Grade Levels - 
3rd - 6th grades 
(Using students from all grade levels who are involved in the Bluebonnet Reading Program would be optimal.) 

Overview - 
"Picking Bluebonnets Along the Internet Superhighway" was designed to encourage students to take a more active role in the statewide Bluebonnet Reading Program while integrating the teaching of essential knowledge and skills in technology, writing, and reading through a collaborative use of the Internet. 

Objectives -
*Students will use an HTML editor to create web pages. 
*Students will use the internet to locate, analyze, and input images to their web pages. 
*Students will use the internet to assist in learning HTML and web page building skills.
*Students will use the internet to plan, create, analyze, and share an interactive web site. 
*Students will use the internet to problem solve. 
*Students will use the internet to communicate and collaborate with other students and schools.

Library and State Standards- (Link Here)

Introduction- 
Have interested students in selected grades fill out an application for the "Bluebonnet Web Team". 
Have them identify their interest in the web team and their prior knowledge of and skills in web page building.  Select a team of 5-12 students. 

Phases- 
1.  Meet with students and visit the Texas Bluebonnet Program Web Site.  Identify the types of information that students might find interesting on a school based Bluebonnet Book web site. Use "Inspiration" to diagram the needs for your site. List the "pages" that the team would like to build (example: Author Information, Student Reviews, Voting and Polls, etc.).  Divide students into "page teams". 

2.  Have students visit three web sites for examples and ideas of web page design. Have each team assess each site using the web site assessment rubric. Share results from search and discuss elements of a good web design. Have teams sketch on paper a design for their web page. 

3. Have students identify what they would need to know in order to build their web pages. 
Visit Web Monkey and work through "The Basics" lessons as a group.  Scan the other lessons and resources available and have students bookmark this site for independent learning while developing their pages. 

4.  Have students open Netscape Communicator and go to Netscape Composer (or other HTML editor). Identify the tools in the tool bar and their functions.  As a group, create a basic "Home" page with table and image for your site.  Show students how to create a folder and save. Allow students time to experiment with the HTML editor.  Have students create a folder for their work and save. 
**Special Note: It is a good idea to have students create a separate folder for their images within their main page folder. 

5. Discuss acquiring images for your site.  Visit Web Monkey and complete lesson C - Dealing With Images under "Learning HTML".  Before allowing students to search for images on the internet, see the internet article by Carol Simpson and discuss internet ethics. Then visit a graphics site and read and discuss the policy for use. After that, have students select an online search engine - we used Google- and identify what images they will be looking for. Students will now search the internet for those images and save them to their folders. 
**Special Note: Instruct students to rename the image before they save it with a descriptive clue and site name to help them with identification and creating links to site sources. (ie. singlebb/texgal.gif) 

6. Discuss the page assessment rubric with students.  Have them create their pages and assess their progress as they work. 

7. Schedule times to visit with each team to individually assess and instruct depending on page requirements.

8.  When all individual pages are completed, bring students together to upload and assess the site. Email Technology experts for their assessment.  Use rubric to assess.  Identify problems and make changes as needed. 

9.  Send an invitation to all classroom teachers through inter-school email to visit your site. 

10. Assist students with receiving and inputting email submitted reviews.

11. Assist students with conducting two voting polls and posting the results on the site. (For more details, see "Special Internet Projects")

12.  Assist students with scheduling and monitoring chat sessions.

13. Have students collect data from the final vote and post the information on the site. Post the winners.

14. As a culminating activity, have students complete a digital diary page to assess their learning and make suggestions for next year's team.(For more details, see "Special Internet Projects")
Share the results of the collaborative assessments with each team.