Author Posters: A Web Quest

	Do you have a favorite book?  Who wrote it?  With two of your classmates, create a poster that tells about the book's author and tells other books he/she has written.  This Web Quest will help you to discover new things about an author whose book(s) you like, and will help you to locate other books written by this same author that you may come to love
as much, maybe even more than the book you have already read and enjoyed.  With your classmates you will create a poster to hang in the Media Center to tell others about your favorite author.

Index To Web Quest:

Task

Process

Resources

Evaluation

Teacher's Footnotes

Credits

Task:

You will work with two of your classmates to create an author poster to display in your school library that contains the following:

• a picture of the author your group chooses
• biographical information about your chosen author (including author's full name, nationality, hometown, date of birth if available, and one or more additional facts)
• a list of books written by this author with notes on which books are available in your media center
• reasons why you like this author and/or the author's books
   

After completing your author poster project you will evaluate your own work and the work of the classmates who worked with you.  Your work will also be evaluated by your teacher/librarian.  The rubrics for these evaluations are given at the end of this web quest.

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Process:

To help your group divide the responsibilities in completing this web quest, there will be three management positions and three working assignments.  Each student is to accept one management position and one working assignment.

CAUTION TO STUDENTS: DO NOT ALLOW THE DECISIONS OVER WHO DOES WHICH JOB TAKE UP TOO MUCH VALUABLE CLASS TIME AND PREVENT YOU FROM COMPLETING YOUR WEB QUEST!  Suggestion:  If you can't agree, draw numbers and let the smallest number pick jobs first.  Then move on.

Management Positions

• Discussion Leader.  This person leads discussions within the group for such tasks as selecting an author to study and identifying reasons why the group likes this author.  This person makes sure everyone gets a turn to speak and that no one student does all the talking.
• Secretary.  This person is responsible for writing out on paper in his/her own words the completed biography and the reasons why the group likes the author.  Put your best writer here.
• Task Master.  This person is responsible for keeping everyone in the group on task.  He/She should discourage playing around or talking about unrelated subjects.  This is not a job for a class clown.

Working Assignments

• "Techie".  This person obtains the author's picture and enters the picture and the group's data into the computer using Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, or other similar software to create the finished poster.
• Reporter.  This person researches information to include in the biography and takes notes about it back to the group.
• Librarian.  This person compiles a list of books written by the selected author.  He/She also checks the library catalog and notes which of these books are currently a part of the library collection.

Getting it together:

1. Choose jobs.  Don't spend more than 5 minutes on this or you won't get your project finished during the class period.
2. Select an author everyone likes.  It may be helpful to look for favorite books first to get ideas on which author to research.  Allow Discussion Leader to lead here. Try to reach an agreement in five minutes so you will have time to complete the total assignment.
3. Once the author has been selected, each student should begin his/her working assignments.  Using the resources listed in this web quest, locate one or more web pages about your author.  Depending on the availability of computers, it may be necessary to stay in the group until the web page(s) have been located and printed out.  Then divide up the pages as needed so each may locate the information he/she is responsible for.
4. As soon as the "Techie" has copied the picture file to a diskette, he/she may begin creating the poster.  When the biographical information has been written and the list of books completed they should be given to the "Techie" to add to the poster. (Helps for the "Techie")
5. The group needs to review what they have learned up to this point and list the reasons they like this author and or the author's books.  Allow the Discussion Leader to lead, the Secretary needs to write it out the best way, and the "Techie" needs to type it onto the poster. Be sure to include somewhere on the poster:  "By ....." and name the students who worked together to make the poster.
6. The group then reviews and proofreads the poster making suggestions and changes as needed.
7. When all are satisfied with the poster, print it out and turn it in to the teacher or librarian.
8. Complete evaluation rubrics for how you worked together as a group.

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Resources:

Author Studies Homage by Scholastic.
Read Across America by Yahooligans. (Scroll down and view links to authors on right.)
Authors and Illustrators on the Web by the Children's Literature Web Guide.
Children's Books by About.com (Children's Authors and Illustrators)
Children's Authors by AskJeeves.com
Index to Internet Sites: Children's and Young Adults' Authors & Illustrators. Indexed by Internet School Library Media Center

Online Catalog or Card Catalog in your school media center

Tips for using online catalog: Use Author's last name (comma), first name as a search term.  To locate books about the author, search under "subjects."  To locate books written by the author, search under "authors."

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Evaluation:

The students are to evaluate one another's participation in this activity using the following rubric:
Pro = Classmate did top notch work, was enthusiastic, and did his/her best.
Amateur= Classmate made a stab at doing something, but goofed off a lot too.  He/she was not very serious about this project.
Bench Warmer = Classmate was lazy, didn't do his/her part and just didn't care.

Make a copy of the chart below and have each student choose of the three categories (Pro, Amateur, or Bench Warmer) to evaluate each students work.  In the yellow spaces the students evaluate their own work.
 

Did you enjoy working on this project?  If so, you might arrange with your school Media Specialist to do a special project in which you create a video in which the three of you can tell about your author. Each of you could also tell about one of the authors books and why you like it.  The Media Specialist can then show your video to other classes to encourage students to read those books.

Teacher or Librarian's Evaluation of the Author Card and of the Group's Ability to Work Together:
 

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Teacher's Footnotes:

This Author Posters: Web Quest should be completed in one or two class periods.  This web quest is an attempt to make it possible for school media specialists who see their classes once a week on a fixed schedule to finish a research project without dragging it out over several weeks causing students to lose interest. (This effort at accommodating a fixed schedule should in no way be used to defend a fixed schedule for school libraries or to imply that it is a desirable circumstance for any school library).

After this Web Quest was designed and added to my web page I discovered another way to have students present their information.  I have created templates for use in making bookmarks printing both front and back sides of the bookmark.   The template can be found in my Technology Nook.

Click here to see standards addressed (South Carolina)

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Credits:

This page was adapted from Author Cards (author of web quest not found) (http://www.west-bend.k12.wi.us/webquest/ms/author/Default.htm).

Author Posters: A Web Quest was written and adapted by Janice Green, Media Specialist at Battery Park Elementary School, Nesmith, SC.

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