To: Miss Jennie Enger

From: Michael L. Bashford MLB

RE: Unit 3 Project Proposal: Classroom Website Design and Form:

For possible use in future Language Arts class

Date: 9 July 2010 Revised 15 July 2010

The project I have selected for my individual project associated with Unit 3 of English 320 will be to
design and create a web site form and skeletal frame work that can and will be used as the basis my future
Language Arts or English class website. Contemporary classes, schools, and school districts have strived
to remain current with the technological demands of their students, parents, and educational communities
by implementing and offering public and private access to information related to the school. Most schools
now have websites with both public and private portals that allow the general public access to school
information, such as class schedules, student population demographics, school lunches, and extra-
curricular schedules while offering parents or students access to more confidential information such as
grades, academic performance reports, standardized testing results, and student portfolios. Please find
hereafter a brief description of the situation addressed by my project and the objectives, methodology,
timeline, and intended benefits of the project I am proposing.

Situation:
As stated above in the introduction, school districts and teachers are striving to meet the technological,
informational, and accessibility demands of their students, parents, and community that have become
accustomed to using the Internet to find and access information in a timely and convenient manner.
Unfortunately, due to economic considerations, many schools and school districts often put the web
hosting and software for electronic grading in place as well as have the school web site professionally
designed and maintained, but are forced rely on each educator or faculty member to create class related
web pages that become part of the overall school website. Because image is so important in our society I
think more attention needs to be paid to the impression made by an educator’s window into their
classroom, which is why I wish to take this opportunity to create a personable, welcoming, yet
professional looking website that I can use in the future as a place where students, parents, and
community can obtain more information about my Language Arts classroom, curriculum, content, and
even obtain further information about literature, writing, and English.

Project Summary
As a class assignment, the project will consist of hypothetical fictionalized pages for a junior-level class
based on my personal research into what works well. Specifically, the intended website project will
include: a home page, which will be central, the most thoroughly complete, and most important to the
project; and pages for parents, students, calendar, assessments, grades, literature, composition, and
resources. Therefore, the final project submitted will consist of nine individual pages.
Details: Writing
The writing associated with webpage development can be extensive and convoluted. For this project, the
evaluation of writing will concern itself with the format and style associated with the surface writing of
the website pursuant to the rubric that follows, below. In other words, the surface writing consists of that
which a user will encounter while using or browsing the website, such as: the clarity of directions,
hotlinks, navigation, and page content; personable language used to create an inviting feeling for the
website; use of concise language for quick browsing; appropriate diction associated with parent, student,
administration, and public users; and proper or appropriate formatting dependent upon the type of page or
document being viewed. Surface writing does not include any of the technical aspects underlying the
design, development, or structure of the pages of the website, such as: html, xtml, java, frames, or C++
coding or any of the planning notes associated with these subjects.

Details: Visual or Technological Components

The visual aspects of webpage development should be obvious and readily apparent, but for this project,
the evaluation of visual or technological components will concern itself with the aesthetics of the website
and not the technical or underlying technological components. In other words, are the graphics that are
used on each page visually appealing and appropriate for a classroom website. The graphics included will
consist of photos, clipart, hotlink buttons, viewable frames, design elements (i.e. background images,
effects, wipes, transitions, and general view), and the overall layout of the website. Do these visual
elements or graphics add to the appeal of the site, do the connections or associations of elements with the
content of the page make sense, are the elements used appropriate for all users, such as the general public,
administration, parents, and of course, students. Are the visual elements used aesthetically pleasing,
inviting, and laid out so as to not be overwhelming or distracting to a casual user who is browsing the site
or information? The evaluation of visual or technological components should follow the rubric that
follows, below.

