Back to Portfolio

1
Back to Portfolio
2
A startling discovery has been made by your
employer, Time Magazine! Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry is NOT a fictional place
created from the mind of J.K. Rowling, but an
actual real-life school nestled deep in the heart
of England. Hogwarts has been discovered by one
of your magazines spies and your team of
reporters has been appointed the job of going
undercover to find out more!
3
You and your team have been granted an all
expense paid trip to Hogwarts, where you will be
posing as students for one week in efforts to
find out as much as possible about the real lives
of key characters in The Sorcerers Stone, and
then return to the magazine to develop a
front-page, full-spread, exclusive story (with
maps and pictures!) releasing the news to the
public. All necessary items will be provided for
you, including robes, wand, owl, and school
materials. All you will need to do at this time
is report to platform 9 ¾ at the Kings Cross
train station by 830am tomorrow morning and
await further instructions. You will find four
airline tickets from New York City to London in a
manila envelope on your doorstep this evening.
4
Your team will consist of precisely six people,
and this assignment must not be discussed with
anyone other than the members of your group for
the sake of secrecy. Four of these must be
reporters (preferably with prior photography
experience), the other two members (editor and
publisher) must stay in New York to begin working
on the finished product and to compile the
information obtained from the four reporters on
location in England. Contact between the New
York City base and England base will be made each
evening to exchange any information discovered.
Each reporter will be assigned one of the
following duties
5
Learn your way around Hogwarts and its grounds
(lake, forest, Hagrids house, etc.). Be sure to
include maps and pictures. Please include
information and pictures of the various magical
creatures that dwell there. Interview Harry,
Ron, and Hermione. Learn their schedules, their
feelings about school, each other, and the world
around them. Be sure to include pictures of them
and vivid descriptions of any magic they perform,
and their living quarters, especially of the fat
lady entrance picture. (Important do they know
there are books and a movie about them? Are they
being paid for it? How much?)
Obtain as much information as possible about Q
uidditch. This must include interviews with
players / coaches, pictures of practice, people
flying, and (if possible) memorabilia from an
official game. Explore the surrounding area.
Locate Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, obtain
official wizardry coinage, visit Gringotts bank,
Oleanders, Eeylops Owl Emporium, and interview
town folk. We need as much information as
possible about how the town feels about Harry
Potter, whether they know about the books and
film, and their feelings on You Know Who.
6
While we would love to interview Dumbledore, we
fear he would disapprove of our intrusion and the
exposure Hogwarts will receive as a result from
our visit. Therefore, again, we must stress
total secrecy. The New York City base duties are
as follows Editor You will be the one indi
vidual permitted to speak with the reporters
while they are on location. You will be allowed
to speak with each of them once a day and they
will be mailing you pictures and maps to be
included in the article. Be sure to include all
important information listed above (in each
reporters assignment) in the finished article.
You are in charge of polishing the article for
press. Publisher You will be concerned with
the layout of the article, the location of the
pictures within the article, the decision over
which pictures are to be included and excluded,
and the cover of Time for this months special
edition on the discovery of Hogwarts. It is
crucial that all members of the group are listed
as authors and compilers, as we feel this will
indeed make the six of you famous beyond your
wildest dreams.  
7
Listed below are some of the many resources
available to you to help you on your quest. Good
luck!   http//pages.zdnet.com/professormelyora/
hmh/id3.html http//www.mugglepride.com/ http//
hogwartsrpg.itgo.com/ http//www.quidditch.com/
http//www.geocities.com/milo_carson
http//www.networkcablestore.com/wiz.asp
http//homepage.ntlworld.com/ma.rathfelder/Katy/Ha
rryPotterorigins.htm http//www.i2k.com/svderark
/lexicon/w_food.html http//www.geocities.com/ron
_hermione_fanclub/ http//www.scholastic.com/harr
ypotter/ http//www.harrypotter.com/  
8
Each member of the group will receive the same
grade, this will ensure a total group effort
project. The grade will be determined from the
finished product.   Character information
15 pts. Hogwarts information
15 pts. Quidditch information
15 pts. Diagon Alley/Hogsmeade 15 pts.
Editing
15 pts. Publishing and layout 15
pts. Pictures and Maps 10
pts. Total points
100 pts.
9
The benefits of creating this article are
two-fold your understanding and vision of the
novel have strengthened, and your abilities to
create a magazine article complete with
interviews, maps, and pictures have been
sharpened. You now have a clearer comprehension
of what information is pertinent when recounting
that information for an audience. How has this
project affected the way you feel about this
story? Do you appreciate the story more? Less?
What is another story youve read that would work
for this assignment?
10
This Web Quest was designed for English students
grades 7 through 10. Due to the recent interest
of students (and adults alike) in Harry Potter,
an assignment like this doesnt feel like an
assignment, but more of an adventure! Of course,
the extent to which the project is taken differs
greatly amongst the grade levels, but you are
guaranteed to get a beautiful final project each
and every time. This assignment is an excellent
tool to introduce a unit on media or journalism,
as well as a unit on science fiction. (Beware
the parents disapproving of Harry Potter, make
sure this is an approved novel in your district,
or send home letters for the parents to sign.
Although I see no harm in studying it, some
people are very much against the idea of magic,
especially dark magic.)