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SUMMERTIME, AND THE WIKI IS EASY!

Getting started on a wiki

Allison Baxter (abaxter@d94.org) and Eric Bodwell (ebodwell@d94.org)http://bilingualvoices.wikispaces.comCommunity HS District 94June 10, 2010

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Who is familiar with Wiki? 

Have you used it for any specific purposes?

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What is a wiki?

• Definition: "A collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it." (reference.com)

• Wiki =Hawaiian word for quick

• Wikispaces.com

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Wikispaces Account

http://www.wikispaces.com/

6http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

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K-12 Plus Educator's Account

• Unlimited users• Unlimited pages• 2 GB storage* • Ad free• Private wikis• Custom Themes

*2 pickup trucks filled with books OR 894,784 pages of plain text.

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The Wiki

Link to full page

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Manage Wiki Button• Manage the wiki pages and files• Manage members of your wiki• Change the look and feel of pages• Monitor statistics and changes on

wiki

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Embed Outside Content

Or other services with embed feature

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What were my objectives when I went to bother Eric about getting my

students online?

To create a community of writers and readers:• learning from each others’ writing

• helping each other and themselves with written comments

• serving as a real audience—peers, family and friends

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I also wanted to

• Give students access to their own writing–ability to share stories with family and friends here and there

• Offer a creative outlet and experimentation with different genres of writing

•  Help them create their own literary magazine without all the paper!

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Why did I like the Wikispaces idea?

• IT’S FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

• It’s easy to navigate and set up

• There are video presentations that show exactly what to do

•  Students can post their own work

• Students can comment on each others’ work (and practice letter writing skills)

• The students can read the work of students in other classes

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What were my obstacles?

• Students are mostly not tech-savvy (most didn’t even have an email account).

• Group of high students and low students. The high ones finish too fast and the low ones need a lot of individual attention

• Students are level 2 language learners.

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How would I overcome the technical obstacles?

• Feature to set up accounts for wiki yourself and upload it to the wiki software - wiki will recognize accounts without students needing email accounts

• I had an aide help me this time (sometimes in native language), and I worked slowly

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How did I overcome the “level” obstacles?

• Laid out the wiki and set up writing assignments with rubrics, instructions, pre-writing activities, and examples---voila! Instant challenge for the high students!

• Wiki is accessible in “resource” or “study period” for the lower level students

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How did I set up activities for the students?

• Different writing genres focusing on students’ lives and world.

• Pre-planned and put on the navigation to the left including all forms, readings, helpful Power Points, directions, rubrics, and commentary forms under “student information”

24http://bilingualvoices.wikispaces.com/

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Activities and Assignments

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A LOOK AT OTHER ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINES FOR ESL STUDENTS

ON THE WIKI- provided links and directions for looking at some online magazines

CURRICULUM-students wrote commentary about 3 of the magazines and used the discussion feature on the wiki

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ABOUT ME

ON THE WIKI-separate page for each student-students read each others’ work and commented on it

CURRICULUM-provided a series of questions, some new vocabulary (and posted the ppt through Authorstream for further reference), a rubric, pre-writing, and a commentary form

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POETRYON THE WIKI-I wanted the poetry to look more like a class magazine, so I put the poems all on the same page. It worked because they’re short.

CURRICULUM-included several types of shorter, formulaic poetry. other ones work well to challenge the higher level students who finish early

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WHEN I WAS YOUNG…ON THE WIKI-students typed their five experiences and made a ppt. --one favorite slide of each student was put in a class powerpoint and streamed through Authorstream.

CURRICULUM-Students read a book called When I Was Young in the Mountains… by Cynthia Rylant and modeled their writing on her book about experiences she had when she was a child. They wrote 5 experiences, put them in a PowerPoint, chose their favorite. Students viewed combined PowerPoint of favorites and posted comments

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THE BILINGUAL TIMES NEWSPAPER

• ON THE WIKI-I wanted it look more like a newspaper, so I organized it by topic and had students paste there. “Sections make scrolling less tedious. Students who finished early took photos when we interviewed staff members.

• CURRICULUM-We brainstormed newspaper questions and topics for articles in groups with idea catchers. Students chose their own topics and “contracted” for it.

