Lesson Two

Lesson Title: Online Collaboration, Developing a Wiki

Time: Two Weeks 

Related Lessons: Fantasy Genre, Author Study

Unit: Fantasy Genre

GOALS:

National Content Standards:

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features.

11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

            ISTE NETS-S

2. Communication and collaboration

3. Research and information fluency

5. Digital citizenship

Instructional objective(s):

Students will work in teams to create a wiki about Lois Lowry and the novels The Giver and Gathering Blue, another about J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Series, and a third wiki about Bruce Coville and the Unicorn Chronicles series. Students on each team will have read various books by the same author, and will teach each other about the texts and the authors' biography. Together, each team will educate the classmates who studied other authors about their author and their texts through their wiki.

Fantasy Reading List

Unicorn Chronicles # 1: Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville

Unicorn Chronicles # 2: Song of the Wanderer by Bruce Coville

Unicorn Chronicles # 3: Dark Whispers by Bruce Coville

The Unicorn Chronicles: Book IV: The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville

   

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

Author Resource List

Bruce Coville

"The Official Bruce Coville Homepage": http://www.brucecoville.com/bio.asp

"Bruce Coville": http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-coville-bruce.asp

"Q & A with Bruce Coville": http://onourmindsatscholastic.blogspot.com/2010/06/q-with-bruce-coville-author-and-merman.html

Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry’s blog: http://loislowry.typepad.com/lowry_updates/

Lois Lowry’s biography: http://www.loislowry.com/bio.html

Lois Lowry’s biography: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=3326

J. K. Rowling

“Official Site”: http://www.jkrowling.com/accessible/en/

“About the Author”: http://www.kidsreads.com/hp07/content/rowling.asp

ACTION:

Prior to this Lesson (in Lesson One): 

Students have read at least two novels by an author they choose from our Fantasy Reading List, and students have read biographical information about their author from at least two web sites on our Author Resource List.

Students have emailed their author, comment on their author’s blog, or participated in an online dialogue about their author and his or her work, and they have reflected upon their experiences together.

During Class:

We will view and evaluate examples of student wiki spaces. (Time: one class period, to include a mini lesson on using PBWorks.)

Students will be divided into three teams based on the author they studied. As a team, they will create a wiki page describing their author’s life and works through text, visual images, and audio clips. I will provide a rubric detailing the elements that must be presented in their wiki and the expectations for communicating and collaborating throughout this lesson. (15 minutes.)

I will provide class time for students to record group goals, plan homework activities, and discuss progress, questions, and ideas. (Time: 15 minutes/class period, for one week.)

MONITOR:                                                                                                                               

Students will read and post questions to all least four classmate's wiki pages, with the goal of learning more about the three authors and the twelve novels presented in these wikis.

Students will respond to the posts of their classmates, reacting to any comments they have received while developing their wiki, and reflecting on the experience so far and the actions they still plan to take.

Students will make changes to or expand upon the work they have added to their own wiki pages in response to the comments they received and the new ideas they generated.

Ongoing assessment(s):

Activity on the wiki will be monitored continually.

Teacher comments and questions will be posted periodically by me.

EVALUATE AND EXTEND:

Students will invite other fans to submit a response to our fantasy author wikis as a way to collaborate with peers with diverse perspectives. They may continue to use the wiki throughout the school year if they wish to.

Students will add a final reflective post to each of their wiki pages, evaluating how the online author study and the collaborative work on a wiki contributed to their learning during this activity. They will explain what they found challenging about integrating technology into their author study work, and how it was helpful. They will discuss the advantages and challenges of online collaboration, and why they made any changes they made based on peer feedback. Students will have time to read and comment on each others' final reflections as well.

Accommodations and extensions/Backup plan: Should some lack of technology or electricity prevent us from completing this wiki lesson plan, we would follow similar steps to create a reciprocal teaching environment in the classroom. Students will present the information they have learned and reflect on their learning process. They will view the information presented by peers and offer constructive criticism, comments, and questions to help peers clarify their presentations.