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Updated: Dec 1999

A Web Page Review Phase of Development: Early Adolescence English Strands: Speaking & Listening, Viewing, Reading and Writing. Outcome Statements: The English Student Outcome Statements are grouped into four strands based on the language modes of Speaking and Listening, Viewing, Reading and Writing. The four strands are divided into four sub-strands which offer a different way of looking at student performance in each of the strands. The sub-strands are interdependent and should all be considered when making a judgement about a student’s level of achievement in a particular strand. Focus on Substrands - A student demonstrates outcomes in English through the sub-strands: Use of Texts, Contextual Understanding, Conventions and Processes and Strategies. Therefore sub-strands provide opportunities for more specialised analysis in each strand. Learning Area Outcomes Curriculum Framework Strand Statements Outcomes & Standards Framework Sub-Strand Statements Outcomes & Standards Framework Speaking Students speak with purpose and effect in a wide range of contexts. Speaking & Listening Students speak and listen with purpose, understanding and critical awareness in a wide range of contexts. Use of Texts Students demonstrate sophistication and control when making meaning from a text: in this case, a website. Contextual Understanding Students develop a critical awareness of the ways language varies according to the content of a website, and of how that language affects their views of themselves and the world in which they live. Conventions Students demonstrate sophistication and control when making meaning from a text: in this case, a website. Processes and Strategies Students select from a repertoire of processes and strategies by reflecting on their understanding of web page construction. Listening Students listen with purpose, understanding and critical awareness in a wide range of situations. Viewing Students view a wide range of visual texts with purpose, understanding and critical awareness. Reading Students read a wide range of texts with purpose, understanding and critical awareness. Writing Students write for a range of purposes and in a range of forms using conventions appropriate to audience, purpose and context. Background Context Brief Description Student Levels Expected Outcomes Project Timeline   Learning Experiences Browsing for Sites Creation of Students' Own Websites Worksheets Student Examples Assessment & Evaluation Reflection Links to Other Learning Areas Background to the Project The Fiction Factory project commenced in 1997 with the construction by Year 10s, over a semester, of a website focused on creative writing. Fiction Factory www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/ At the Fiction Factory website you will find details of the six open-ended tasks that formed the basis of its construction. Because the site is forever in a state of flux, it has been preserved in its end-of-1997 state on CD-Rom. In addition, archives of older material are accessible from the site. www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/teachers/index.html A full set of teachers' notes, along with assessment tools and resource lists, are also available at the site. Overview of the Fiction Factory Project www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/teachers/overview.htm Evaluation & Assessment of the Fiction Factory Project. www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/teachers/framese3.htm Details of the Web Page Review Project. www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/reviews/index.html Brief Description In pairs or singly, students found and reviewed a website that dealt with any aspect of creative writing on the World Wide Web. Students designed and produced their own websites with the review as content. They then posted their final products to the Web. Click here for the task sheet for this activity. In this unit there are thus opportunities for students to achieve outcomes in Technology & Enterprise and The Arts, provided the links are made explicit. Context The School: Greenwood Senior High School - The school is a well-established co-educational high school in a middle-class region of metropolitan Perth. Resources: All English classes were conducted in the newest computer laboratory, which is housed in our Information Technology faculty. The room contained 25 machines, 11 of which were connected to the Internet. Software included the usual Microsoft stable of Office '97 and Publisher '97, as well as Netscape 3 Gold and a freeware HTML editor called Arachnophilia. Students were supplied with floppy discs and network space to store their work. The Students: The original Fiction Factory website was created by a high ability Year 10 group who devoted a semester to its construction. The semester's work consisted of 6 outcomes based tasks, each dealing with some element of creative writing on the Web. The central objective of the project (which was conducted in 1997 and repeated in 1998) was to produce a web site focused on creative writing. The task detailed here, served to encourage students to explore the state of play. The Website: In July of 1999, the site was moved from a commercial ISP to Greenwood S.H.S.'s own web server: <http://www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory> There are still some loose ends and dead-end links, but things will gradually be cleaned up. Please be patient if some things go nowhere. (Could be a motto for life, really, couldn't it?) Teacher: Ross Manson - Greenwood Senior High School Email:   mansonr@rocketmail.com The Fiction Factory www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory Student Levels in Class Outcomes and Standards Framework Strands Levels Speaking and Listening Working at Levels 5 - 6 Viewing Working at Levels 5 - 6 Reading Working at Levels 5 - 7 Writing Working at Levels 4 - 5 Expected Outcomes Students demonstrate sophistication and control when making meaning from a text, in this case, a web site. Students develop a critical awareness of the ways language varies according to the content of a web site- and how that language affects their views of themselves and the world in which they live. Students use the conventions of Standard Australian English, tempered by their knowledge of an international audience, with understanding and critical awareness when creating a web page. Students select from a repertoire of processes and strategies by reflecting on their understanding of web page construction. Project Timeline Project Duration:   Eight 50-minute periods. Before beginning the activity, the students had already developed significant skills in website design and in using the Web. They therefore needed the equivalent of only about eight 50-minute periods to complete the activity. Learning Experiences Browsing for Sites Students spent about three 50-minute periods browsing and searching the Web to find suitable creative writing sites for review. I gave them places to start looking in the form of