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Students did

1.Interviews of staff members about the dance, gangs, jobs, programs. They used tape recorders to listen repeatedly and get help from teachers.

2.Editorials about ESL/Bilingual program, budget cuts

3.Career articles 4.Reviews of dances, malls, movies5.Features about their bands, soccer teams6.Art for extra credit

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Newspaper layout

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Interview and picture

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They commented on each others work using sentence stems. They posted under

discussion.• This article was good because

• It was also good because

• A new word or fact I learned was

• I understood ____% of the article. One thing I did not understand was

• I want to read more about

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THE GLOGSTER PROJECT

• ON THE WIKI-I wanted to do an art based writing project. I used glogster, an online “poster” program that is free for teachers. www.edu.glogster.edu

• CURRICULUM-I gave students graphic organizers to have them examine how they changed from August and May. They compared their lives and development in different domains: social, academic, physical, emotional, and interests and hobbies. They also wrote a paragraph about summer plans for development. They included a “theme song” which they explained.

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Free account worked just fine for me!

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• Checklist of Requirements:• Did you post a picture and caption for each of the following domains?• You will need to use at least one picture for each domain WITH A

CAPTION EXPLAINING IT!• ____Social• ____Academic• ____Emotional• ____Physical• ____Interests/Hobbies• II. What is your theme song? ___________________• Did you upload it to your glog?________________• Did you explain it in 4 or more sentences?_______________• III. Did you talk about your plans for next year?_____________• Did you explain it in 4 or more sentences?_______________• IV. What is your original and creative title?_____________________• V. Is all grammar, punctuation, and spelling correct?

_______________• VI. Is everything neatly and clearly presented?__________________

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PROBLEMS TO AVOID

• There is no spell check feature on the glog. Have the students type it in Microsoft Word and paste.

• Make sure students do not use the “first login” website after the first login. It won’t work.

• If they forget their password, YOU can change it from your account.

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Commentary Form• Commentary Form-Glog• This Glog was good because • You also did a good job• I like the• It was a little difficult to understand• I understood ____________% of your Glog; I didn’t

understand______________.• It was very interesting that you_____________.• You ___________________________and so do I.• USE AT LEAST 5 OF THESE STEMS ON THE

COMMENTARY FORM!

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GAMES FOR REVIEW

I found some interesting games and just put links there for sponge activities.

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Now that you know a little about Wiki, what ideas do you have for using it? 

How can we create a community of learners?

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What does research say about learning how to write?

How can a wiki help develop interest and skills?

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AUTHENTIC

“writing motivation was heavily influenced by the extent to which [students] perceived they were encouraged to write authentic personal texts whose messages were respected by caring teachers”

(Potter, et al 2001.).

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PEER EDITING• Through adopting the positions of interested

reviewers, proofreaders, and observers, English writing learners gained opportunities to assist their peers by exchanging ideas of the similar topics (Topping, 2000).

• In addition, replying to peer corrections and giving suggestions allow students to see

• similar problems and weaknesses in their own writing (Grabe & Kaplan 1996).

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AUDIENCE• As educators we need to give students writing

motivation by framing assignments differently and giving students a “real” audience so that preparation can be made for their future writing (Ackerman 2009)

• Their online portfolio is for the world to see, and their effort is apparent almost immediately to the reader. Knowing the audience is meaningful and large a student will consider topics more carefully with depth (Ackerman 2009)

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ELECTRONIC MEDIA

[S]tudents are willing to communicate to a designated audience of their peers, through instant/text messaging, and blogging. Students are motivated to use technology to write. Using this idea, teachers can assimilate what the students are already doing through personal websites/blogs and classroom content with a

meaningful audience (Ackerman 2009).

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Potter, Ellen F., & McCormick, Christine B., & Busching, Beverly A. (2001). Academic And Life Goals: Insight from Adolescent Writers. The University of North Carolina Press, 45-55.

Jay D. Ackerman A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2006

Topping, K. J. (2000). Peer assisted learning: A practical guide for teachers. Cambridge, MA: Bookline Books.

Grabe W., & Kaplan, R. B. (1996). Theory and practice of writing: An applied linguistic perspective. New York: Longman.

Works Cited