Through the 1001 Flat World Tales project, our seventh graders are quickly learning that writing, to be read online, should look very different from writing to be read off-line. We realized that when reading online we need:

• lots of space between paragraphs
• clear and deliberate headings in large, bold font
• bullets to organize lists of information
• horizontal rules (lines) to separate large sections of text
• less writing on more pages – links, links, links!
• images to break up the page

Many of this things are different from our natural writing instincts – clearly we need to learn how to become Information Architects as we work through this project.

Our students also started their personal story pages today. They have added basic introductions (with links to their individual blogs), a description of the Malaysian record they are writing about (these are our story prompts based on the Malaysian Book of Records), and notes on what they believe makes a great story.

Next up: brainstorming their stories using Inspiration. The brainstorms will be posted next lesson on their personal story pages.

As usual, interested middle school teachers, please drop by the wiki and request membership – we would love to have another group of students to work with!