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Transforming Text
Module 2, Activity 4.6 - Writing for the Web
Teacher Page
(student page for this lesson)

Introduction:

In this lesson, the students complete the process they started in Introduction to Web Design and Making Web Pages. Students think they have completed their pages - then get an additional assignment: "You think it is complete, when suddenly you are required to add a new page, a feature article. In the interest of time, you decide to re-work an existing feature article and add it to your web site. This will require changing the writing style and adapting and updating the content." This simulates a real world experience.

Resources:

- checklist in (.doc) or (.rtf)
- evaluation page in (.doc) or (.rtf)
- their print feature articles

Activities:

Task One - Writing the Right Way
Students will be transforming their features for the web by reading and article and searching for information on feature articles for the internet. The link and more information are found on the student page for this lesson. Once they have completed their searches, you might choose to bring the class together and have students share how they answered the questions on the student page for this lesson.

Task Two - Transforming the Feature
Once students have created the rules and read the article, they are ready to actually adapt the feature article that they wrote in the Print Journalism Module. As students are editing remember to have them focus on actually re-building the article. Stress that while the ideas will remain the same, the entire style must change, and extras must be added.

Once students have completed the feature article they are ready for proofing, revising and debugging their pages. Many students do not spend adequate time on this process. If you make the completed feature due one day, then spend the next day on revision and editing, students are more likely to complete the process properly.

While the student page for this lesson calls for them to conduct their own revisions, students would be wise to have someone else test their pages and look for errors. Either build that time into class or ask students to have a friend or family member navigate through the pages for errors and do some "beta testing".
Objectives:

Students will be able to
- understand the requirements for reporting news using radio, television, and the Internet
- identify conventions of feature stories
- develop feature writing skills
- apply understanding of print journalism to the electronic media
- recognize writing as a process of constructing meaning for themselves and others
- relate the structure of the work to the author's purpose and theme
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Instructional Strategies:

Task 1 - Reading for Meaning and Guiding Questions (Direct)
Task Two - Web Design (Independent)
Task Three - Reflective Writing (Indirect)

Task Three - Write about Writing
Now that students have completed writing their on-line newspapers, they are ready to do some reflective writing. Have students respond to these five questions in their notebooks:

  1. What was the hardest thing about the project? Why was it hard?
  2. What did you learn about writing for the web?
  3. What is the most difficult thing about revising (not proofing) your own work?
  4. What did you like best about your on-line newspaper and why?
  5. What would you do differently next time?
Reflective writing can be a valueable starting point for good dialogue. You may choose to extend the learning through sharing and partner discussion or add the reflective writing to the handed-in materials for the web site. This would allow you to consider student responses during the writing conferences as a part of the negotiated assessment.

Assessment and Evaluation:
Students will assess how they felt their projects went through the reflective writing as a summative assessment. In addition, student/teacher writing conferences and a negotiated assessment would be an excellent tool for assessing the web sites. Students should also complete and hand in the checklist so process can be assessed.

 
   

Last Updated
May 30, 2005

 
 

On the Nature of Web Journalism
   
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