Lesson I
Navigating a Website
Objective: Students will learn how to navigate and
find information on a website. Students will read and listen to oral,
written and electronically produced texts and performances of former
slaves from the Civil War era.
Materials:
-- Computer with Internet connection.
-- Projector to project website
Procedures:
1. Project the website:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
This webpage is part of the American Studies Program website at the
University of Virginia.
2. Today we will be reading a website together.
3. When people try to search for information on a website, they often
run into trouble. What kind of trouble do they have?
4. List discussion items on large chart paper. Students may note these
problems: finding information that is not what you need, finding too
much information, finding information that you are not sure is true,
finding only a little information that is on your topic
5. Today we will look at the clues that a website gives us about finding
information.
6. What do you know about the word navigation? Where can we find some
clues for navigating this website?
7. Click on some of the choices. Practice the idea of getting back and
going forward. Remind students of the back button on the top toolbar
of the browser.
8. Imagine being the person who organized this site. Can you draw a
picture of how the site seems to be organized?
9. Can we guess what we expect to find before clicking on an item on
the main page of this site?
10. Students go alone or in twos or threes to try navigating and exploring
the site.
Side note: Please note that the page used in this project was checked
for validity and is at a reading level suitable to the students, even
though it has not been updated for a number of years (refer to http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/inform.htm
for points about how to review a site for accuracy and reliability).
Optional discussion: What is a URL and what does this
URL tell us about the possible contents of the site? What does this
URL tell us about the origin and/or purpose of the site?
Optional activity: Scavenger hunt. Pick a person to
get to know. Fill in the scavenger hunt sheet with information about
that person. (See Assessment which can also use this hunt for assessment.)
Assessment: Can students navigate a website to find
information?
Can students predict what they expect to find when they click on a link
on a website? Can students complete scavenger/hunt task sheet?
Scavenger Hunt suggestions:
Who was interviewed?
Why were they interviewed?
Who was Walter Calloway?
Where did he live?
Who was Fountain Hughes?
Where did he live?
When was he born?
What do we know about his grandfather from listening to the sound file?