Matthew

Matthew Thematic Essay Wiki http://thematicwriting.wikispaces.com/

It took me awhile to figure out what and how I wanted to use the wiki for in my classroom. Viewing everyone's definitely gave me some ideas, but still left me looking for something practical to use one day in my own class. I began thinking about the type of writing issues and problems my own student's have and discovered a wiki I believe to be useful for my classroom... Thematic Essay Writing.

My student's have an extremely difficult time writing their essay's. On the NYS Regents Exam, my student's will be required to write two essays (a thematic & a document-based). Using the wiki, my student's can work as a group or "team" to assist each other with their essay's. The students could work on a common outline or "prewriting stage" together (Valmont, 2003, p. 166), compiling the necessary information to get started and then write their own essay's. The students could then work on peer editing the essay's provided by the group (p.171) and finally make "published" or final editions (p.173).

The great thing about this wiki is that it would work for all three sections of my global classes. In addition, students could theoretically work with students from a different class period, but still be learning a common theme. Therefore, I would only need to make one wiki and it can be accessed by all 75 global students. This would save myself time and energy.

This wiki will provide content and writing strategies. Content is vital to achieving success on a global essay. However, students will be able to work on their vocabulary, writing techniques, and proof-reading techniques all at the same time. The students will become better essay writer's by getting feedback from fellow students, as well as providing the feedback.

This wiki can be a place for both collaborative and individual projects. The outline can be collaborative work, but the students will be providing individual essays. It once again will achieve two purposes.This will ensure the group and the individual are held accountable for the project.

Overall, I believe the wiki to be very useful in developing better essay writer's. Also, it takes some of the burden off of the teacher as the sole "proof-reader" and source of essay writing information. This is a practical and effective tool for a high school global studies classroom.

PODCAST...

Where do I begin? For the past few days I've been attempting to export my audacity file as a mp3 with no success, as you can tell by the file above. I've viewed EVERY website, help tab, and instructional page possible with the same results. I have attempted to upload it as a WAV and have acquired the assistance of a friend, but the results remained the same. Something malfunctioned with Lame while downloading and the "corruption" to the file has unabled me to accomplish the intended feat. Even uninstalling and installing hasn't worked. Like every good teacher knows, unexpected situations arise when preparing or presenting a lesson. The ability to adapt and still accomplish the task is what matters the most....I hope. Therefore, I've decided to accept the consequence of lost points by not being able to "complete" the assignment in its entirety in an attempt to keep salvage my sanity from LAME. I will be writing my response to the assignment, instead of all of you being able to listen to the 5:38 podcast I have on my computer. My apologies to you all, but believe me, it was no fun for me either.

Podcasting is something that I could use in my classroom, but I was skeptical. Even before the "malfunction" problem, I wasn't positive on how to make podcasting an effective instructional tool. The goal, from what I understood was to improve speaking and listening skills. These are vital skills for any student. However, everything we do in a high school social studies classroom is designed to help them on the NYS Regents exam. There are no oral or listening components on the exam. There are only writing and reading components. Therefore, I wasn't entirely hooked on the idea of podcasting. Even though podcasting is not my favorite of the technological instruction methods, I would still use podcasting several different ways to improve my students use of global studies vocabulary and content.

I would develop podcasts that enabled my students to hear the difficult vocabulary associated with global history. The students would be able to listen to these at home and improve their listening skills and content information at the same time.

There are several benefits to podcasts. As mentioned in the article, I believe podcasts to be very motivating. My students would love the idea of putting music to a lesson and playing it for an audience (class). In addition, I love the aspect of students being able to listen and develop podcasts in the comfort of their own home. Many students do not feel comfortable enough to ask questions or attempt to pronounce certain words or phrases in class. Podcasts give students the opportunity to accomplish these feats without the undue stress of peers.

Podcasts definitely help students develop listening and speaking skills. The students need to be "active" listeners. There is no eye contact or body language from the speaker, so students must truly focus in on the words to get an understanding of the podcast. In addition, students would be able to develop their speaking skills by developing their own podcasts and working on vocabulary terms.

How would I use it? The first would be a teacher podcast providing vocabulary words as mentioned before. Also, I would make specific podcasts that would help my students with lessons. For example... "DBQ Essay." This would be a podcast with important information about how to complete a successful DBQ essay. The students would hear things like... "remember to cite your documents" and "ensure to follow the tasks." Lastly, I might make a podcast to inform and communicate with students. We have roughly a week from the time school ends to the time the Regents exam takes place. Therefore, I would make a reminder podcast... "The regents will be June 26th, please bring pens and pencils to room B217, etc."

I would have students develop their own podcasts by presenting a speech and having the other students guess who it is. The students could provide music to help distinguish the time period and place. Students could also present their essays through podcasts, which would enable all three classes of global to hear it. Those would just be starting ideas, but I feel they can be effective.

That was about 5:38...right? My apologies to everyone for having to read this instead of listening to it, but please enjoy the entertaining music from the podcast... ... thank you.