Preparation
This project requires two important preparation steps:
- Establish email contact with another teacher in an English-speaking classroom, anywhere in the world, who is willing to participate in this project. Make sure the teacher of the partner classroom understands the project, makes a firm commitment to it, and is aware of the following expectations:
- The stanzas should be written collaboratively in groups, not individually (how this is actually done, however, is of course up to the teacher in the partner classroom).
- The groups in the partner classroom should respond in a timely manner to each request for a new stanza for the ballad.
- The class will continue to participate until there is mutual agreement that the ballad has reached its conclusion.
- Each group in the partner classroom will need a single contact person to whom email will be sent (it is not necessary for each contact person to have his or her own email account, but this will be helpful).
To find another teacher with whom to collaborate, you can visit the Apple Learning Interchange site (www.ali.apple.com), go to the Forums area (click Collaboration on the ALI main page), and add a message to the Language Arts Round Table forum. You can also visit the Global Schoolhouse site (www.gsn.org) and post a message on one of the discussion boards in the Communication Tools section. Or, go to the Forum in the Communications section of the Apple Learning Series Secondary Language Arts & Social Studies Web site (sign in at www.apple.com/learningseries)
and post a message saying that you are seeking a partner classroom for this project.
- Create a basic Web site for this project before students are ready to post their initial pages. This site should consist of a single main page with links to as many "placeholder" pages as you will have groups. By setting up empty placeholder pages ahead of time, you will greatly simplify the process of uploading pages later. Each placeholder page (either a copy of the Web Ballads Template or an empty html page) should be given a unique filename that you will then assign to a specific group. The group will use that filename for its Web page, so that when the page is uploaded to the server, it will replace the placeholder page, preserving any links you have set up in advance.
The main page of the site should describe the project and list the participating partner classroom. The links to the group pages will initially have to be group numbers or similar designations, but once groups have titled their ballads, these titles can replace the group numbers. You may want to consider asking some student volunteers to help you design the site. For help creating the Web site, see UsingNetscape Composer, Adding a Graphic to a Composer Web Page, Working With Tables in Netscape Composer, Moving Back and Forth Between Netscape Composer and Navigator, and Adding Links in Netscape Composer. The site can be published on the Web using an Apple iTools account (see Setting Up an iTools Account and PublishingYourWebPagesWith iTools).
Duration
Four class sessions, plus portions of others over a period of several weeks
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