Week 2 - Wiki Project

I found two wikis that I thought were very well done.  Even though both of these wikis are from elementary classrooms, I think with some adjustments, they could give me some ideas for my high school students.  Mr. Webb’s wiki is used as a class website with some of the pages directly related to reading and writing.  His one page of Creative Writing seems to be a great way for students to practice their writing skills and publish their work.  By selecting a “winner” each week, students are able to be recognized.  This page gives an explanation of Haiku and then the students posted their original Haiku.  His Reading page explains the required reading logs students must complete.  I thought the Current Events Reports page combines both the reading and writing components by having students find the event, read about it and then be able to process and explain their reading.  I really enjoyed viewing this site and could see that he put a lot of effort into making this a usable tool for his students.

While Mr. Webb’s site was set up for long term use, the second site I found was for a specific writing project.  Terry the Tennis Ball was designed for students to participate in a collaborative Choose Your Own Adventure style of story writing.   The teacher provided the initial prompt and then students chose the direction they wanted to take the story.  This project could be used for a very short term project or something that students could add to over a longer period of time by adding to others’ contributions to the story.  I would think students would really enjoy this type of assignment.  It did not require a lot of writing but creativity and thought in moving the story along.

By reviewing these two different sites that each had different goals, I thought they both provided good examples of a long term and short term use of wikis in the classroom.

Resources:
http://mrwebbsclass.wikifoundry.com/page/Reading  
http://terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/