A Pilgrims Journal Thanksgiving Website Project

Website Mission This website was created for students in the 3rd through 6th grade. Students are lead in a web-quest to discover what life would be like as a child on the Mayflower, preceding the first Thanksgiving. Content and Functionality This site is designed around a journal project, where students will imagine that they are about to set sail to a new land as a Pilgrim child. Their pilgrim diary begins with a tale of the journey. Students are sent to various locations on the WWW, reading stories on their level to help them describe the feelings of those children by taking on an identity, and using the actual events in their historical context to create the journal entries. Though the concept of using the hypertext medium for this project allows for flexibility; giving the student previously chosen locations to explore, it also sets the boundaries necessary to focus the student by following in a logical q and a format. All the journal projects will be unique due to the nature of the hypertext medium as well! Organization and Navigation The site navigation begins with a teacher's lesson plan to outline the objectives and student motivation. On the lesson plan page, the teacher is provided with project extensions to expand on the project, incorporating an interdisciplinary approach. The lesson plan page provides the jumping off point for the teacher to access the bibliography and resources used in this project, as well as a link to the student Journal Project. The student Journal Project provides links to the bibliography for further individual readings on the subject. All locations are clearly labeled and kept to a minimum for ease of navigation through the site. Consistent colors and links unite the pages though the user always knows where they are because of the page headings and color of the links. To provide growth in the future, this website could be part of a journal project compendium which gives hypertext journal writing assignments in other genres such as children in fictional stories or children of other geographical locations. All would serve the interdisciplinary function of colorful writing in another context, with a goal oriented project to help students discover those contexts. Concept Map: Locations are Hypertext Links This diagram created using Inspiration® by Inspiration Software, Inc. [Teacher and Parent Resources] [Children's Journal Project] [Project Extensions] [Bibliography] Disclaimer: It was my endeavor to provide appropriate, informative educational links. However, I cannot be responsible for the content, use of, or quality of materials on any webpage other than my own. To the best of my knowledge, all gifs are either original, public domain, or used with permission. If you find otherwise, please notify me by email and they will be duly credited or removed. Certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use. Project created by Alyson Vogel, for Web Publishing as an Educational Activity Teachers College Columbia University