Premier League Webquest

Most, if not all, of your students will have used the internet for a number of different reasons. They may use it for work, to study or just for entertainment. Some may have also used it to improve their English :)

In this lesson, we take a look at Webquests and how they can be used in and out of the classroom to improve motivation and to encourage reading.

What is a Webquest?

"A WebQuest is a Constructivist approach to learning in which students not only collate and organize information they've found on the web, they orient their activities towards a specific goal they've been given."  Phillip Benz

In other words, webquests are mini-projects in which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied by the Internet. They are an easy way to incorporate the Internet into the language classroom and are often group activities that lend themselves to communication and the sharing of knowledge. They can also be motivating as students often view the tasks as 'real' and/or 'useful'.

The lesson that follows can be used in a computer room if you have access to a sufficient number of computers, or the computer part of the lesson can be completed at home by the learners.

To read the lesson plan click on PROCEDURE at the bottom of the page.

Procedure

1. Discussion

Divide the class into small groups. Write the five questions on the board and ask learners to answer the questions together.

1. What do you read about on the Internet?
2. Do you read about football in English? Why/why not?
3. Do you think reading about football can improve your English?
4. Which team would you like to know more about?
5. What would you like to know about the team you have chosen? 

Tell the learners to write down the best answers from the group. Monitor your learners, looking for interesting answers. After your learners have finished discussing and have written down their answers, nominate members from each group and ask them to share their ideas with the class.

2. Read

Premier Skills English > Skills > Read > Stories >  Are you ready? 

Ask the learners to read the article and write down 5 things that are new in the 2014/15 Premier League season. 

3. Read: Feedback

Ask the learners to compare their answers in pairs or small groups. Get learners to make predictions for the new managers, players and clubs in the Premier League.

4. Task

Tell learners that they are going to find some information on one club in the Premier League. They can do this individually (at home) or in pairs/small groups in a computer room. With the information they get they will give a short presentation to the rest of the class about that club.

Distribute handout 1: Notes for club presentation

Ask learners to choose one club from the 20 and complete the handout using the information on the club pages to help them. Each pair or individual should have a different club, so try to encourage your learners to choose a team that they don't know much about.

5. Presentation: Preparation

Give learners time to find the information that they need to complete the handout (20-30 mins should be sufficient) and then put them with a different partner to practise their presentation. Learners should try to incorporate some of the phrases that you give them on handout 2. Give the learners about 15-20 minutes to prepare.

Distribute handout 2: Useful phrases for presentations

6. Presentation: Perform

Depending on your teaching context you could either get your students to give their presentations straightaway or do them the following lesson. Depending on class size it may be better for your students to give thir presentations in small groups rather than the whole class.

7. Presentation: Listening

When learners are listening to each other it's usually a good idea for them to have some sort of listening task. This could be as simple as thinking of a question or two at the end of the presentation. Alternatively, you could give out a blank copy of handout 1 and learners could use it as a checklist to see if the speaker covered everyting they were originally asked to cover.

8. Presentation: Feedback

Ask learners which club they learned most about.