Goal: Create a Wiki for 2nd grade students to share their information about Endangered Species, as well as learn more about animal endangerement from others. This project would be very powerful if students from other schools (within and outside of the district) are invited to add content. In the beginning of the project, I will be working with 4 "advanced" 2nd grade students. They will post their research, and add to it over the course of the school year. I will introduce their Wiki to the 2nd grade teachers to promote its use with some or all of the 2nd grade students-- either have them interact with the current 4 animal research projects, or create one of their own. I'd invite anyone from this course to share the Wiki with any classes in your school that are working on Rainforest Animal or Endangered Animal projects to come create or add information, once I get the student's information up and running. I might also be able to tap into my old school district.
Tool: Pbwiki, chosen as the Wiki tool to use because it's free account, educational focus, and ease of use. I will look at Wikispaces for possible future use, as the high school is currently using it.
Steps:
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Students research the animal (done)
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students type up report (in progress-- currently writing a newsletter to share with their class and other classes)
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create Wiki (in progress)
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upload student information to Pbwiki and let students customize
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Share with building 2nd grade teachers, and invite other classes within the district and possibly outside of the district (via librarians) to view and interact with the Wiki
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Create and upload more pages of student work if more students research animals
Challenges:
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student safety: Students will not post names or personal information, and will only be know by their animal. I will maintain control of content posted and regularly monitor.
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time: not sure if monitoring will be time-intensive, depends on interest by other teachers and classes. Time for students to type their research at this level is big as well, may need to transcribe for some students.
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teacher buy-in: try to utilize library time and my talents to show that it the project will not be burdensome on teachers and will benefit students by using a high-interest topic to teach valuable communication and critical thinking skills.
Maintenance of Project:
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Regular review and editing of Wiki
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periodic checks by students of their Wiki page, to review information added by others and to add new information as they find it
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maintain contact with other teachers and librarians to invite other students to interact with page
Comments (2)
Mrs. G said
at 6:32 pm on Nov 28, 2007
This sounds like a great project. I work in a primary school setting, so I can completely identify with your concerns for students sharing personal information. I really like the idea of the kids being known by their animal names. (Hi, I'm Jaguar! Who are you?)
Michelle said
at 9:14 am on Dec 18, 2007
This project sounds fun. I remember doing a similar project when I was in school. I think having the students put their projects on a wiki to share is a great way to show off their hard work. You have covered many of your challenges bases. To get over the added burden to teachers (if they see it that way) you could present this as a value added idea. especially after this run is successful, a wiki would give the teachers new ways to highlight student work to parents and other teachers.
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