Website Planning
Lesson Materials: For the student-facing pedagogical materials needed to teach today’s class, please open the following page: Website Planning Lesson Materials. And here’s a faculty resource on Teaching Podcasts in particular.
Lesson Objectives: Understand how to use Blogs@Baruch and design a visually appealing website; understand how to write a resume; understand the characteristics of an introductory blog post
Connection to First Major Paper/Project: This class helps students learn the steps it takes to build a website, how they could build their resume, and what should go into their blog posts. Students understand assignment criteria better and how to accomplish smaller tasks. Samples used in class help students visualize what their own assignment would look like.
Connection to Course Goals: Regarding helping students compose in a variety of media, today’s lesson prepares students to compose on a website. Attention is also paid to audience, purpose, and genre and how the website affects these elements of a rhetorical situation.
Sequence of Activities: 1. How to use Blogs@Baruch; 2. Elements of Strong Visual Design; 3. How to build a resume; 4. How to write an introductory blog post; 5. How to write a reflection letter
Activities
1. How to use Blogs@Baruch: The professor uses a PPT presentation by Lindsey Albracht, a Blogs@Baruch specialist, to students. The Center for Teaching and Learning can help with Blogs@Baruch via email or in person by appointment.
2. Elements of strong visual design: another PPT identifies elements, such as font choice and size, color, headings and subheadings, etc. These are discussed. A sample website by a visual design specialist, Dr. Dan Liddle is shown to students on the projector and students discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
3. How to build a resume: a sample resume for students with little experience and a longer CV for an academic are shown to students. Differences and characteristics are discussed. Things to do and not to do, like salary demands, are discussed with the assistance of a PPT presentation.
4. How to write an introductory blog post: elements of a strong story are discussed and sample questions are provided to help students write a story of how they became interested in their major. A focus on detail, characters, and dialogue are encouraged.
5. How to write a reflection letter: discuss why a reflection letter is important and what goes into it. Using a PPT, emphasize reflection on the writing process.
Homework: Students read the article, “How Texas Teaches History,” by Ellen Bresler Rockmore, which discusses passive voice and how it can obscure meaning and focus in writing. This reading will be used as a centralizing way of discussing how visual and written language relate to one another. Provided the instructor plans on going forward with the language lessons on Passive Voice and Prepositions, this assignment is paramount to garnering a focus on how language, like visuals, can be used to draw or distract attention and emphasis in writing.