Quest Forward Basics
10 Ways to Use Quests in the Classroom
Whether you use quests as your main curriculum or your supplemental curriculum, here are 10 ways to use quests to engage student in the classroom.
| Instructional Method | Examples |
| Whole class instruction | In activities 1-4 of the quest Reading a Short Story, teachers facilitate a model lesson on annotation using a short story of their choice, which prepares students for small group collaboration and independent annotation later on in the quest. |
| Whole class discussion | In the quest Night (Part 1), students read the memoir Night independently and create journal entries based on their experience reading, periodically coming together in small groups and as a class to discuss their reflections. In Night (Part 2), students develop questions and participate in a Socratic seminar to analyze themes, setting, and characters. |
| Flipped classroom | In King Lear (Part 1), students work in small groups to research one of five topics about the historical and literary context for the play. Students then teach their classmates about the information they’ve synthesized, collaborating on a context bookmark that serves as a reference for the whole series of three King Lear quests. |
| Presenting background knowledge or skills | In Using Graphs to Present Data, students analyze populations of wolves and deer over time on the Isle Royale National Forest. While most high school students have already been introduced to the content and skills in this quest (e.g., qualitative and quantitative data; independent and dependent variables; interpolation and extrapolation; and determining which types of graph to use to present data), they are provided with an opportunity to solidify their knowledge of these concepts and to practice using the relevant skills. |
| Small group collaboration/centers/stations | In Activities 1-4 of Using Measurements and Tools, students discover how to make scientific measurements using proper units and significant figures as well as how to use dimensional analysis to convert among different measurements. In Activity 5, students use a variety of tools at different stations to make and convert among measurements. |
| Individualized learning/pull outs | In the collection Media Literacy: Visual Texts, students have three options for implementing and extending the media literacy skills they develop at the beginning of the unit. The three options include…
|
| Extra practice/extra support | In Probability and Genetics, students learn how to apply probability laws to solve genetic problems. The quest Genetics Practice Problems provides additional genetics problems, at varying levels of difficulty for students to practice. |
| Lesson extension | Students learn about the fundamentals of waves, including the anatomy of different types of waves and the wave speed equation, in Waves: Types and Properties. Interested students can choose to extend their learning in Stop Interfering where they discover what happens when different waves interact with each other and evaluate whether glass can really be broken by sound. |
| Student choice | The Integrated Science 3 Unit Forces and Motion provides students with choices for their Mastery Project. After learning why things move, how to describe motion in words and diagrams, and how to apply Newton’s laws of motion, students can choose the context for demonstrating their understanding.
|
| Flexible pacing | In IROTL: Choice Selections in Women and Society, students choose from one of six texts connected to the unit’s theme. Once they choose their text, they set up a personalized plan with milestones for reading the text and completing their analysis and reflection. |
Keep in mind that you can customize quests and adapt them to work with any one of these instructional strategies.