Web Design and Literature
Students Create Web Pages to Promote a Favorite Author
Whether learning to design web sites or integrating technology into the curriculum, designing a site to promote the life of an author encourages the use of many skills.
When learning how to design and create web sites, students are exposed to a variety of tasks depending on the technology resources available and the teacher's comfort with the design features. Students can take these skills to create an accessible project to promote literature by developing a site that features an author. This project incorporates research skills, artistic and web design, and writing skills.
Before introducing the project, decide whether to have students work independently or in small groups. Middle school students may need to be provided with a list of suggested authors whereas high school students would benefit from determining which author to promote without a list. Author choices can be limited, such as Early American or science fiction writers, depending on the objectives of the course. Create a rubric or a list of requirements so students know what to expect when graded.
Before starting the web design, students should research their chosen or given author. Information should include the author’s childhood, famous books, obstacles or challenges, adult life, awards and recognition or other information deemed important or appropriate. Students should also find appropriate images and keep track of their references.
Proposal
Students should submit a proposal for their web site. This can be assigned as a short paper, memo or other class appropriate method. Students should include the author, important information from their research and a list of appropriate references for the information and images. This allows the teacher time to inspect the references for accuracy and provide students with feedback about their choices.
Challenge
Provide students some boundaries while they are creating the web site. The following design points will help students know what is expected and teachers to determine how to assess the project.
- The site must have a meaningful heading/banner. For example, “The Life and Times of William Faulkner.”
- Include one page for your bibliography.
- The first page must be named index.html (or index.htm).
- File names should be named according to the subject matter (for example, faulknerPersonal.htm for personal information).
- Keep all file names meaningful (files and images). For example, instead of “this is a picture of a red car.jpg”, name this image, “redcar.jpg”.
- The page title (blue bar) (<title>…</title>) must be reflective of the page. For example, William Faulkner – Main Page.
- The sub-heading must indicate which page this is in your site. For example, Faulkner’s Education.
- The first page should provide a quick summary of what this site is about.
- The other pages should be dedicated to one thing (for example, Personal Information or Education).
- All pages must have consistent navigation abilities.
Reflection
Once students finish the work on the site, have them each reflect on their individual experiences. This can be done in a variety of ways depending on the teacher's preference. Self evaluation forms or rubrics that allow students to grade themselves and short writing assignments in which each student explains his or her reasons for including certain images, information or web design features are valuable ways through which students can reexamine their choices. Also encourage students to provide suggestions to improving his or her performance in the future.
