Agenda

What Makes a Good Classroom Web Page?

1. Read some articles on what different people thing you should include on a classroom web page.
2. Explore classroom and project web pages from our school, Dr. Donald J. Leu’s literacy website and/or other local elementary schools.
3. Read some of the articles on design elements of a web page, the do's and don'ts, and tips for readability.
4. Develop a list of the characteristics of effective classroom web pages that you think are most important. What appeals to you, what doesn’t?

Evaluate Your Web Page

1. How does you web page compare? What do you want/need to add-general information, content, resources, interactivity? Do you have content that needs to be improved or removed? Is your information current?
2. Is your page easy to navigate? Do you have to scroll a lot to get to important information? Is it readable and easy on the eyes? Are the different pages appealing to and appropriate for the audience intended, parent page versus kid page? Is it a page parents might want to print, and if so is it in a printable format? Have you evaluated it by the rubric or lists below? Have you had a peer evaluate it?
3. Have you given proper credit/citation to all images and information on your web page?
4. Brainstorm ways to integrate new features into your own page or project. Use handouts, peer help and/or FrontPage help menu to implement your plan.
5. Pick a project or idea that you will be able to manage and keep current. Implement one idea at a time. Don’t display unfinished pieces.

Articles on What You Might Include

on a Classroom Web Page

Ways Elementary Teachers are Using Class Web Pages http://www.kidbibs.com/learningtips/lt48.htm#Class%20Web%20Pages
Elementary teachers are discovering many ways to use class web sites to support their students' learning.

Top Ten Reasons to Create a Classroom Web Page, Andrea Mulder Slater http://www.kinderart.com/teachers/webpage.shtml

Designing A Website For Your Class: What Should a Teacher Site Have on It? http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/design_site/have_on_it/

Designing A Website For Your Class: The Bottom Line
http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/design_site/bottom_line/

Empowering Student Learning with Web Publishing http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/jan99/publish.htm
Some useful information to get started. (Links to the examples don’t work.)

Do's and Don't of Web Design

Rubric for Classroom Web Pages http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/webpagerubric.html

Everything Else: The Top Fifteen Mistakes of First Time Web Design
http://doghause.com/top15.asp

Website 101 By Jennifer Stewart Checklist for Your Website-
Nine key elements that can make or break a website.

Color it Effective: How Color Influences the User http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/frontpage/HA010429371033.aspx 

Dos and don'ts for achieving usability in design http://www.usabilityfirst.com/websites/design.txl#DosAndDonts

Web Fonts : Type, Size, Color and Alignment  http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/webfonts/index.htm
This article briefly examines four key elements of font usage, and provides simple interactive exercises to help you better understand font design principles.

100 do's and don'ts, SpiderPro's StyleGuide http://www.spiderpro.com/pr/prstgm001.html

The Do's and Don'ts of Web Site Design: Part 3 http://www.killersites.com/articles/articles_dosAndDontsPart3.htm

Sample Classroom Web Pages
http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/index.htm
From the Literacy Web at the University of Connecticut

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