Image by Idea Go from free digital photos.net
As a very simple intro to HTML for my very mixed ability class I went through a couple of random webpages on the internet and, in discussion, we picked out some of the tags that were used. I then asked the pupils to create their own pages. To ensure that everyone got the chance of creating something on their own, everyone had to reproduce the green sheet (see below). Even those that this is not an ideal exercise for (mainly the dyslexic pupils who find copying work difficult) had a sense of achievement a they saw they had created a web page on their own using only code.
All pupils quickly moved onto the Amber sheet which builds upon the green. For the ‘slower’ pupils, I placed a copy of the code with incomplete tags into their work folders. This meant that they weren’t penalised by slow typing speed. Once the amber was complete many pupils then went onto the red which builds directly on the amber.
After red, I gave the pupils a cheat sheet of codes, including some that they had not already come across. I then asked them to create their own pages. The only additional guidance was to experiment with as many of the tags as possible and to be creative.
I know that this is a very simple lesson; however, it covers quite a lot of the ‘essential’ tags and also allows every pupil to create their own pages. Feel free to use the pages available to download using the links below. (some formatting has been lost after converting to googledocs)
@teachesict 