Teaching with the Web:
A Collection of Online Treasure Hunts and Webquests
Teacher’s Guide to The Value of SMMEs
This activity encourages students to gain a deeper appreciation of an important sector in the national economy today—small, medium and micro enterprises. This topic can be considered an extension of Unit III (Mga Industriya sa Ekonomiya) of the Araling Panlipunan 4 curriculum, as well as some topics included in Unit IV (Mga Pagbabago Tungo sa pag-unlad ng Pilipinas).
The relevant learning competency is “natatangi ang wastong saloobin sa paggawa, pagiging produktibo, at sariling pagsisikap”—in a word, entrepreneurship.
In addition, the activity helps students appreciate real-life applications of basic concepts in Economics that they learned in previous grading periods, such as supply and demand, measures of productivity, the production cycle, and factors affecting business and trade.
The webquest is in English because it also has applications for the 4th Year English curriculum. The webquest topic falls under the theme for the third grading period, which is “Education for Sustainable Development.” As outlined in the 2002 curriculum for English 4, this theme includes: values for sustainable growth and development, networking, self-management, and recognizing and seizing opportunities. Moreover, the webquest requires students to write a research-based profile of an SMME, which qualifies as a term paper, one of the major writing requirements in 4th English classes.
However, it is not necessary for the Araling Panlipunan and English 4 teachers to implement the webquest in collaboration with each other. The Araling Panlipunan teacher is encouraged to translate the webquest into Filipino, the mandated medium of instruction for this subject, and to require students to write their profiles of SMMEs in Filipino. In this regard, the Araling Panlipunan teacher may collaborate with the Filipino teacher.
This webquest also teaches students how to:
1. Use the World Wide Web as a learning resource;
2. Use word processing software for formatting essays;
3. Conduct an interview using an interview plan or guide;
4. Write a profile of an industry;
5. Assess their own work and those of their peers; and
6. Work cooperatively and collaboratively in order to produce quality student output.
Before starting on the webquest:
1. Make sure that you are thoroughly familiar with all of the components of the webquest.
2. Prepare a work plan, in which you indicate the inclusive dates for the various steps in the webquest process. The time allotment for each step in the webquest process is indicated in the Process section. But you need to identify the actual dates for every step. Your schedule should be such that the webquest is completed in four-five consecutive weeks, not spread out over a long period. This is to ensure a focused interest in the project.
3. Prepare the materials that you will need to distribute to students during the orientation session, such as copies of the webquest (print the printer-friendly version of the webquest, which is marked with a printer icon on the webquest index page of the sourcebook) and a form letter requesting SMME proprietors or owners to grant your students an interview in order for them to complete the webquest. Your letter should explain the purpose of the webquest.
4. Coordinate with the Center Manager the use of the computer center (this is one reason why a work plan is needed) and let him/her know of any technical assistance you might need (especially for Steps 2 and 6).
For every step in the webquest, here are the things that you need to do:
Orient your class to the webquest. It is recommended that you give a print copy of the webquest to each group. You can also do the orientation in the computer center, where groups can read the electronic or soft copy of the webquest on a computer assigned to them.
Carefully go over the Task and Evaluation sections of the webquest with your students. And then go over the Process. Encourage students to ask clarificatory questions and be ready to provide answers.
Form your students into groups of 4-5 members each, using the grouping method you decided on prior to starting the webquest. Make sure that there is a mix of abilities in each group.
Give the groups time to decide on the distribution of roles among them. Make sure that the assignment of roles is by consensus among the group members. No one member should decide which roles the other members will play, to ensure that all members will be motivated to participate in the activity.
Schedule a class session at the computer center for your students to go over the websites listed in the Resources section.
In the next class session, lead a discussion of the definition of SMMEs and, with your students, draw up a list of local SMMEs that they can do profiles of. Have each group pick their own SMME (discourage duplication) or have them draw lots.
Distribute copies of the form letter (with the addressee space left blank for students to fill in) and remind your students that they have only two weeks to complete the interview of an SMME.
As students do their data gathering (interviews of SMMEs), monitor how they are doing by asking about it during your regular class sessions (for instance, during the first or last 10 minutes of the session).
Ascertain whether students are writing a draft of their section of the profile on schedule. Member 4 might need to use computer center facilities for downloading and printing photos. Encourage all Member 4’s to do so during their vacant period.
To help students complete this step in the webquest process, schedule a special class session (at least three hours but preferably the whole day) at the computer center on a Saturday. If you are doing this webquest with more than one section, schedule the work of each section on different Saturdays (one section per Saturday).
Coordinate the use of the computer center with the Center Manager. In addition, you and the Center Manager should provide technical assistance as the groups encode the text of their SMME profiles, scan photos, and layout the whole profile using whatever word processing software is available at the center.
As they finalize their presentations, remind the students to consult or be guided by the scoring checklist given in the Evaluation section of the webquest.
It may be possible to collect the finished group outputs at the end of the special session for Step 6. If not, set the deadline for submission of finished work. The deadline should be within the following week, or even just two days later, since this is just a matter of putting the finishing touches on the SMME profile.
Collect the group outputs on the due date, congratulate your students for completing the webquest, and then do a short (10 minutes) synthesis of lessons learned.
Upon collecting the group reports, distribute copies of the self-assessment and peer evaluation forms for students to fill in. This is individual work. Each student should therefore have a copy of the forms. An alternative is to write out each form on a piece of manila paper and post these in the classroom for students to copy. The students can simply write their answers to the forms on a piece of paper.
After the webquest (when all group outputs (SMME profiles) and self-assessment and peer evaluation forms have been submitted):
1. Evaluate the group outputs using the scoring checklist, assign points to the self-assessment and peer evaluation, and compute each student’s final grade or score for the webquest.
2. Let everyone know his/her score for the project.
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