Title of Unit Working the Wiki Way!

Audience 1st Grade Team

Curriculum Area

Professional Development

Time Frame 1 Session

Stage 1 – Identify Desired ResultsContent Standards:

The library media specialist as teacher of information skills makes use of a variety of instructional strategies and assessment tools. (2b)The library media specialist as teacher of information makes use of a variety of instructional strategies and assessment tools. (2b)Candidates employ strategies to integrate the information literacy curriculum with content curriculum. (2c)Candidates incorporate technology to promote efficient and equitable access to information beyond print resources. (2c)Candidates assist students to use technology to access, analyze, and present information. (2c)Candidates acknowledge the importance of participating on school and district committees and in faculty staff development opportunities (3b)

Understandings

Teachers will understand that: A wiki is a multi-dimensional tool that can be effective in the classroom. A wiki is easy to make, navigate, and use.

Essential Questions

Essential Questions: What is a Wiki? How can a wiki be used effectively in the classroom setting?

Knowledge

Students will know:

A wiki is a type of website that easily allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages through a browser

PBworks is a website where you can create a wiki

How to add links to the wiki

How to create multiple pages

How to insert photos

Skills

Students will be able to : Access personal PBworks account Create a wiki page through their PBworks account Add multiple pages to a wiki Add links to a wiki page Insert photos by uploading and linking

Stage 2- Assessment Evidence

Performance Task

Goal: Your goal is to set up an account through Pbworks.com and begin to create your own wiki.

Role: You are a 1st grade classroom teacher working to effective classroom tools.

Audience: The audience is the students you teach, the teachers your work with, and/or the parents of your students.

Situation: As a team you have been encouraged by your principal to find a tool that you can use to create a comprehensive list of all your resources across different subject areas.

Product Performance and Purpose: You are to successfully sign up for an account through PBworks and begin to create a wiki that lists all of your education internet sites by grade level.

Standards and Criteria for Success:

Other Evidence

Formative: After the teacher has taught the content of what a wiki is and demonstrated the different tasks she will walk around the room as the teachers work to assist and answer questions.

Self Assessment/Evaluation: The teachers will complete an evaluation that assesses what they learned throughout the session.

Follow Up: Teachers were given my email address for any questions or concerns, as well as the link to the wiki used for instruction to refer back.

Stage 3- Learning Plan

Learning Activities:1. I will start with introducing myself and asking for any knowledge that the teachers

have about wiki’s. The essential question will be written on the smart board and referenced to the teachers.

2. I will then use a slide rocket presentation to inform the teachers of what a wiki is and the different ways you can use them to compile different online resources and as a teaching tool.

3. I will show the teachers several different examples of wiki’s through my PBworks account. Then I will inform the teachers that we will begin to create a wiki that houses all of their educational websites broken down by subject area.

4. I will use the smart board to demonstrate for the teachers and guide them through creating their own pbworks account. Then I will guide and instruct them on how to create a new wiki page. Each teacher will create one page.

5. Once they pull up their pages together we will create four headings: Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and math. I will then demonstrate to them how to:

Create a page for each of those headings How to insert links to various websites on each page How to upload a picture How to link the different pages of the wiki together

*For each step listed above I will demonstrate the task. Then have each teacher attempt to do it on their page. I will walk around and help as needed during each task.

6. Teachers will then be given a chance to continue working and creating their own personal resource wiki page while I walk around to answer questions and assist.

7. Teachers will fill out a self evaluation page and an evaluation survey for the class.

Reflection

I am really glad that I was given this opportunity to practice giving a professional development unit because this was one aspect of the media specialist job that didn’t have any experience with. I am so used to teaching elementary students and feel completely out of my league when I am asked to teach adults. During the planning stages I was somewhat unsure of specific instructional methods I could use and didn’t have any background knowledge of how to go about teaching this group of learners. At first I thought I would go through, show them a task on the wiki. Then let them complete it. But, during the actual lesson it ran a lot better if I explained all the different tasks and then allowed them to begin building their own. They could pull up my wiki if they needed to refer back to the step by step directions as I walked around and helped. It made it helpful that all of the teachers had their lap tops with them and could go follow along. Next time though, on top of all the directions through the digital format I will also print written directions for each teacher. Although, they could follow the directions on the wiki with their computer, it would have been helpful for them to have the directions right next to them while they were working independently. This was also a suggestion that was given through the evaluation.

Honestly, I was really worried about the attitude of the teachers I would be teaching

because of all the meetings and duties they are asked to perform. However, as it turned out they were excited about learning about this tool as many of them had heard about wiki’s and were interested in learning how to use them. The group was made up of teachers and student teachers that worked with the first grade team. I really felt like the student teachers’ excitement about this tool helped the teachers to be willing to learn. Gauging from the evaluations they did find wiki’s an interesting tool. Most of them really liked the idea of using the wiki to organize their resources by subject area. Also, many of them thought this tool would help organize their student links. They could create a page of class links organized by subject that could be kept on their class computers’ homepages and then their students would be able to find their way to sites they use regularly.

Lesson Evaluation:

The Wiki Way Lesson Evaluation

1. What did you know about wiki’s before this lesson? _______________________

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2. What did you learn about wiki’s? ______________________________________

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3. Will you use this tool in your classroom? ___________ How? ______________

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4. What parts of this lesson was helpful? __________________________________

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5. What suggestions do you have that would help to improve the effectiveness of this

lesson? ______________________________________________________________

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