Objectives:
Learning Objectives:
Though I have designed, drafted, and implemented websites for myself and others in the past, the
experience I have with website creation is nearly 20 years out of step with current software, websites, and
the tools or accessories available today. Therefore, my learning objectives for this project are as follows:
 I will learn how to use website development software applications, such as Microsoft Word,
OpenOffice, and WordPress to create a user-friendly, personable, and easy to navigate website
structure that can be used as the basis for future real world application with my future classes.
 I will learn through observation and research of existing school and class websites what it is that
makes a website accessible, user-friendly, and most importantly a personal representation of an
educator and their pedagogical philosophy so that everyone in the learning community (student,
parent, faculty, and community at large) find themselves wanting to use the site.
 I will become more proficient at offering valuable information in concise, pleasant, and graphic
media presentation so that website users can quickly, efficiently, and enjoyably find the
information they are looking for.
 I will make contact with current educators, faculty, and student teachers I know to obtain
information and opinions about what they have found work the best for websites they have either
created or use on a regular basis so as to create a website based on informal research.
Practical Objectives:
 I will through this project gain a better understanding of what the producers and users of a class
website believe work best so that the website I create for my future classes will be as user-friendly
as possible.
 I will learn through this project more efficient design, tool and software use, and layout for the
electronic portfolio assignment required in English 320, thereby circumventing starting cold on
that project when work begins in the next few weeks.
 I will be able to express my personality and my pedagogical philosophy through a medium that is
readily expected in today’s electronic information society to the advantage of my future students,
parents, administrators, school, and educational community.

Methodology:
As a future teacher and prior website developer, I intend on using my prior experiences to create a layout,
plan, and graphic design that I believe will contain the type of information students, parents, and school
will want contained in a Language Arts or English class website. Through informal research by discussing
my intent, goal, and aspiration with fellow student teacher candidates, parents, and educators I hope to
perfect the initial design into a skeletal framework that can be adjusted in the future to meet the needs of
my future educational community. I will use the following steps and methods to achieve this goal:

 I will first research the various website development software available to me that will not require
the purchase of additional software, namely Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, and WordPress, to find
one that offers the most provocative visually appealing web pages while remaining easy to use.
 I will create an outline of the information, tools, and visual graphics I think would suit a class
website on paper.
 I will interview and discuss website creation and use with college instructors, high school
educators, and classmates to determine what contemporary educational website users find
efficient, attractive, and user-friendly.
 I will, after the two foregoing steps, make revisions to my original draft or outline to incorporate
what I have learned during the research process and correlate that information with what the
development software applications offer ultimately recreating the layout and design to most
closely match what I have learned.
 I will then create a hypothetical website for a Language Arts class that incorporates design,
functionality, software tools, and educator or student information gathered while interjecting my
personality and pedagogical philosophy to make it personable and inviting to future users.
Timeline:
The following timeline table outlines the anticipated chronology of the steps necessary to incorporate the
previously mentioned methodology:

TASKS WEEKS NOTES

*Week 1 = 7/5 – 7/11, Wk 2 = 7/12 – 7/18, Used to check
Wk 3 = 7/19 – 7/25, Wk 4 = 7/26 – 8/1. Project due 8/4/10. 1 2 3 4
progress of tasks.
1. Project proposal turned in to Miss Enger (due 7/9). *
2. Research/learn software applications. * *
3. Rough outline or draft of information to be included. * *
4. Interviews and discussions with educators and students. * *
5. Incorporation of research results into layout revision. * *
6. Project progress report to Miss Enger (due 7/28). *
7. Final revisions and draft sent to interviewees for opinion. *
8. Final project submitted to Miss Enger (due 8/4). *

Benefits:
Though a benefits section is not required within the purview of this memorandum it should be noted that
the benefits of this project are touched upon within the objectives section, above. Succinctly, the benefits
of this project are a good foundation in knowledge, planning, use of tools, and a skeletal framework will
exist when I need to create my class website one day; and I will have some experience with the tools and
design necessary to create an effective and personable electronic portfolio for this course.

Evaluation:
Miss Enger will evaluate the progress and final product of this project using the grading rubric as set forth
in the English 320 Unit 3 Project outline and directions. I will evaluate my own success and failures in an
evaluative memorandum to be turned in both with the progress report on July 28, 2010 and at the
conclusion and submission of the final project for Miss Enger’s evaluation. More specifically, in addition
to the normal course-related rubric set forth by Miss Enger that is associated with writing, the project will
be evaluated pursuant to the rubric that is on the following page.
Rubric
Personal Project ____/150 pts
-------------------------------------------------------------
Miss Enger’s Course Rubric ____/50 pts
(Specifics correlate with course expectations with regard to content, organization, editing/style,
proofreading/correctness, document formatting, and research required for the project. An example of the
type of rubric expectations can be found within the Unit 2: Employee Recommendation Report Rubric.)

