Recommended time
Minimum 90 minutes, maximum two hours

If you have never published a Web site before, give yourself a sample project: Put up a small site containing at least three or four linked pages. Try using one of the Web development guides such as Lissa Explains It All and Webmonkey For Kids that the participants will use.

Goals for the session

• Learn how to storyboard
• Learn the roles and tasks involved in planning, designing and building a Web site

Outcomes

• Storyboards
• Site architecture diagram
• Web style guide
• Web pages

• A computer with Internet and email access
• Adobe PhotoShop or similar application
• A Web publishing program (Netscape Composer, Dreamweaver or a similar application)
• Other Web publishing tools as needed (see suggestions in Web development guides)
• Lissa Explains It All and Webmonkey for Kids
• Microsoft Word or a similar application
• Newsprint sheets or a roll of butcher paper
• Loose-leaf paper
• Pencils
• Pens
• Colored markers
• Composition books (one for each participant and facilitator)

Part 1: Read-Aloud

What is it?
Suggested reading is the fifth chapter of Witnesses to Freedom: Young People Who Fought for Civil Rights, by Belinda Rochelle.

Suggested questions

• What is happening in the photo of the lunch counter sit-in? What do the faces of the nonviolent protesters at the counter tell you about their feelings? What do the faces of the crowd around the counter express? Why do you think the photographer choose this particular composition?
• Why do you think the high school and college students chose places like the Woolworth store lunch counter to stage sit-ins?
• Do you think the students were right to train for the sit-ins without telling their families? What were the advantages of doing this? What were the dangers?

Part 2: Web Development Roles

What is it?
Give an overview of the components of Web development and publishing. Assign roles.

Before starting, make sure that participants have finished typing up their notes from the site visit and have loaded and viewed their photos. If you discover that many photos did not come out as desired or that someone lost an important piece of writing, you might want to devote time to recovering that content.

How to
Select a Web development guide that participants can refer to for instructions and advice while they plan and build the Web pages for their photo essays. Be sure to review the guide before the participants so you are familiar with the content.

Before starting, also be sure to review information on copyright guidelines for Web publishing. This topic needs to be discussed with the group so that everyone understands what plagiarism is and how to avoid it as well as what copyright means and how to honor it. Midlink Magazine has links to copyright guidelines and permission request forms for posting and linking to already existing published content such as graphics, photos and text.

Suggested sites
Lissa Explains It All
Lissa started this guide when she was 11 to help other kids learn how to design and program Web sites. The site is easy to understand, is full of detail and has lots of links to free or inexpensive software and Internet tools and services. The site is especially good at explaining how HTML and other types of coding and programming work.

Webmonkey for Kids
This is a kids' version of the excellent Webmonkey site for Web developers. The projects section has step-by-step instructions on how to build sample pages. The slide show project is a good model for photo essays.

Webmonkey has a planning guide with tips for adult instructors on how to introduce Web development. Be sure to check out the "Advice from a Teacher" section, which has practical organizing suggestions on creating a desktop folder for each participant to store work and creating aliases (shortcuts) for all the software that will be used.

List the roles involved with Web publishing and post them where everyone can see them. Define and organize the roles in a way that makes sense to you and that you think will work for the group. Discuss the roles with the group. Have participants select a role or multiple roles.

Suggested roles

• Layout and design.
  Decide how the visible elements of the Web pages (graphics, text and links) will be arranged on each page. The layout can be storyboarded. Decide what the colors, font and font size for each page will be.
  
  
• Architecture.
  Decide how the pages will be linked together. Use software or paper and pencil to diagram how the pages will be connected. Inspiration K-12 is great for making diagrams, and Microsoft Word has box, circle and line tools that can also be used.
  
  
• Graphics.
  Create original images and logos for the pages. Change and edit existing images as needed.
  
  
• Coding/programming.
  Use Web publishing software to assemble the Web pages. Write HTML tags, tables, frames, scripts and other code and program elements. Work with graphics and design people to ensure that pages load quickly and easily and that site navigation works.
  
  
• Editing.
  Review all written content to check for errors. Check copyright guidelines to make sure that permission to use photos and text has been secured and that the source of all text and images is appropriately referenced.
  

Additional roles

• Identify and secure Web publishing space (if needed)
• Identify and load Web publishing tools (if needed)
• Design general pages, such as the front page, that are not specific to any one person's content

In addition to taking on a role or roles in the development of the site, each participant will be responsible for finalizing the text and photo content he or she is contributing to the photo essay.

Storyboarding
Storyboarding is a technique used to plan creative projects such as movies, animation and picture books that involve both narrative and visual elements. Web sites can be storyboarded.

Lay out sheets of newsprint or butcher paper. Brainstorm what will happen on each page. Put very rough sketches on the pages, enough to give an idea of the final picture. Write a few words on each page (e.g., "introduction to my photo essay—why I made it"), enough to outline the writing. After the pages are made, have two or three people work together to finalize the order and layout of the pages.

Part 3: Start Building Web Pages

Part 4: Email journals

What is it?
Work on email journals, as described in Session 1, Part 5.

Part 5: Personal Reading

What is it?
Participants select books or other material to read silently for at least 10 minutes.