Thing 14

http://pittpd7.wikispaces.com/


The Wiki I found is a junior high English class. The teacher set up the entire wiki as a "book". It appears to be a collaborative class research project. It looks like each student and/or group of students was responsible for researching a specific topic related to Elizabethan England. There are clear links to each topic on the left side of the page. There is a link to each Works Cited page within each of the topic pages. There are also links to MLA citation rules and directions/expectations for the assignments.


I could completely copy this entire idea for my 9th grade English class where students are introduced to Shakespeare for the first time and read Romeo and Juliet. I love the idea of setting up a "wiki book" a.k.a a collaborative class research paper. I think presenting research online makes it more interesting for the kids to read their peers' work rather than listen to a speech. It also creates a team atmosphere in the classroom. I know that kids almost always do better on assignments when they know their peers will be reading or reviewing them.

Something else I came across on a different wiki for English was that the kids did interview projects related to characters in a novel and shared their interviews via audio on the wiki pages. I liked this idea a lot, too.