Jennifer

Jennifer

The link to my wiki is: http://class2m9vocab.wikispaces.com/

Initially, I had no idea what I could possibly use a wiki with my students for, but after reading chapters 5 and 6, I started thinking about the type of instruction that I use in class. I am also on the Data Inquiry team at my school, and our focus has been on improving the vocabulary skills of grades 3, 4, and 5 for the state tests. Our focus has been on teaching them how to recognize and use prefixes and suffixes to change the meaning of root words. This initiative, has now come down to 2nd grade, so I thought, why not try to accomplish this goal via a wiki.

On my site, each student could be allotted a cetain amount of time each week to add new words that they found using prefixes and suffixes. It is a great tool for them to collaborate and bring all of the words that they are learning into one place, accessable for all. It is also going to make them aware of the words they encounter day to day. In 2nd grade, it is going to take some time to get them used to working on a wiki, but I could also foresee teachers of the older grades incorporating a similar tool in their classrooms.

I like the fact that all students can contribute to the wiki, so they feel like they really have ownership of the project, and they will be learning in ways that is fun and innovative. These are words that can be printed out for each student by the end of the year, and they will have a great reference of vocabulary words to take with them.

Once again, this seemed like a daunting task to get started, but once I got familiar with it, you can definitely see the advatages to it.

PODCAST...

media type="file" key="podcast.mp3"