a few good directories. I also encouraged them to look for something different, and discouraged them from using sites that simply published song lyrics of popular bands. Once each person had negotiated a suitable site with me, s/he analysed its style, method, organisation and structure and considered what could be improved. The students used a set of criteria on which we had previously agreed and which were listed on a task sheet: Suitability and clarity of content. How it meets the needs of its intended audience. Organisation of information. Ease of understanding and use. Use of graphics. Use of hypertext. Originality. These criteria were intended as a guide, and students were encouraged to add to the list. Creation of Students' Own Websites When students were ready to create their own websites, we agreed on a few practical aspects, such as that all their reviews had to contain links to the sites under review. They wrote their reviews, using Word, on machines not connected to the Internet. This meant those who were not yet ready to post their reviews to the Internet did not occupy the machines with Internet access. The final stage of the process (apart from assessment) involved students posting their reviews to the Fiction Factory site. Worksheets I provided task sheets on paper, and included considerations and elements to keep in mind. Click here to view the 1997 version of one of these sheets. The key template for web page construction is, of course, available on any web page. Just select view document source or view page source. The template for content is not so easy, although students in 1998 used past work to inform their reviews. Students also accessed sites which incorporate reviews of websites, so they could use such material to build their own frameworks. Examples Cnet   www.cnet.com ZDNet   www.zdnet.com Student Examples 1998 Student Reviews www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/reviews/index.html Selected Reviews from the 1997 Class http://www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/archives/archives.htm Assessment & Evaluation On previous evidence, students had indicated achievement at Levels 4 to 7 in Speaking and Listening, Viewing, Reading and Writing. For this activity I developed an outcomes-based assessment grid, which incorporated pointers to these levels, and which gave students feedback about their progress. You can download all assessment tools from the Fiction Factory site. Fiction Factory Assessment Tools www.greenwood.wa.edu.au/factory/teachers/framese3.htm I made it clear to students that any ascribed levels that might be given on this task were only indications of their progress towards achievement of these levels. I recognise that ascribing a level is an on-balance judgement. For a student to achieve Level 5 in Viewing, for example, s/he needs to demonstrate consistent and independent achievement in a range of contexts over time. I made it clear to students that this activity was only one context. I gave space on this grid for comment and student/parent response. Some work still needs to be done as regards assessment. In monitoring the students during this activity I recognised that they generally performed slightly below the levels I had initially anticipated: at Levels 3 to 5 rather than Levels 4 to 7, which they had previously indicated. Although I attempted to rectify this in the second year of the project, the behaviour tended to persist. There are several possible reasons for this: Poor choice of a website for review. Students' obsession with the visual elements of website construction. Students' inability to distinguish between the non-standard language use that is common (and even expected) in websites and the Standard Australian English required for this assignment. Reflection At the end of the 1997 unit, I listed some of the things that I might do differently the following year: Explore alternatives to the Web. We didn't look at IRC or Usenet, let alone non-Internet technologies such as the fax machine. Insist that students establish personal timelines. Some needed a bit of reminding that the year was almost over. Do a bit of formal training in the software prior to commencement-especially in HTML. Explore the idea of an inter-school (ideally international) collaboration. We ran out of time on this. Rotate the tasks a bit - try to put even more emphasis on the expert groups idea. Establish a more precise inquiry-based learning framework. There's room for more let's learn about... as opposed to the you'll learn that... Generally speaking, the students were given as much free reign as possible, but it took them a while to realise that they could explore areas that interested them AND practise English skills as well. The outcomes-based approach would seem to be the key to this. 1998 In 1998 we implemented some of these ideas. We attempted a collaboration with another Perth school and a school in the U.S. The Perth link worked for a while, but we needed to develop more specific objectives for this process. The U.S. link was an abject failure - it didn't succeed for a range of practical reasons, not least the timing of the American school year. The Web remained the centre of our project. It dominates our view of the Internet and it continued to dominate The Fiction Factory. And why not? The original aim was to explore the hypertext medium. My other recommendations were implemented with success. Students in the 1998 class adhered to timelines considerably better than their predecessors. We did a quick course in HTML for two weeks prior to commencing the project. This proved (to me) that skills training does have a place. Students didn't see the need to use Publisher or Word and the multitude of inherent problems with creating Web pages in non-dedicated applications were avoided. The most rewarding aspect of honing the process was the way the learning model was refined into an almost entirely student-centred one. Students generated ideas, they continued (as in the previous year) to become more self-motivated, and the negotiated, outcomes-based assessment system proved to make the classroom a far more relaxing place to be than the traditional model. Links to Other Learning Areas The task would ideally be conducted within a cross-curricular framework. The following outcomes are worth considering: Technology & Enterprise Information Students use appropriate technology skills when designing, adapting, using and presenting information to meet a technology need. Systems Students use appropriate technology skills when designing, adapting and using systems to meet a technology need. The Arts Communicating arts ideas Students generate arts works that communicate ideas. Using arts skills, techniques, technologies & processes Students use the skills, techniques, processes, conventions & technologies of the arts. Responding, reflecting on & evaluating the arts Students use their aesthetic understanding to respond to, reflect on & evaluate the arts. Understanding the role of the arts in society Students understand the role of the arts in society.