Lord of the Flies Webquest Review

The Lord of the Flies webquest I found (http://www.longwood.k12.ny.us/lhs/
teach/webq/lmasterjohnlord/index.html) is one of the better webquests I have seen for this book. What I like about webquests in general is that they allow for students to take charge of what their activities and products, and they are open for varying creative responses. The longwood quest asks students to do three things, create a survival manual with a map of their island, choose and make a poster of a shell to be used as a symbol of the group, and create a human rights poster detailing the rules and rights of everyone on the island. I would do this webquest as a group project, because it is ready-made for differentiation. It can easily be differentiated for student learning styles and abilities.
The survival manual allows for a lot of creativity because students use their imagination to chose which tools they find on their crashed plane. The shell poster allows students to display their artwork, and encourages them to thinking about symbols and subtle meaning. The human rights poster is a great idea. It sends them to Amnesty International websites, and touches on the heart of the book, which is how human beings treat each other. This higher-level task encourages students to make text-to-world connections and think critically about why the author chose this subject.