The purpose of my website is to create a central digital location for my 5th grade students that contains all of the information they will need to be successful in 5th grade.The goal of the site is to provide general class information about expectations and procedures, upcoming class/school events and critical updates on assignments and home learning. Students should visit my site daily to make sure they are current on all class and school communication. By doing this, students will gain answers to questions regarding activities and their assignments.
Actor: 5th Grade Student: The 5th grade student should log in to their laptop, open an internet browser and go to my website homepage. At the top of the page, they will find the “Upcoming Events” tab and click on it. The student should then scroll through the page and find the school event that matches the event that they are questioning. The student should read the directions and write down important details in their AVID calendar planner.
Actor: 5th Grade Student: The 5th grade student will log in to their laptop, open an internet browser and go to my website homepage. At the top of the page, they will find the Assignments tab and click on it. The student should then scroll through the page and find the activity directions that matches the assignment that they are questioning. The student should read the directions and attempt to complete the assignment as directed.
Actor: 5th Grade Student: The 5th grade student should log in to their laptop open an internet browser and go to my website homepage. At the top of the page, they will find the “Resources” tab and click on it. The student should then scroll through the page and find the resource or link that they are seeking. The student should then click on that link/resource to access the material.
I plan to create a 5th grade class website for my final project. The purpose for this website will be to communicate information about classroom assignments, events and expectations. I plan to share home learning opportunities, links to important class/school information and anything else the student or parent would need. My goal is to create one central location for everything a student or parent would need for my class.
In fifth grade, we begin expecting students to be more self-sufficient and independent with their class and school responsibilities. We expect the students to not have to rely on parents as a constant reminder and to keep track of their own due dates, upcoming events, homework, etc. Creating a central location that students can easily access with all of the necessary resources makes sense if when placing these expectations on students. Most of the time, parents or students have to retrieve information from teacher emails, principal emails, school websites, and district websites. If I can filter all of the information and resources necessary for my 5th grade class, I can realistically expect students to use one single resource for all of their needs.
The students shared many valuable ideas with what they expected and desired to find on a class website. Overall, I can conclude that the site content that I’ve proposed will meet the needs of the students. They shared a need for information about important events, due dates and activities. Students often must rely on parents to share these details and sometimes they forget or don’t receive the information themselves. Students mentioned situations about not knowing when yearbook orders are due, specifics about the 5th grade track meet and even what is for lunch. They also mentioned that having access to links and information about assignments/home learning would be beneficial and eliminate some confusion when working on these activities. Students expressed frustration with the fact that they don’t always know what is going on at their school because the information is either hard to find in multiple places or it gets emailed to their parents. They generally seemed welcoming to the idea of the website that I plan to create.
I have observed that many 5th graders need support with obtaining organizational strategies and the personal responsibilities required for managing their school assignments and activities. I intend to present necessary information to the students in a structured way that will assist in developing these skills.
I plan to organize the content into five pages: Home - Class Info/Expectations - Upcoming Events - Assignments - Resources. Each page will serve a specific purpose and be organized in a way to share content for each category specifically for students in my class. This will eliminate the need for students to rely on parents for information or to search multiple sites/emails to find the content.
Mr.OConnor's 5th Grade Website Wireframe Organization Link
The top navigation bar makes this site easy to navigate. All content will be correctly categorized and found on the corresponding page. I will keep the design simple and organized with adequate white space to not make the site appear busy and cluttered. I will also use appropriate bolding and underlining to make sections and headings stand out to the user. Keeping the design simple will and concise will make my site user friendly for 5th grade students in my class.
Fifth graders will visit my site with a clear purpose and likely seeking specific content. The navigation bar at the top of the page will direct them immediately to the information they are requesting. The home page will be simple so they won’t have to sort and scroll through lengthy text and images to find their desired content. I’m assuming the students will quickly pick up on the navigation and become fluent with utilizing the site after just a few visits.
I chose to organize the website and content in this way because I believe that I have a good understanding of what information would be beneficial to the students in my class. I am also aware of the varying web navigation abilities that students possess. Utilizing the navigation bar with specific categories should make the site well organized and easy enough to navigate so that all students feel comfortable visiting it and obtaining what they need. It would be counterproductive to create a site that isn’t user friendly for my students therefore, I’ve carefully considered how it should be organized.
Rationale for using the colors you have selected I will use a soft grey for a background with white and black font colors to keep the colors neutral and easy to read. I will also incorporate blue and red into the site because those are our school colors. I chose a softer blue and red than typically used because I want the site to be easy on the eyes and not be too bright on contrasting that it becomes difficult to look at after a few minutes.