Week 4

Ever since we were assigned to create a wiki I have not been able to stop formulating ways that they could be utilized in my classroom. The ease that they can be created with and the many ways they can be used are the main attractions to this form of technological tools.
The strand that I would incorporate into this lesson is Creativity and Innovation because I believe that these are two very important things to put into a literature/writing class. Students need to be willing to take risks and not be afraid to be as creative and different as they so choose. In an English class there are often many right answers to a question and if a student is too afraid to explore all of the possibilities than the class is a complete waste.
I am going to be assigning this project to my ninth grade class so the content statement is: The use of digital tools and media-rich resources enhances creativity and the construction of knowledge.
The Cumulative Progress Indicator for this assignment is: Synthesize and publish information about a local or global issue or event on a collaborative, web-based service.
As I mentioned before I am going to have my students use wikis in order to create on-line newspapers. The students will be placed into groups of four and each student would be responsible for choosing one section that they would like to include in this newspaper (sports, movies, music, books, etc.). Once each student has provided an idea for a section in the newspaper, each student in the group will write ONE STORY FOR EACH SECTION. For example, there will be four sections in the newspaper and each student will write four stories, one for each section, for a total of sixteen stories. Once the students have peer reviewed and allowed me to review each one of the stories than they can begin their task of putting the newspaper together using their group wiki. They will be required to use pictures, creative formatting, and video if they so choose. Of course the stories must also be written well (good grammar, correct information, etc.). The stories must also be cited correctly and the research tools that are used must be reliable.
All together this activity will teach students how to use a useful tool such as wikis effectively. It will also force them to sit down and examine the world around them. Maybe instead of going on Facebook, they'll check out some news sites. Instead of watching cartoons they'll read the newspaper or watch the news. It will allow them to express events going on in the world around them creatively through the use of technology. As I've mentioned before, students that are having fun and moving outside of their comfort zones while learning stay much more engaged and, I believe, will eventually learn more.
This assignment could also be looked at under the strands:
a. Technology Operations and Concepts because they will be learning to embed pictures and videos and be learning how to format text in effective and creative ways.
c. Communication and Collaboration because these students will have to work together in order to make this newspaper accurate and well presented. They will be able to help each other with difficulties that arise throughout the process.
e. Research and Information Literacy because these students will have to research the stories that they are writing in order to make them as accurate as possible. They will need to practice sound research practices to ensure that everything they write is cited properly and is truthful.