Conclusion

    Through the completion of the at home assignment, and viewing of at least a few of the provided links, I hope that the Webquest gives my students an even more enjoyable reading experience with Holes. Also it will ideally facilitate the learning goals of reading comprehension and understanding foreshadowing.
    I think Holes is a phenomenal read, and can be taught in many fantastic ways to teens across America. This Webquest is designed to aid my students in reading a fantastic book, and hopefully with make their experience enjoyable rather than forced.

Home Assignment

While reading the book the students will be asked to plot the instances of foreshadowing, and the steps they take as they try to follow and solve all of the connections and mysteries in the story. This can be done in a variety of ways: Journaling, Blogging, Colorful hand written chart/projects, or even an Excel Sheet. This is basically the average reading response, but the motive is to make sure to plot major foreshadowing events, as well as important plot points.
Students will bring these to class at the conclusion of our reading of the novel, and will be prompted to explain how their specific creative idea helped them understand and enjoy the novel better.
The grading will be based on the students creativity, as well as how effectively they found/sought out the important points, and foreshadowing moments. It will be very obvious if they did not read the book I believe and it will show in these projects.
The scale will be check minus, check, and check plus.
Check minus—will only be given if it is clear that the student did not perform the task that was given to them

Check—if the work was satisfactory, all instructions were followed, and they produced a somewhat original response

Check Plus—students that went above and beyond the task through quality of work, creativity, and originality

Helpful Links

(Most Helpful if read alongside a reading of the novel as certain places/animals etc. pop up):

Yellow Spotted Lizard and their real life poisonous lizard cousins!


Lake Victor, Texas- A similar account of a town/lake that disappeared much like Green Lake, Texas…See last paragraph especially


Texas Wikipedia Page/Includes Maps


Louis Sachar Wikipedia Page/Includes Bio, Book List, Etc.

Descriptions of some of the most notorious outlaws of the America West

What is foreshadowing?


Are there really Juvenile deliquent camps?---YES

Explanation

The large amount of foreshadowing at the beginning of the novel, the subplots, setting, and history of the Yelnats family could be extremely tedious to follow for my young adult students. Sachar’s use of foreshadowing as well as the extreme challenge of reading comprehension that the book has to offer are the two main things I would want my students to take away from a reading of Holes. So, I have created this Webquest with links to descriptions about some of the setting, animals, and places the characters encounter along the way to help them solve the many mysteries that the Newberry Award Winning Holes has to offer. Also provided are a link to Louis Sachar’s Wikipedia page, which includes a list of all his novels. Lastly I added a link to an explanation of foreshadowing as a literary device. Hopefully this Webquest will help my students, achieve the learning goals of improvement in reading comprehension, and a fair understanding of foreshadowing.

Intro/Plot Summary

Holes by Louis Sachar, is a fantastic Young Adult book that should be read by at least every teen in America. The book offers both a window for complex thought, in solving many mysteries, as well as an opportunity for students to look into the lives of young adults struggling through a corrupt juvenile detention camp. The protagonist Stanly Yelnats and supporting cast of X-Ray, Armpit, Zero, The Warden, Mr. Sir, amongst a host of others, provides an interesting study into a wide dynamic of lives. Along with a dynamic character scheme, this award-winning book uses multiple flashbacks, subplots, and tremendous foreshadowing to challenge and spark the interest of its reader.

Stanley Yelnats comes from a cursed family, and when his bad luck causes him to be wrongly accused of theft, he ends up at Camp Green Lake (a correctional facility for young adult offenders). While at the camp there are multiple flashbacks to the fate of his great great grandfather, that caused the curse on the Yelnats family, as well as the subplot of outlaw Kate Barlow, and the former lakeside town of Green Lake, Texas. What once was a beautiful lake in the early 1900’s with a flourishing town around it, is now the site of the campers punishment. Stanley, Zero, Armpit, X-Ray, and the other campers dig holes everyday under the supervision of the harsh management of The Warden, Mr. Sir, and their “Mom.” We soon learn that the boys are digging to find the treasure of an old western outlaw Kate Barlow who use to live in the town where the camp is now located. The Warden and her family have been digging and searching for years, and now the campers are unknowingly involved in the hunt. However, Stanley soon begins to piece many old legends and family stories together to realize what the boys true purpose of digging is.

Eventually all of the subplots and foreshadowing come together to create an incredible story that is hard to put down, culminating in an amazing ending that I will not spoil.