Date: November 11th, 2015

To:
Professor Amy May
Technical and Professional Writing, ENG 402
Washington State University
From: Jake Ayers
Jordyn Konopaski
Ashita Pratap
Stefanie Robbins
Subject: Recommendation Report for Classical Literature Education Website, Modern
Teaching Method
Attached is the report for how we designed and implemented a web page that
students and teachers may use as a template for how to run more efficient and
desirable classical literature lectures. We believed that the old curriculum used by
teachers has becoming less and less effective, and may not allow for students to
reach their maximum potential in studying classic works. We believe that our
restructured lesson plans and videos will provide a successful outline for both
teachers and students to use as a guide for creating more efficient lectures and a
greater learning environment.
To carry out these tasks, we began by picking a web page template that we felt
would best embody a good learning environment and one that would be easy for all
to access. Once that was selected, we created videos that displayed how to run an
effective lecture on classical literature as well as tips to help both teachers and
students. Once the videos were completed, we developed a marketing plan to
determine the best ways to distribute and promote our product.
Our principle findings were that in order for our product to become useful to
teachers and students, we would need to pick a website format that would be easily
accessible. Since our product is newly launched, we have not received feedback
from any Modern Teaching Method users, so we are unable to determine whether
our webpage is successful or not. We will continue to reach out to teachers and
students who experience or could benefit from our product so that we may continue
to develop and improve our product further.

Developing an Online Classroom for Classical

Literature Lectures: Modern Teaching Methods

A Collaborative Repurposing Project

Recommendation Report

Prepared for: Amy May, Professor

Technical and Professional Writing, ENG
402
Washington State University
Prepared by:
Jake Ayers
Jordyn Konopaski
Ashita Pratap
Stefanie Robbins

November 11th, 2015

Table of Contents
Executive Summary..
. 1
Introduction
. 2
Research
Methods
.. 2
Task 1: Determine a viable website building
program.... 3
Task 2: Develop a user-friendly layout and visually appealing
website... 3
Task 3: Research and develop lesson
plans.... 3
Task 4: Research and develop educational
video... 3
Task 5: Implement all project parts and launch the
website 4
Task 6: Marketing Method- Selling the
product 4

Results
.... 4
Task 1: Determine a viable website building program.
... 4
Task 2: Develop a user-friendly layout and visually appealing website...
.. 4
Task 3: Research and develop lesson
plans. 5
Task 4: Research and develop educational
video... 5
Task 5: Implement all project parts and launch the
website.. 5

Task 6: Marketing Method- Selling the

product 5

Conclusions
.. 6
Recommendations
.. 6
References.
..
6
Appendices..

... 7

Executive Summary
Earlier this month, we decided to create our project based on the previous
recommendations and research of Jordyn Konopaski, one of our teammates. This
research found that high school students reading comprehension levels are not
improving as we would hope. It postulates that the reason for this is the shortening
attention span of the average teenager, and the resultant disinterest in reading and
comprehending literature. Based on this analysis, we went about finding ways to
improve the situation by creating integrative lesson plans and a website that
teachers can use to address their class online. We have created this mock website,
and it is included in our appendices. Additionally, we have laid out a plan to market
the product. This product will be available for teachers to manipulate in order to fit
their educational specifications. Students will be able to access the website and find
written instructions for projects, videos created by their teachers, due dates, and
converse with one another about the class.

Introduction
Reading comprehension scores in American teenagers are declining. A major cause
of this lies in the fact that modern communication has become shortened. Tweets
are limited to 140 characters, emails are short and informal, text messages are
often the primary method of communication and by nature they do not leave room
for formal communication. All of these methods of communication encourage
shortcuts: LOL, OMG, BTW, etc. would postulate that all of these lead to the
shortening of attention span, which makes reading antiquated texts difficult.
In addition, technology now self-corrects when its programming detects a
misspelled word, or a grammatical error. Consequently, teenagers do not have to
learn proper writing techniques to succeed. This results in lack of attention being
paid to English literature, which is having a calculable effect on teenagers reading
comprehension. While 9 through 13-year old reading scores have been steadily
improving, 17-year old scores are at a standstill.
The purpose of this project, then, was to get at the root of the problem. Modernizing
classic texts to encourage understanding and foster the enthusiasm of
communication for teenagers who may be struggling with English literature will
allow for these students to access the material in a manner they find engaging. This
will encourage them to participate.
While the background of this problem calls to mind the shift in modern
communication, this research is not an attempt to understand, approve, or reject
this trend.
We have been utilizing popular forums in which teachers share their ideas and
methods with which they have received positive feedback from their students. In
addition, we contacted current teachers in the local area to attempt to speak with
them about the methods found in secondary research and how they believe these
methods would or would not help their own students.
Regardless of the direction in which modern communication is moving, it is
important for us to first understand our history. Classical modern literature has
brought us to where we are, and it would not do for these texts to be abandoned
because they are more difficult to understand than more modern texts. This study is
integral to a complete education and the development of the ability to
communicate in any situation.

