WebQuest: Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Introduction

Saint Patrick’s Day takes place on 17th March, the day on which Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, died. St Patrick was the one who converted the Irish people into Christianity and there are a lot of legends about him. For example, the one on which he charmed the snakes and they drowned in the sea, or another tale shows us that he used a shamrock to explain the idea of Trinity. St Patrick’s Day is the day of the national holiday in Ireland and it is also celebrated by Irish people all around the world. It is celebrated by attending a parade, drinking and eating Irish food and drink and by wearing some national elements as the shamrock, the Irish flag, etc.
This web quest is designed for the second stages of secondary school (2º and 3º levels of ESO).
Through this activity I want students to learn some basic aspects of this important day for English speakers all over the world specially in Ireland and to understand a bit more their culture and traditions.

Task

You will be required three activities in order to succeed in the activity:

- The first task consists on the compilation of all the information you can about St Patrick’s Day, its history, the history of the patron saint etc. and the setting out of this work.
- The second task consists on a 75 to 100 words essay in which you must include all the vocabulary about this day that you have learnt in the activity (shamrock, pot of gold, Leprechaun, etc.). The topic of the essay will be free, so you can talk about whatever you want.
- The third task will be a compilation of pictures of a Saint Patrick’s Day parade and the main elements of Irish culture.

Process

First Task: it will be in groups of five.
- Each component of the group must be in charge of finding information about one of the following themes: history of St Patrick’s life and legends, St Patrick’s Day parade, the Leprechaun, the shamrock, Irish culture.
- Next, they have to summarise all the information they have found.
- They have to set out this information in front of the rest of the students, using all the material they want to support their exposition: pictures, music, Power Point, etc.

Second task: this task will be individually.
Each student has to hand in an essay about 75-100 words dealing with St Patrick’s Day. This will be a free topic essay but you must include the vocabulary you have learnt.

Third task: in groups of five.

The students have to compile a set of images and pictures of a Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Ireland. It must include also a showing of all the elements we can find this day related to the Irish culture: the shamrock, the flag, etc. It requires a Power Point resource or at least the exposition of the picture and the consequent explanation of it.

Resources

Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. History.

St Patrick’s life and legends.

St Patrick’s Day.

St Patrick’s Day parade, Ireland.

St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin.

St Patrick's Festival 2008.

St Patrick and other Irish links.

Evaluation

Each part of the activity will be evaluated separately. In the first task, the participation of all the members of the group will be necessary to pass the activity. This requires and egalitarian work of all members.
In the second task, each pupil will be evaluated individually. The teacher will take into account the precision of grammar, vocabulary, and spelling, as well as the originality in the writting.
The third part will be marked only in terms of participation of the group.
The use of the Internet resources will be taken into account throughout the activity.
An evaluation sheet will be provided also to the students to evaluate for themselves what they think about the activity in general.

Conclusion

At the end of the activity students will be able to write about St Patrick’s Day using the concepts and ideas they have learnt in the activity. It is a cooperative activity in which students will develop the faculties of synthesis, analysis and creation. They will be able of extrapolate this sense of cooperation to everyday life and their social capacity and communication skills will be improved.