Because a multitude of diverse users will use the website in the future and due to the hypothetical and
fictional nature of the website project, it is difficult to gauge user responses to the website due to the
subjective nature of what is user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and functional. For these reasons, I have
attempted to remove any such personal opinion related aspects, but care should be taken when assigning
point values in the following rubric where personal perspectives or opinions are required.

Content ____/50 pts

____(50) nine individual web pages are available for viewing to include: home, student, parent,
composition, literature, calendar, assessments, grades, and resources. The information contained within
each individual web page is appropriate for the heading of the page and is clear, concise, and functional
for the viewer of the page reflecting thought and consideration for what the page should contain.
____(40) only seven pages are available for viewing or the information contained within the pages
available falls short of expectations found in the project proposal.
____(32) less than seven pages are available for viewing or the information contained falls very short of
expectations found in the project proposal.

Writing Components ____/25 pts

(Other than those outlined by Miss Enger in her course-related expectations rubric.)

____(25) the diction, syntax, vocabulary, and tone of the writing throughout the website reflects the
purpose and nature of a Language Arts class website and is appropriate for all possible users, including:
general public, administration, parents, and junior-level students.
____(20) some of the writing is inappropriate for one or more of the demographics of possible users of
the website, but not to the extent of being grossly inappropriate, too juvenile, or unprofessional.
____(16) the writing contained within the website falls short of what would be expected of a Language
Arts teacher, school website, or falls short of serving the purpose and nature of a Language Arts class
website.

Visual Components ____/25 pts

____(25) the design, layout, graphics, and visual elements of all pages are appealing, educationally
oriented, and related to what a viewer would anticipate or expect to be found in a junior-level Language
Arts class website reflecting planning, thought, and due consideration for the project.
____(20) some of the design, layout, graphics, and visual elements are either too cluttered, too minimal,
or are not appropriate for a junior-level Language Arts class website. More thought, planning, or attention
to detail is required.
____(16) the visual elements of the website are overwhelming, too sparse, and/or inappropriate for the
intended viewers of a junior-level Language Arts website and it is obvious that these elements were
included without planning, proper time, or consideration.
 Reading References

Anderson, Paul. Technical Communication: A reader-centered approach. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning:

Boston, 2011. Print.

The textbook gives great examples and insights into the development, design, and production of

online websites such as the one I intend to create as a class website.

Gurley, R. Gabriel. OpenOffice.org: Conceptual Guidebook eBook. OpenOffice.Org, 2010. Print. A

downloaded compendium to OpenOffice.org downloaded from the creator’s website that gives a

step-by-step guide to using OpenOffice.org applications, tools, and software.

Microsoft. Microsoft Learning: Make your site accessible. Microsoft Corporation: Washington, 2010.

Web. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office-live/make-your-site-accessible-HA010336559.aspx?

CTT=1

An online walk-through of how to make a website more accessible through the design features of

Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office for Mac 2008.

WordPress.org. Codex: Pages. WordPress.org, 2010. Web. http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages

One of many “how to” pages created by WordPress.org to help users create pages using

WordPress.com. Though this site’s “how to” instruction does note that WordPress.com quick page

creation is a bit more restrictive, I believe these how to manuals will help me to create a web page

or site using the application, perhaps even better than using WordPress.com’s quick page

developer tools.

Other Resources

Gulon, Sam. Detroit Lakes Middle School: Quest. Detroit Lakes, 2010. Web.

http://ms.detlakes.k12.mn.us/quest/quest/Home.html

A middle school website devoted to the interdisciplinary team “Team Quest” at the Detroit Lakes

Middle school, a portion of which is designed by Mrs. Samantha Gulon to be used as a reference.
Krebsbach, Karen. Moorhead High School Language Arts. Moorhead, 2010. Web. (I am currently unable

to locate the page, though I know it exists. I have contacted Mrs. Krebsbach via email to see if she

can help me locate the page as a resource for review of current education websites.)

Nichols, Cyndy. Contemporary Women Writers. Fargo, 2010.

http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/331Online/Homepage.htm

One of four websites designed and maintained by educators to be used to review layout, design,

and accessibility.

Theile, Verena. Shakespeare. Fargo, 2010. Web. http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~theile/index.html

This is one of four websites created by educators to be reviewed for design, layout, and

accessibility.