Research Methods
To address the issue of illiteracy and stagnant reading comprehension in teenagers,
we have developed a website that contains educational material to help these

3
struggling students. As a team, we conducted research and experimentation to
come up with the best product we could develop for educators and students to
improve their growth in literature in advanced teenage years. In order to develop
such a product, we conducted the following tasks:
Task 1: Determine a viable website building program
Task 2: Develop a user-friendly layout and visually appealing website
Task 3: Research and develop lesson plans
Task 4: 3esearch and develop educational video
Task 5: Implement all project parts and launch the website
Task 6: Marketing Method- Selling the product
Task 1: Determine a viable website building program
In reviewing our needs for projecting our website in a professional manner, we
determined that our product needed to be user friendly for any level of literature
student and have separate resources for educators. We needed a website that
could home lesson plans as well as video resources. Our website needed to be
visually appealing for students and teachers so that our product could be used in a
personal and professional setting. Based off of previous web design experience, we
determined that Weebly would be the best resource to produce our website.
Task 2: Develop a user-friendly layout and visually appealing website
With the establishment of Weebly, we were able to determine a specific design for
our website. In order to make the product accessible, the website must be easy to
find and navigate. Weebly provides basic templates to start the layout and design,
so we experimented with formatting the website in simple, yet visually appealing
ways. As a team, we brainstormed traits that would benefit our users including
video resources and lesson plans. A clear log-in location and password protection
was necessary for grading and privacy.
Task 3: Research and develop lesson plans
To support our product with research, we confirmed the statistics of teenage reading
comprehension. We created a questionnaire including inquiries to what teachers
would use in their classrooms, what students would be interested in, what methods
would be most affective, and open-ended questions where students and teachers
could share their opinions and ideas. The questionnaire was sent to various
subjects: teachers, high school students, college students, and college graduates.
All of these people had varying degrees of experience with high school English
literature curricula, and different perspectives on the process. A current and
retrospective view of high school English classes is beneficial to this study because

4
each have their own experience and can relay what did and did not work for their
own studies, and use that knowledge to improve our own lesson plans.
Task 4: Research and develop educational video
Continuing on the research and questionnaire issued for the lesson plans, further
investigation was done to determine which lessons would work best as visual aids.
Through statistics and recommendations from established teacher forums, it was
clarified that visual aids would be put to best use for audio purposes. Reading
comprehension can be exercised through listening skills and absorbing information
that is read to the student, not necessarily written for the student to read. Music is
a helpful source for interesting students while helping to establish a pattern for
comprehension of content. Visual and audio videos would be helpful resources on
the website.
Task 5: Implement all project parts and launch the website
We brought our individual strengths together as a team to create a single product.
Each individual team member contributed their experiences, research, and
expertise in developing a visually appealing educational website.
Task 6: Marketing and selling the product
In order to reach the proper audience for our website and educational material, we
had to develop a marketing plan. We started by researching the most effective
techniques for advertising our product in online forums and paper publications. We
need to reach students and teachers who can use this website as a study aid to
improve literacy levels amongst teenagers. An effective way to market our online
product is to post notifications and offers on online forums that teachers use to
share lesson plans. Websites such as Edutopia, Pinterest, YouTube and Share My
Lesson are established websites that teachers already use when planning lessons,
so they are convenient sources in which to advertise to inform our consumer
audience about our product. While brainstorming, we also decided that a free 30
day trial access to our website would allow for consumers to see the effectiveness
of our lesson plans and educational materials. By getting users to sign up for our
product, we would gain contact information of students and educators who would
potentially continue using our product. These users would also potentially share
their reviews of our product with other educators and students that could benefit
from our website. In gaining contacts through the 30 day trials, we have an actively
growing contact list that we can send emails containing flyers and information that
can be passed on to schools directly.

