Curriculum Unit:
Eighth grade students all participate in a reading class where they read books of their choice (from a teacher generated list) and then participate in reading circles. Students have a choice of final projects that include graphic representation, oral expression and/or written expression.
Goals: To create a wiki site for reading class students so they can collaborate on developing a wiki that will share their knowledge and interpretations of the books they have read.
Tools: Pbwiki since it is 1) free and 2) not blocked at our school.
Steps:
· Collaborate with the reading teacher to determine standards, project requirements and assessments.
· Set up a wiki for the reading classes with teacher editing privileges
· Create sample pages to demonstrate expectations
· Train the reading teacher in how to publish to the wiki
· Develop the wiki home page with the reading teacher.
· Arrange a training time for participating students
· Be available to help students as they work on their wiki pages
· Assist the reading teacher in assessment of the wiki pages
Challenges:
- Arranging collaborative time with the classroom teacher
- Enhancing my skills so that I can better assist students in creating their projects
- “Advertising” the wiki so that it is seen by other students, teachers and parents.
Success Examples:
- I don’t have to look too far for the success stories as our Primary School librarian, Ann-Marie Gordon has been working successfully with wikis for some time. (SquareOne and hoppyreaders)
- Another good model for this project is The Wright3, a book study wiki that is unfortunately blocked at my school
- The BookLovers wiki from the Princeton Public Library is a great place to look for reading ideas!
Maintenance:
- The librarian and reading teacher will edit the students work and respond with comments
- The librarian and reading teacher will monitor the site
- The site will be periodically updated by archiving past projects
Comments (5)
deggert said
at 4:15 pm on Nov 16, 2007
Judy, Great working with you today. I love your Fish4info page. You have wonderful ideas and are very creative. Your students are lucky to have you. This is a great chance for students to write about books!
Mrs. G said
at 8:48 pm on Nov 20, 2007
Hi, Jody. I love the project, especially the fact that you included assessment of wiki pages as one of your steps. If you and the classroom teacher create a rubric for this, please share! It helps keep the student outcomes firmly rooted in curriculum, instead of in the "shiny factor" mentioned last Friday.
Susan Sullivan said
at 8:42 pm on Nov 24, 2007
Judy,
Loved th Wright 3 page and have started a similiar one for a group of my readers. Looking forward to seeing more of your work and of you!
ddonohue said
at 10:04 pm on Nov 25, 2007
Jody- Thank you for including the link to The Wright 3--I love the way it is set up. Don't you think this format will work well for the Pageturners groups to use to cement their knowledge?! I look forward to viewing your students' work as the project takes off. Nice plan.
Michelle said
at 8:35 am on Dec 18, 2007
Your maintenance section is great addition. Including a plan to archive old material is good. This type of plan, while normal for librarians (weeding) is not always apparent to the rest of the world.
If there is a parent night in the Spring, maybe the wiki could be shown then or, if you plan on doing this again in the fall, you could show last year's project as an example of what you will be doing.
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