The Library of Congress

Lesson Home

All History is Local

Teacher Procedure: Creating a Web Page for the Arkansas Memory Project

Lesson Preparation:

Print out copies of the handout, Student Guide: Creating a Web Page for the Arkansas Memory Project, for distribution in class.

Lesson One (one class period):

1. Distribute the handout Student Guide: Creating a Web Page for the Arkansas Memory Project.
2. Introduce the assignment, referring to the handout.
3. Discuss the question of what makes "good" writing for Web pages.
4. Discuss the challenge of writing for a particular audience, in this case eighth graders, and go over questions to be addressed with this audience in mind.
5. Form teams of 3-4 students each. Make sure that at least one "experienced" Web page producer is in each group. Encourage students to team with persons having related Arkansas Memory topics (e.g., same region, same time period, same subject matter, same type of primary source.)
6. Review keywords, concepts, and approaches used in online searching, as needed.
7. Working in the library, the computer lab, and/or the classroom, teams search, find, and print out at least three examples of history Web pages. The three examples chosen must include:
   • Two student-produced pages
   • One introductory page from a related American Memory collection
   • A set of Internet Search Notes from each team member to be turned in at the end of class.

Lesson Two (one class period):

1. Each team brings to class printouts of the three sample sites that they have selected.
2. Using the checklist, Criteria for Peer Review of Web Page, each team analyzes what works and what doesn't in each of the three sample sites.
3. The team completes a checklist for each page, to be turned in at the end of the class.
4. Each team presents to the class five observations, which they consider the most important, about each of their sample sites.
5. The group discussion generates criteria to be incorporated into the Criteria for Peer Review of Web Page worksheet and used in evaluating the Arkansas Memory Project Web pages that we will create.

Lesson Three (one class period):

Audience

1. Explain to students that the next level of design and writing depends on the specific audience(s) for a Web page. The Arkansas Memory Project Web page is intended to provide primary source materials and accurate historical analysis on a topic related to Arkansas Studies, and in a form that will be useful to students and teachers in those schools. All schools in Arkansas are required to offer one semester of Arkansas History sometime between grades 7-12. The Arkansas Memory Project Web pages are aimed at prospective students and teachers from these grade levels.
2. Explain to the students that in preparing text and layout appropriate to this grade level, they must address certain questions:
   • How will this audience find a particular Arkansas Memory Web page in the first place?
   • What topics or themes will this audience start with?
   • What questions will junior high students be trying to answer? Senior high students? Their teachers?
3. Direct students' attention to the handouts for more specific questions.

Key Words and Concepts

1. Discuss with students the issue of formulating useful search words and research questions.
2. Using a copy of the ADE Arkansas Studies Curriculum Guidelines [?? Bad Link], show students how to locate the historical period and topic relevant to their own project.
3. Select 3-5 key terms within that topic that relate most closely to the topic of the Web page.
4. Make sure that each team adds these terms to the student’s Criteria for Peer Review of Web Page.

Significance and Context

For the last half of the class, students need to address other key questions:

1. What is the significance of the primary source materials selected for the collection?
2. What additional background information does the audience need in order to understand the "significance" of these specific documents?
3. What is the "connection" between this event in Arkansas, local, or family history and the larger events and themes in American history?

To help answer these questions, students can search the Library of Congress’ American Memory collections.

1. Direct students to use keyword searches and also to browse the titles of collections. Searches may also be performed according to general topic, time period, or format of the artifact.
2. Students should find at least one item related to their topic and collection.
3. Students should keep track of this search process on the Internet Search Notes worksheet. ??To be created??

Lesson Four (one class period):

1. Have students bring printouts of their draft Web pages to class.
2. Students begin the process of critiquing their draft Web pages.
3. In each team, have students complete the flowchart section of their Criteria for Peer Review of Web Page worksheets, showing how each of the Web pages is organized.
4. Indicate on the worksheet which pages, images, and links are intended to answer which research questions or to appeal to which audience (Junior high student? Senior high student? Teacher?)
5. Have each member of the team peer-edit the other team members' Web pages.

Lesson Five (one class period):

Give students time to work on revising their Web page design and content based on their peers' critique.

Lesson Six (one class period):

1. Have students bring to class printouts of their revised Web pages.
2. Each of the students now subject their Web pages to a final peer-edit by each member of their team, using the Criteria for Peer Review of Web Page worksheet.
3. Review the content of each finished Web page and upload the pages to the server at the Arkansas Memory Project site.