Teaching Story-Writing in a Grade 4 Class with Wikis

Teaching Story-Writing with Wikis in a Grade 4 Class

Before - Without TechnologyBefore I started using technology in my classroom on a regular (almost daily) basis, I would teach a lesson in some aspect of story composition, such as word choice, ideas, style, catchy introduction, voice, etc. Then I would ask the students to write the rough draft of a one-page story incorporating the aspect of writing we had discussed. Usually I would collect all these papers or notebooks to read and evaluate, which usually takes several hours over a week or more, which means delayed feedback for the students and less than optimal learning efficiency.

Assessment - BeforeIn the above scenario, it is normally up to me, as the teacher, to coach students in the aspects of writing that they are less proficient in, which requires a lot of one-to-one teaching, which is hard to find time for in todays classroom. Students can share their stories with their classmates for peer feedback, but in my experience, their classmates often make suggestions that dont improve the quality of writing or focus on inconsequential errors. There is little or no communal effort or learning from each other. The concepts of combining strengths and creative ideas receive minimal emphasis.

The informative lesson in story-writing that I have designed and embarked on involves using wikis that are available on my MY43 (Sharepoint) class website. (Two months ago, I was uncertain as to what wikis were, and I appreciate the efforts of LTT colleagues to enlighten me.) I had originally considered arranging to use GoogleDocs with my students to allow them to collaborate on this project, but found the political hoop-jumping to get my students SD43 email addresses too daunting. When I was informed that I could do the same thing with wikis, that seemed much easier.

The biggest hurdle with using the wikis in Sharepoint is that it does not work well on the MacIntosh platform, especially when it comes to editing. I have had to teach my students basic HTML formatting codes for them to edit their work on the Macs in our computer lab and classroom (which only reinforces my antipathy towards the MacIntosh platform.)After with Technology4The Learning GoalsThe main goal I had in designing this project was to encourage students to collaborate and learn from each other to create a fictional story incorporating many of the writing aspects we had studied in the first 2 terms of the school year, including organization, ideas, style, voice and word choice. The second goal is to have the students take digital photos of themselves acting out parts of the story they create together. They will then combine the written stories, photos, music, narration and sound effects in PowerPoint or Photo Story to create digital stories. They have all produced their own personal digital story earlier in the year, so they know the basic concept.

The Wiki PagesSo I created a wiki library of 7 wiki pages on our class website, called Digital Story Wikis and changed the permissions on the website to allow all students read/write access to these pages. The TOC who was teaching my class (while I was home sick) divided the 28 students into 7 groups of 4, so each group had one wiki page to work on. In spite of my absence from school I didnt want to delay starting this project, so I created a video with Jing software to show the students how to access the wiki pages, which I put on the home page of our website. I also added instructions to the top of each wiki page for each group to follow in writing their story.

6Anywhere, AnytimeAnother big advantage of using the wikis is that the students can add to their stories at home or wherever they have access to the internet, as well as at school. Plus, their parents will have a good idea of what they are doing in Language Arts at school. So if they suddenly have an idea for their story, they can type it in at home and then check the next day with their classmates to see how they like it. Now I just need to get them all Blackberries!

Regarding my assessment of their writing, its a lot easier and more enjoyable reading and commenting on their writing on the wikis from wherever I am and they can get pretty immediate feedback at home or elsewhere. My on-going comments can be left on the wiki, so the kids can see how their writing is improving. With the history feature on the wikis, we can go back and see what earlier versions looked like in case they want to bring back something they used before.

Assessment - After

Wiki Stories - Here We Come!So the next period the class had in the computer lab, they all viewed the Jing video and started working in their groups on their stories. By the end of that school day, I was able to log on at home and read the beginning stages of their stories. You can imagine my excitement when I saw that 6 of 7 groups had written a list of characters and a plot outline!

One element I hadnt foreseen was that most of the groups, especially the boys, had started stories involving a lot of shooting, rampaging, and world domination! I put a comment on each of those wiki pages instructing the groups to stay away from violence and any other inappropriate content. One group of girls had started a story studying different styles of music. I wrote a comment asking them to create a story with a plot.

Their story could certainly incorporate girls with different musical tastes; I suggested they might have a group of girls forming a band and discussing which styles of music they wanted to play.To Be ContinuedSo as of April 26, all seven groups have their characters and a good idea of their story plot. One group has Lego characters in addition to human ones. Another has the RCMP being scared off by a skunk. There are Star Wars themes, Dragon battles, even George Bush makes an appearance, along with Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (I wonder?!)Im looking forward with much anticipation to seeing how the kids work together and how their stories progress. Then therell be the picture-taking and PowerPoint assembly. Can we maybe make this school year last until mid-July? Perhaps I can somehow sneak all the Macs out of the school and magically replace them with PCs, but dont tell anybody. Rick Botero might get suspicious, hes our site computer contact, as well as an SFU mentor.