EDU 538 Lisa Caleffe

What is a Wiki? A wiki is a web site that lets any visitor become a participant: you can create or edit the actual site contents without any special technical knowledge or tools. A wiki is continuously “under revision.” One famous example is Wiki-pedia, an online encyclopedia with no “authors” but millions of contributors and editors. The word "wiki" comes from Hawaiian language, meaning "quick" or "fast."

What can I do with a Wiki? Study guides made by student groups for themselves and peers: each group prepares the guide for one aspect of the unit or responsibility rotates: one unit guide per semester. Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use, contributed by students (ongoing throughout the year).

I can do more too? “What I Think Will Be on the Test” wiki: a place to log review information for important concepts throughout the year, prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam. “Everything I needed to know I learned in Ms. Caleffe’s class” wiki where students add their own observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over into the “real world.”

Frequently Asked (or Not) Questions Students post KWL entries Continue adding questions that occur to them as the unit progresses. The wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.

Elementary Annotated virtual library: listings and commentary on independent reading students have done throughout the year Collaborative book reviews or author studies An elementary class “encyclopedia” on a special topic, such as explorers or state history – to be continued and added to each year! Family Twaditionwiki- elementary students share their family’s ways of preparing Thanksgiving dinner or celebrating birthdays (anonymously, of course) and compare them to practices in other cultures they read and learn about.

A “Where is Wanda” wiki: Wiki version of the Flat Stanley project. Have each Wanda host post on the wiki, including the picture they take with Wanda during her visit. Or: Google Earth place marker file to add geographic visuals to Wanda’s wonderful wanderings as a link in the wiki. WOW! Where in the World is Wiki Wanda?

Writing Ideas Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see to concepts learned before they left: mammals I saw on the way to Disney, geometric shapes in the Magic Kingdom, the most cost-effective lunches while traveling, etc. Remember: hotels usually have Internet access. Make the world a part of your classroom! Continuing a story adds sentence using new vocabulary words and writes and adventure story in collaboration with the entire class. They will NEVER forget the meaning of the words as they read and re-read their story each time they visit to add. The story can be a single version or branch off into multiple versions and endings.

Social Studies A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in the life of a Japanese/French/Mexican family. Propaganda examples during a propaganda unit. Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes a law, etc. A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s). A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades. Show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts

Math A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked wiki”?) A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs (a geometwiki?). See the different approaches to the same problem! Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate places where they actually used math to solve a problem. Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial or converting a decimal to a fraction.

Science A taxonomy of living things with information about each branch as you study Biology over a full year. Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a chemistry class. Field Site Observations water-testing in local streams, weather observations from across your state, or bird counts during migratory season. Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific processes: how mountains form, etc.