy slogan
the goals of your club (what do you envision members discussing?)
a few interesting facts about your author that might grab the attention of prospective members
at least one graphic

Resources

To see some examples of FAQs, try the Elaine Cunningham FAQ , the Isaac Asimov FAQ, or the Tom Clancy FAQ.
Internet Public Library: Ask the Author has questions submitted by students and answered by the authors themselves.
Business Letter Writing is a unit from the Misssissippi State University Agriculture Department that includes both html and pdf examples of letters.
Children's Authors & Illustrators, and their Books contains links to authors and illustrators of children's books.
Women and Literature contains brief biographies of women authors.
Portrait Gallery of American Authors
Author Webliography contains links to other pages about authors.
Middle School Authors from Germantown Public Schools
The Poe Museum
Yahoo's young adult authors
The Literary Menagerie contains still more links to pages about authors.
Yahooligans! - School Bell:Language Arts:Authors
www.fireandwater.com | authors
BookJackets.com
Yahooligans- Read Across America
KidsBookshelf - Bringing children and books together
Children's Literature Page
Hall Kids Authors.com - Children Literature
The Stephen King Fan Club

Evaluation

FAQs, advertisements, welcome letters, and newsletters will be graded on the quality of writing and accuracy of form and content. Is the FAQ complete and accurate? Is your advertisement visually appealing? Is the voice of your letter formal, yet inviting? Did you use correct form in your letter? Is your newsletter visually appealing? Does your opinion essay answer the question of how the author's life is reflected in his/her work?

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3
Advertisement Information	inaccurate information about the author. and little information included shallow research	All information about the author is accurate but research is shallow and information is not particualary interesting	Interesting accurate information about the author is included to draw in the fans.
Slogan	Does not reflect or represent the style of the author.	reflects and represents the style of the author but is not very "catchy"	reflects and represents the style of the author and is "catchy"
Visual Design	No graphics included, no alignment big empty spaces	At least one graphic is included, page is aligned, no big empty spaces	More than one graphic is included, Text is varied and interesting, spacing and alignment are well done.
Grammar and spelling	Numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes	A few spelling and grammatical mistakes	No spelling or grammatical mistakes
FAQ Page Information	inaccurate information about the author. and little information included shallow research Other books not mentioned	All information about the author is accurate but research is shallow and information is not particualary interesting, few other books included, no identification of genre of writing	Interesting accurate information about the author is included to draw in the fans. Includes genre and style of writing. Many other books and awards mentioned.
Grammar and spelling	Numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes	A few spelling and grammatical mistakes	No spelling or grammatical mistakes
Student Webquest
Suitability of sites included/Information and grade appropriate	Information on sites is not age/level appropriate	Information on many sites is not age/level appropriate	Information on sites is age/level appropriate
Spelling, grammar and visual organization	Numerous grammatical and spelling errors in webquest and visually poor.	Some grammatical and spelling errors in webquest and visually satisfactory.	No grammatical or spelling errors in webquest and visually pleasing
Relevant to Author Study.	Webquest is not about a children's author	Webquest is about an author but questions don't help children learn more about the author's style	Webquest asks questions about Author and increases children's awareness of their other books and style.
Feedback from K-12 students	Not included	Little feedback	Good Feedback and questions are included
Rubric for assessing student's success	Not included	Not relevant to questions asked	Relevant and complete
Self reflection about assignment	Not included	Not reflective	Reflection included

Conclusion

Put a couple of sentences here that summarize what your K-12 students will have accomplished or learned by completing this activity or lesson. You might also include some rhetorical questions or additional links to encourage them to extend their thinking into other content beyond this lesson.

Credits & References

Bernie Dodge at SanDiego State University and all the educators who created and shared their webquests, thank you for your work.
Deanna Boshoven, M. P. Henck Intermediate School, Rim of the World Unified School District,thank you for the model and idea that has been adapted in this webqauest.

Last updated on October 7, 2002