I will use the 3844 Portfolio Demo site on Blogs@VT to provide examples.

Portfolio Rubric

The rubric for the assignment is available in Canvas on the Project 2 Assignment page.

Designing Pages for Your Work

• Review the Ten Design Tips, which you should apply as you build the pages (and other resources) for your site. Alexis’s Identity Statement demonstrates the value of emphasizing only a few words in your text.

• Add short descriptions of what your work is about and link to it, like this example on Melody Warnick’s site. Avoid using links only, as the content no longer stands out (see Tom Johnson’s Podcast page).

• Add clear captions if you have a photo gallery page. Once you have your images uploaded, here’s how to add a gallery:

  1. Go to the backend page where you want it to appear.
  2. Choose the Add Media button (above the toolbar).
  3. Choose Create Gallery in the left sidebar.
  4. Click the images you want to add (a checkbox will appear as you choose them).
  5. Add captions that tell readers what they are looking at.
  6. Click the Create a New Gallery button in the lower right corner.
  7. Change any setting you like in the right sidebar.
  8. Click Insert Gallery to add your gallery to your page.

• Add thumbnail images with short descriptions for any highly visual work you want to share. Look at Dave Zirin’s books page and Will DeBoer’s Writing Samples page for examples. You can take a screenshot of a web page or article to create thumbnails.

• Use headings to organize your examples and make the page easy to navigate, like in this example from Hannah Carlson’s portfolio.

• Use a Works Cited/Bibliography style for your sample if you are working on an academic portfolio, like this example from Rebecca K. Miller’s portfolio. Note is visual thumbnails can also work for an academic portfolio. Think about your audience as you decide.

In-Class Work

Use the content that you brought today to work on the page(s) for your portfolio. Alternately, you can work on some other part of your portfolio.

In-Class Writing

Submit your site link and related information to the "Project 2 Peer Review" Discussion in Canvas. Choose the discussion group for your class section, and follow the instructions in Canvas.

You can continue working on your site after you have posted your link for the peer review. You can also edit your post later if something changes.

Homework

For today, please do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "Project 2 Peer Review" Discussion Reply in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 11:59 PM Tuesday (9/22). If you do not submit your draft by the end of the grace period, you will not receive peer feedback.

For Wednesday’s session (9/23), do the following before class:

• Continue working on your site. Have as much of the content and design ready to share in class for peer review. We will use the Peer Review tools in the Discussions Canvas.

For Friday’s session (9/24), do the following before class:

• We’ll go over how to turn in your Project, and you will have additional time in class to work on your portfolios.

Today we’re diving into WordPress and learning about some of the features built into the publishing tools. By the end of today’s session, you should have created a WordPress site.

Creating Your Site

If you want to create a blog on a site other than Blogs@VT, hop to it. You are free to work at your own pace. Otherwise, follow along as we complete these tasks:

1. Remember that your blog will be public, so think of a URL and a professional name that you can share with the world.
2. Choose one of the following options, depending upon whether you have used WordPress.com before:
   • If you have never used Blogs@VT before, sign up for your own blog.
     • Enter a Username and Email address. Leave "Gimme a site" marked. Click the Next button.
     • Choose the Site Name (which cannot be changed) and Site Title. Leave everything else at the defaults. Click the Signup button.
     • Go to your vt.edu email address, find the activation email, and click the link inside to finish setting up your blog.
   • If you have used Blogs@VT before, log in.
     • Click My Sites at the top left side of the page.
     • Click the "Create a New Site" link.
     • Choose the Site Name (which cannot be changed) and Site Title. Leave everything else at the defaults. Click the Signup button.

Setting Up the Basics for Your Site

• Go to the Users tab on the left and then choose My Profile to update your profile and login information. You can change the way that your name is listed with each post, for instance. You can also change your password on this page.
• Go through the Settings tab and update the information. In particular, be sure that you
  • Go to the General setting and fix the timezone. You can also change the Tagline here.
  • Go to the Discussion setting and decide when you want the site to email you.
• Don’t worry about the appearance of your site for now. We’ll work on that Wednesday.

Creating Your First Page

• Temporarily change the sidebar so you can get to your page easily later:
  • Go to the Appearances tab on the left and then choose Widgets.
  • Under Available Widgets (on the left), find Pages and drag it into the Widget Area.
  • Click the Save button. Now your Pages will show up in the sidebar. We’ll remove this later and create Menus.
• Create your Site Information Page:
  • Go to the Pages tab on the left and then choose Add New.
  • For the "Enter title here" field, use the title "Site Information." You will be able to change it later.
  • Click on the Text tab if you want to code your own HTML.
  • In the body, tell readers about the name and tagline you have chosen for your blog, any other decisions you made, and anything you are considering or hoping to do. This is just a first draft. You will update the page later.
  • Click the Publish button in the right sidebar to save your page and make it live.
  • Go to your blog’s homepage, and click the link to your Site Information page in the sidebar to check your work.

In-Class Writing

Go to Quizzes in Canvas and choose the "WordPress Site Address" quiz to post the address of your WordPress site. I will use the link to check that you have your blog created, and to set up a megablog (sometimes called a motherblog) that includes everyone’s updates.

Homework

For today, please do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "WordPress Site Address" quiz in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 5 PM Tuesday (9/15).

For Wednesday’s session (9/16), do the following before class:

• Outline your site, either on paper or using something like Word. Account for the following in your outline:
  • The menus you want to have, and what kinds of information will go under them.
  • What will appear on your homepage (Will it be static or changing? Lots of images or lots of words?)
  • What artifacts of your work/qualifications do you want to include?
  • Features you saw on the sites you gathered as examples.
• Continue taking (or finding) photos you can use to illustrate your blog. We’ll go over how to upload and insert images on Wednesday.
• If you need help, try the WordPress Documentation and FAQs. Try contacting 4Help if you need additional help outside of class. Also remember that you can use the step-by-step WordPress Tutorials & Training at Lynda.com.

For Friday’s session (9/18), do the following before class:

• Have whatever you need with you to spend most of the class period working on your blog.

For Monday’s session (9/21), do the following before class:

• Read Chapter 1 of Writer/Designer so that you are familiar with the terms we’re using in class as we discuss multimodal projects and how the modes of communication apply to your portfolio site.