Results
Task 1: Determine a viable website building program

5
We determined that Weebly would be the best website engineering resource to use
for the tools that we needed to project on our website. Weebly allowed us to format
resources specific to students and teachers, present videos and lesson plans, and
present marketing information for our product. Weebly was an easy program to use
with previous website design experience. It allowed us to create an attractive
website design and present a professional educational site for our consumers.
Task 2: Develop a user-friendly layout and visually appealing website
Weebly provided an easy method to applying our website requirements and desires.
We decided that Modern Teaching Methods would present a good title for our
website for easy understanding of what our product provides to users. We were
able to present an attractive website with professional material. The access to the
lesson plans and videos are clearly presented on the home page, with simple drop
down menus to navigate further into products specific to teachers or students. The
homepage is welcoming and professional looking while providing a simple source
from which to navigate. The website is full of clear information for users to easily
comprehend.
Task 3: Research and develop lesson plans
The students who lose interest in reading in their teenage years were found to want
to learn, but preferred active and engaging experiences. They quickly became
bored with more traditional teaching methods. In order to interact with teachers for
feedback on successful and unsuccessful techniques, we explored a website called
Edutopia in which teachers can share their popular lesson plans. We found a
number of surprisingly well-circulated methods of teaching English literature. Share
My Lesson, also allows for teacher communication and the sharing of ideas.
Through online discussions with teachers, specific lesson plan ideas for our website
developed. One was a March-Madness style integrative literature competition.
Another was a method of transcribing a classical text into a modern text form like
tweets, texts, etc. These lesson plans were written into a clear educational resource
available for the website. Further development for more lesson plans continues.
Task 4: Research and develop educational video
In order to include video resources on the website, we wrote, filmed, and edited
videos into comprehensive educational tools. For greater understanding of
Shakespeare, one of our videos provides a melodic aid to relating the words to
modern music. Hip hop and rap music is used to explain the nuances and meanings
of Shakespeares literature. Other videos include techniques and recommendations
for ways to approach the lessons they accompany. The videos were filmed on
iMovie and published through YouTube in order to include the videos and Modern
Teaching Methods website in any educational searches that might be conducted on
YouTube.

6
Task 5: Implement all project parts and launch the website
The lesson plans and videos were incorporated into the newly designed website
layout in order to launch a fully functioning educational website. We named the
website Modern Teaching Methods to reflect our ideals of providing progressive
education materials that can help improve teenage literacy.
Task 6: Marketing and selling the product
After determining marketing methods that would be most effective, we decided that
online advertising was the best option for reaching users quickly and inexpensively.
We established a 30-day free trial through our website where students and
educators can experience our product and share their reviews for other potential
users to see. Through an established email account associated with our website,
we are able to contact these users and send them information to share directly with
their own affiliated schools. Additionally, we created a free account through
Edutopia, which is an online forum where lesson plans and other tips can be shared
with teachers. Through this site we are able to write forum posts about our product
and hear feedback for ways to improve our product and reach more consumers. In
modern society, social media is a huge part of our everyday lives and a great
resource for connecting to those who could benefit from our product, so our
educational videos were uploaded through YouTube and then shared on Pinterest in
order to reach more potential users who might search for educational help through
social media. A Facebook page will be established in order to reach even more
consumers. Through sponsored pages, we will be able to pay for our ads to pop up
for Facebook users whose online history frequents educational sites. Marketing is a
constant necessity that will change with the popularity of our website, so we will
continue to research and add to our marketing campaign.

Conclusion
Through extensive study, we have determined that teenagers are in need of greater
English literature sources to improve their reading comprehension and overall
education. The research and questionnaires conducted by our team confirmed that
people of all ages and interests are open to new, interactive methods of teaching.
While not all of them enjoy reading for pleasure, most can agree that the study of
English literature is important for a well-rounded education. By creating Modern
Teaching Methods, we are providing modern educational resources to students and
teachers who may benefit from current methods of education. By providing
technology and modern popular culture to relate the material to interesting subjects
for the students, it is easier for the material to be absorbed and learned. Lesson
plans and video aids allow teachers to implement these educational tools directly
into their teaching resources. The simple use of a website allows for continued
expansion and growth with the students.

Recommendation
I would recommend that any teachers or students use Modern Teaching Methods to
expand their understanding of English literature and better absorb educational
materials that can improve reading comprehension in teenage students. Through
our website, teachers can expand their basic lesson plans and personalize the
resources for their own classes. In addition to our website, teachers should become
involved in Edutopia, My Lesson Plan, and other forums which allow collaboration
with other teachers to create imaginative and interesting lesson plans. The use of
Modern Teaching Methods would be easy for teachers and students to access
through inexpensive online access and it can be used for expansive purposes in
education. Education must continue to progress as technology does. In utilizing
modern communication and integrating it with classical communication, we can
maximize the potential of the future without leaving the past behind.

