Grade: 7th Grade Teachers: Nathan

Miller (SLMS)
Stephanie Rush
Content Topic: Making Your Own Webpage
Standards for the 21st Century Learner Goals
Standard 3: Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as
members of our democratic society.

Skills Indicator: 3.1.4 – Use technology and other information tools to

organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can
view, use, and assess.
Benchmark: Use appropriate media and formats to design and develop
products that clearly and coherently display new understanding.

Dispositions Indicators: 1.2.3 – Demonstrate creativity by using multiple

resources and formats.

3.2.1 – Demonstrate leadership and confidence by presenting ideas to others

in both formal and informal situations.

Responsibilities Indicator: 3.3.4 – Create products that apply to

authentic, real-world contexts.

Self-Assessment Strategies Indicator: 3.4.2 – Assess the quality and

effectiveness of the learning product

Connection to Local or State Standards

Content Standards for Grade 7 English Language Arts: ELA7W2
The student demonstrates competence in a variety of genres.
The student produces technical writing (business correspondence:
memoranda, emails,
letters of inquiry, letters of complaint, instructions and procedures, lab
reports, slide
presentations) that:
a. Creates or follows an organizing structure appropriate to purpose,
audience,
and context.
b. Excludes extraneous and inappropriate information.
c. Follows an organizational pattern appropriate to the type of
composition.
d. Applies rules of Standard English.
Nets Students Standard 1: Students demonstrate creative thinking,
construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using
technology.

Overview:
As a component of a 7th grade unit on writing, students will produce a
webpage using Microsoft Word that provides information about themselves.
Students will follow a research pathfinder provided by the SLMS to learn
about creating a webpage, and they must also include at least one resource
about web design that is not listed on the pathfinder. Students will then use
the information they have read to produce a personal webpage that conveys
their information in an effective manner. Upon completion of the assignment
the students will complete a self-assessment and will present their web
pages to the class. The essential questions are: What is the purpose of a
webpage? How do color choices determine the effectiveness of a webpage?

Final Product:
A personal webpage

Library Lessons:
Students will come to the computer lab adjacent to the media center where
the SLMS will present them with a short lesson on using Galileo and the other
online databases to find relevant and accurate information. Students will
then use the research pathfinder provided by the SLMS to begin developing
ideas about how they want their page to look. After working through the
pathfinder, the students will use markers and/or color pencils to make a
sketch on paper of how they would like to format their webpage.

Assessment:
Product: The teacher and the SLMS will use a rubric designed by the
teacher and the SLMS to critique the presentation based on the criteria for
creating an effective webpage as laid out in the directions for the
assignment.

Process: The teacher and the SLMS will review the web pages throughout
the class period to ensure that students are following the proper steps and
using the correct formatting for their pages. They will also be checking to
ensure that the students are using relevant and accurate resources for the
one that they have to find on their own, and that they are documenting the
resources used.
Student Self-Questioning:
Did I completely understand my task?
Did I follow all of the steps and formatting requirements to produce an
effective web page?
Was my presentation effective in communicating the information about
myself?
What could I have done differently to improve the quality of my web page?

Instructional Plan
Resources Students Will Use:
Online Subscription
Database(s)
Websites
Books
Reference
Nonprint
Periodicals/newspapers
Other(list): Microsoft
Word

Instruction/Activities
Direct Instruction: The SLMS will use the projector in the media center to
demonstrate to the students how to use Microsoft Word to quickly produce
an effective web page that is both visually appealing and informative. The
SLMS will also use the projector to demonstrate how to use the school’s
databases and the internet to find reliable and accurate sources of
information. Finally, the SLMS will give a short presentation using
PowerPoint that highlights some of the basic guidelines and best practices to
follow when designing a web page.

Modeling and Guided Practice: Students will use the computers in the
lab adjacent to the media center to begin working through the research
pathfinder and searching the school’s subscription databases and websites
while receiving input from the teacher and SLMS regarding the choice of
sites and the relevancy of the information found. The student will also begin
exploring the design features of Microsoft Word while asking the SLMS about
the quality of the layout in an effort to produce an effective design.

Independent Practice: Students will use the information they have

collected to create a web page that is effective, informative, aesthetically
appealing, relevant, and accurate.
Sharing and Reflecting: Once everyone has completed their web page,
each student will present their web page to the class using the projector in
the media center. After seeing everyone’s presentation, students will write
down two things that they saw on other web pages that they would use on
their own if they were to make another web page.

Research Pathfinder:

http://nmillermswordwebpage.pbworks.com/w/page/35205069/Front
Page

Exit Questionnaire Name:

___________________

1. Did I completely understand my task? If not, why?

2. Was my web page effective in communicating information about me?

Explain
whether or not you thought the other students in the class gained
knowledge about you
after having seen your web page.
 4. What could I have done differently to improve the quality and design of
my web page?

