Projects: New Storybook Site

For your Storybook, you will be creating a website separate from your blog; you've looked at some Storybooks before to get an idea what that is like. Most Storybooks end up having four or five pages total. This week, you will create just the site, and it will have just one page for now, the homepage. You will also be creating two blog posts for this assignment: one blog post will have your Storybook Plan, and the other blog post will be a Comment Wall, which is where students will be leaving you feedback about your Storybook later in the semester.

PART ONE: CHOOSING A WEBSITE PLATFORM. Just like with the blog, the choice of which platform you use is up to you. I will provide detailed technical support for using Google Sites, but there are lots of possible options; here is some information about that: Web Publishing Options. Google Sites is the platform for which I provide detailed instructions for all aspects of the projects. So, if you are not sure which platform to choose, I would strongly urge you to give Google Sites a try! The features of Google Sites suit the Storybook project in a very easy and intuitive way.

Then, when you have made your web publishing platform choice, you can create your website! Here are the Google Sites instructions for starting a new website, step by step:

Google Sites: Create new site

(If you are using another publishing platform, use the instructions that they provide for starting a new site and creating the site homepage.)

When you are done creating your site, you should have a site homepage, which displays the title of your project. You should also have an image on the page (a banner image or some other image), along with image information crediting the image source.

Now you are ready for the next part of this assignment: you will create a Comment Wall post at your blog, and then go back and edit your Storybook homepage to add a link from the Storybook to your Comment Wall.

PART TWO: YOUR COMMENT WALL. This is the final part of the assignment! Later in the semester, you will be getting detailed feedback from other students about your Portfolio, and they will leave those comments for you at your blog. To get ready for that, you need to create a Comment Wall blog post at your blog. To get a sense of how that works, here is the Comment Wall post at my blog from last semester (yes, I participate in one of the classes as a student every semester; last semester I was in Myth-Folklore). 

Here is how to create your Comment Wall post:

• create a new post, and give it the title: Comment Wall
• for the post label, use: Comment Wall
• include some kind of image in the post (it could be related to your Storybook topic, or just something fun to greet your visitors), plus image information
• include a link from the blog post to your Storybook; that is how visitors to your blog will be able to find their way to your project if they are curious to see what you are working on

Then, go back to your Storybook site and edit your homepage, creating a link from the homepage to the Comment Wall; that is how visitors who arrive at your Storybook will be able to find their way to your blog to leave comments. Make sure you publish the homepage and check the link so that you can see it is working.

PART THREE: YOUR STORYBOOK PLAN. To finish the assignment, you will write a blog post with your Storybook plan:

• for the post title, use: Storybook Plan
• for the post label, use: Project

Just what information you include here depends on your specific project, but here are some essential items to include:

* story source(s) you think will be useful

* three or four stories/episodes that you think you want to include

* some thoughts about the storytelling style(s) you are considering; for example: will there be some kind of overarching story or storyteller that connects the stories? or will your Storybook be more like an anthology of separate stories?

* what main ideas(s) do you want to learn about? what message(s) or experience(s) do you want to get across to your readers?

I'll send you back comments on this post, just like in the previous two weeks. If you have any specific questions or concerns, just let me know, and I will try to provide useful feedback!

FILL IN THE FORM and DO THE DECLARATION. To let me know the assignment is done, fill out the form below. Then, after you have submitted the form, you can do the Gradebook Declaration for the Project assignment in Canvas. I will send you back comments on your assignment by email.