References
Barnes, Kassandra, Raymond C. Marateo, and S. Pixy Ferris. "Teaching and Learning
with the
Net Generation." Innovate: Journal of Online Education 3.4 (2007). Web. 14 Oct.
2015. <http://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1091&context=innovate>.
Bernard, Sara. "How to Teach with Technology: Language Arts." Edutopia. 27 May
2009. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.
Casad, Kacey. Personal interview. 15 October 2015.
Cumming, Timothy. Personal interview. 15 October 2015.
Dorfman, Jeffrey. "Surprise: Humanities Degrees Provide Great Return On
Investment." Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
Frechette, Noemi. Personal interview. 15 October 2015.
Gabrus, Sean. Personal interview. 15 October 2015.
Graber, Diana. "Kids, Tech and Those Shrinking Attention Spans." The Huffington
Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
"Hip-Hop & Shakespeare? Akala at TEDxAldeburgh." YouTube. TedTalks, 7 Dec. 2011.
Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

8
Jacobs, Julienne. Personal interview. 16 October 2015.
Konopaski, Jenny. Personal interview. 16 October 2015.
Konopaski, Lacey. Personal interview. 15 October 2015.
"Literature Learning and Thinking in High School Classes." Literature Learning and
Thinking in High School Classes. Center on English Learning and Achievement. Web.
4 Oct. 2015.
O'Donnell, Holly. "Issues Affecting High School Literature Programs. ERIC Digest."
Issues Affecting High School Literature Programs. ERIC Digest. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-924/high.htm>.
Ryker, Liz. Personal interview. 15 October 2015.
"Share My Lesson by Teachers, for Teachers." High School (Grades 9-12). Web. 5
Oct. 2015. <http://www.sharemylesson.com/high-school-teaching-resources/>.
Sztabnik, Brian. "March Madness Meets AP Lit." Edutopia. 4 Apr. 2014. Web. 7 Oct.
2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/blog/march-madness-meets-ap-lit-brian-sztabnik>.
"Trends in Academic Progress." National Center for Education Statistics. 2012. Web.
5 Oct.
2015.<http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/main2012/pdf/201
3456.pdf>.
Ware, Autumn. "Sixth-Graders, Pop Lyrics, and Iambic Pentameter." Edutopia. 12
June 2012. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.

Appendix
Repurposing Project Website:
Modern Teaching Methods, http://modernteachingmethods.weebly.com/
Username: ashita.pratap@wsu.edu Password: teamproject
Edutopia Account Information:
Username: classical_literature_lectures@yahoo.com Password: lectures123
Email Account Information:
Username: classical_literature_lectures@yahoo.com Password: lectures123
Research Questionaire:
This is the questionnaire we created and distributed in order to gather information
about the nature of our lesson plans:
1. Do you believe it is a challenge to engage high school students in classical
texts?

9
2. If so, what can be done to combat this challenge?
3. Do you believe the study of classical texts is necessary? Why or why not?
4. Do you believe the study of English Literature is necessary? Why or why
not?
5. Has your reception from students or as a student been mostly positive or
negative in the study of English Literature?
6. Do you enjoy reading for pleasure?
7. What texts do you enjoy reading the most?
8. Proposed Lesson Plan 1:
Have students choose their favorite song or artist. Students can then choose to
write their own song in the style of the artist in iambic pentameter.
a. Would you enjoy this lesson?
b. What would you enjoy?
c. What would you dislike?
9. Proposed Lesson Plan 2:
Have students choose a section of each book/poem/play the class is studying.
Divide the literary work into a proper number of portions depending on the length of
the work and the size of the class. Ensure that no one chooses the same passage.
Then, have the students transcribe the passage into a modern form of
communication. They may choose a texting conversation, 140-character tweets, 10second snapchats or video sections, or propose their own modern communication.
a. Would you enjoy this lesson?
b. What would you enjoy?
c. What would you dislike?
10.Proposed Lesson Plan 3:
At the end of the year or a unit, create a March Madness-style bracket. You can
choose the brackets based on characters or plot. Have the students argue their
choices to move on in the tournament until a winner has been crowned. Use this as
a tool for students to study and really think about the merits of different works of
literary fiction.
a. Would you enjoy this lesson?

10
b. What would you enjoy?
c. What would you dislike?
11.Which of these lesson plans do you believe would be the most successful?
Why?