Rubric
Web Master's Asst. Teenager Playi Senior Citizen Playin
CATEGORY Web Master (4) (3) ng (2) g (1)

Background Background is Background is Background is Background detracts

exceptionally attractive, consistent consistent across from the readability of
attractive, across pages, adds to pages and does the site.
consistent across the theme or purpose not detract from
pages, adds to the of the site, and does readability.
theme or purpose of not detract from
the site, and does readability.
not detract from
readability.

Color Colors of Colors of background, Colors of Colors of background,

Choices background, fonts, fonts, unvisited and background, fonts, unvisited and
unvisited and visited visited links do not fonts, unvisited visited links make the
links form a pleasing detract from the and visited links content hard to read or
palette, do not content and show do not detract otherwise distract the
detract from the continuity. from the content. reader.
content and show
continuity.
Graphics Graphics are related Graphics are related Graphics are Graphics seem
to the to the theme/purpose related to the randomly chosen, are
theme/purpose of of the site, are of good theme/purpose of of low quality, OR
the site, are quality and enhance the site, and are distract the reader.
thoughtfully reader interest or of good quality.
cropped, are of high understanding.
quality and enhance
reader interest or
understanding.

Links All links point to Almost all links point Most links point to Less than 3/4 of the
(content) high quality, up-to- to high quality, up-to- high quality, up- links point to high
date, credible sites. date, credible sites. to-date, credible quality, up-to-date,
sites. credible sites.

Copyright Fair use guidelines Fair use guidelines are Fair use Borrowed materials are
are followed with followed with clear, guidelines are not properly
clear, easy-to-locate easy-to-locate and followed with documented OR
and accurate accurate citations for clear, easy-to- material was borrowed
citations for all almost all borrowed locate and without permission
borrowed material. material. No material accurate citations from a site that
No material is is included from Web for most requires permission
included from Web sites that state that borrowed
sites that state that permission is required material. No
permission is unless permission has material is
required unless been obtained. included from
permission has been Web sites that
obtained. state that
permission is
required unless
permission has
been obtained.

Interest The author has The author has tried The author has The author has
made an to make the content put lots of provided only the
exceptional attempt of this Web site information in the minimum amount of
to make the content interesting to the Web site but information and has
of this Web site people for whom it is there is little not transformed the
interesting to the intended. evidence that the information to make it
people for whom it person tried to more interesting to the
is intended. present the audience (e.g., has only
information in an provided a list of links
interesting way. to the content of
others).
 Total Points _______
Reflection
Having a more technology related lesson to work with definitely helped me
on this assignment. Given my daily job, this was much more closely related
to the kind of thing I have to do anyway. On top of that, Stephanie was a
tremendous help in getting this together, as this was a lesson that she had
previously taught. I took the lesson plans that she had and added to and
improved them as I saw the need. The lesson that we have produced is
definitely far more detailed and better thought out than the original lesson,
having benefited from two points of view and two different backgrounds. As
I began to put this lesson together, I became somewhat shockingly aware of
the lack of material dealing with this kind of topic. There is very little current
material available through Galileo or through the school media center that
would lend itself to a lesson such as this. I was able to find plenty of
information about creating a web page from the year 2000 and earlier and
more current materials about careers in information technology, but not
specifically about web design, especially using Microsoft Word. We put
together our own short PowerPoint presentation to cover the main ideas for
the students to keep in mind as they created their pages to supplement the
materials I was able to find on the web.

As we began teaching the lesson, I became keenly aware of just how lacking
our students are in terms of technology literacy. As a technology specialist, I
am involved in the 8th grade technology literacy assessment that the state is
beginning to roll out and will make mandatory in the next year or so. If the
classes we had are any indicator, we are not at all prepared for a technology
literacy assessment. Most of the students know what Microsoft word is, and
that you type in it, but that is the extent of it. We are going to have to do a
much better job educating our students on the basic principles of technology
as it will relate to their everyday life if we expect them to be successful
citizens.

When we went into the lab and started the assignment, I did a quick
presentation using the projector on how to create a web page using
Microsoft Word. I just put together a quick page, put some basic information
on it, added a few links, changed the background colors, etc… just to give
the students the “how to” information that they would need to create the
web page. I then gave them a quick tutorial on using Galileo to access the
different databases available for middle school aged students, particularly
SIRS Discoverer. After this, we gave them the link to the research pathfinder
and gave them time to read through it and begin making their page.
Much to my chagrin, what basically happened was the students listened to
my presentation, they read through the pathfinder, or at least I think they
did, and then they almost in unison produced web pages that looked pretty
much exactly like my example. In hindsight, I guess I should have thought
about what I would do in their shoes. The shortest distance between two
points is a straight line, so they felt no need to reinvent the wheel. They
knew exactly how to mimic what I had done, so that is what most of them
did. When I teach this lesson in the future, I will have to come up with some
kind of alternative to producing a working example for them as they watch
me do it. I believe the best way may be to show them a number of examples
of good web pages, discuss what makes them good, and then let them
develop their individual pages.

Overall, it was a good learning experience for me if not for the students.
They did achieve the goal of learning how to make a web page, but I hope
that in the future I will be able to find ways to encourage students to use
more of their own creativity.

Work Samples: