Jessie Holtzman-Rich

LITR 630
Wiki Assignment Written Component
November 13, 2014
Introduction
The wiki lesson I have created for my fifth graders addresses International Reading
Association Standards (IRA), International Educational Technology Standards for Students
(NETS*S), the Kentucky Teacher Standard #6 (KTS6), and Common Core State Standards in
English Language Arts (CCSS). Over a course of two and a half weeks, students will have an
opportunity to think about what it means to be a fifth grader in the year 2015. From there, they
will interview older family members and friends, as well as research online past decades, to find
out what it would have been like to be a fifth grader during a different time period in the United
States. As students conduct their interviews and complete their research, students will post
relevant informationtext and hyperlinks on the class wiki to enhance their understanding of
each time period. Uing all of the shared information on the wiki, students will then have to
predict what it will be like to be a fifth grader in 2065. When making their predictions, students
will have to consider the following questions: What inevitably will be different? What will be
similar? What can we predict with some accuracy? What is impossible to predict? Finally, each
student will have to write an essay comparing and contrasting their own fifth grade life with the
life of a fifth grader born in a different decade. Not only does the lesson develop students high
order thinking skills, but each component of the online lesson is also designed to help students
learn and improve the necessary strategies and skills needed to function in the 21st century and
beyond.

International Reading Association Standards

My lesson addresses five International Reading Association Standards. It addresses 1.2,
Candidates understand the historically shared knowledge of the profession and changes over
time in the perceptions of reading and writing development, processes, and components because
it is asking students to develop their reading and writing skills online and in a public forum. They
will be researching information, not just for themselves but for their peers, which is different
form more traditional ways of teaching research projects. Throughout the course of the three
weeks, students will be able to view what their classmates are posting and will have the
opportunity to write and edit and add to their classmates postings. In these ways, the lesson also
addresses IRA standard 2.2, Candidates use appropriate and varied instructional approaches,
including those that develop word recognition, language comprehension, strategic knowledge,
and reading-writing connections. Because students will be reading and consulting many different
online sites, as well as interviewing family members, the lesson addresses 3.3, Candidates use a
wide range of texts (e.g., narrative, expository, and poetry) from traditional print, digital, and
online resources. Standard 4.2, Candidates use a literacy curriculum and engage in instructional
practices that positively impact students' knowledge, beliefs, and engagement with the features of
diversity is being addressed because each student will be able to contribute information that
he/she considers meaningful; there is not a single right answer. On this end, students
contributions will reflect their own unique interests, family history, and cultural differences.
Finally, because the lesson is set up on a wiki, the standard 5.1, Candidates design the physical
environment to optimize students' use of traditional print, digital, and online resources in
reading and writing instruction is addressed.

National Educational Technology Standards for Students

The lesson relies on the use of a wiki, a place that involves learners in their own
construction of knowledge (Boulos, Maramba, & Wheeler, 2006). Throughout the course of
the three weeks, students will be researching information, sharing relevant information with their
classmates, and posting hyperlinks to support their and their classmates research. In these ways,

the following two NETS*S are addressed: 2, Communication and collaboration: Students use
digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a
distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others and 3. Research
and information fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. In
addition, as students do their research, they are going to have to decide what information is
meaningful and what is not, what is worth posting and sharing with their peers and what is not.
This develops students critical literacy skills because if the teacher finds all of the websites and
sources of informationstudents would not be presented the opportunity to learn how to read,
analyze, and evaluate various texts (Sanden, 2011).
Kentucky Teacher Standard 6
In order for this lesson to be effective, I, as the teacher, need to understand how to
effectively use the wiki. I need to create the wiki, model for my students how to use it, and
include myself as one of the participants in the collaborative community, all so that I can teach
and guide my students in how to use it effectively. While students complete this lesson, I will
walk around and guide and assist students while they are reading, analyzing and evaluating the
websites and online information. Providing a variety of sources as well as letting students offer
their own, followed by explicit instruction on how to evaluate information and sources, as well
as how to analyze who is given voice and who is silenced, can help to develop students critical

literacy skills (Sanden, 2011). Students are also required to both use and demonstrate their
learning on the wiki page. In all of these ways, my lesson is addressing the following
components of Kentucky Teacher Standard 6:

6.1 Uses available technology to design and plan instruction.

6.2 Uses available technology to implement instruction that facilitates student
learning.
6.3 Integrates student use of available technology into instruction.
6.4 Uses available technology to assess and communicate student learning.
6.5 Demonstrates ethical and legal use of technology.

Common Core State Standards

My lesson addresses numerous Common Core Standards that are designed to strengthen
students reading and writing skills and the way in which students present their knowledge of
ideas. Because the lesson is designed on a wiki, and because of the nature of language arts, the
following Common Core Standards are being addressed simultaneously:

Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the

ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or
speak about the subject knowledgeably.
Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge
through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from
print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and
finished work, and provide a list of sources.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization
are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in
presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or
themes.

After gathering the information and sharing it on the wiki space, each student will write a
compare/contrast essay which must include some of the research found on the class wiki page.
When writing the essay, the following Common Core Writing Standards are being addressed:

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and

information clearly.
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing
as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the
Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate
with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a
minimum of two pages in a single sitting.

How the Lesson Connects to the Literature

One of the many strengths of using a wiki in the classroom is that it provides for students
the opportunity to learn from each other and to come to a deeper understanding of the [topic]
through their dialogue (Sanden, 2011). A wiki can serve as a communication and collaboration
tool that can be used to engage students in learning with others within a collaborative
environment (Parker, 2007), which supports the research that says that, when working together,
students achieve higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who do
their work individually (Johnson and Johnson, 1986).
Another strength is that when the wiki is involved, the teacher is acting as the facilitator
and the guide, not as the supplier of information. The wiki allows students to add, change, or
delete content, sharing the responsibility for its growth amongst all of its contributors (Sanden,
2011), which lends itself to deeper engagement, more authentic learning and student ownership.
Having a public and authentic audience will give students incentive to proofread their own
writing, as well as their peers writing. Additionally, the end students can feel proud of the final
product, since they all contributed and made improvements to it. In the past, students probably
thought that they could only consume knowledge, but the use of a wiki provides a place to
contribute as well as consume (Shareski, 2005).

The literature also encourages teachers to let the students, with guidance of course, to
find the sources themselves because it can lead to more developed critical literacy skills
(Sanden, 2011). My lesson asks the students to do just that, find the sources themselves. Having
a number of different texts and hyperlinks on the wiki space can lend itself to larger discussions
later. For example, the class can come together after the project is over and discuss which
information and hyperlinks were the most helpful and which were the least helpful, and why.
According to the literature, a wiki that is limited to word processing or one whose
information can all be printed out and handed to students on a piece of paper is not fully utilizing
all of the learning possibilities that a wiki can provide (Sanden, 2011). My lesson uses the wiki
effectively because it requires students to engage with and post many different types of text,
including hypertexts. Teachers should encourage the use of other means of communication such
as hypertext, audio and visual recordings, photographs, and opportunities for remix as part of
their wiki contributions (Sanden, 2011). Doing so can enrich students options of literacy
consumption and production (Sanden, 2011).

How the Lesson Demonstrates an Understanding of the TPACK Model

Because my lesson addresses International Reading Association Standards,

National Educational Technology Standards for Students, Kentucky Teacher Standard 6, and
Common Core Standards, it naturally demonstrates an understanding of the TPACK model. As a
teacher, I know that the face of literacy is changing. Reading and writing cannot be taught using
only traditional print text, especially since so much reading material is now available online. My
lesson requires students to use their read online text and then both write and share relevant
information from their research with their peers. They also have to use the gathered information

to make predictions and write a compare/contrast essay. Using the wiki as a vehicle to teach 21st
century literacy skills addresses the content knowledge (CK) and technology knowledge (TK)
part of TPACK model. Pedagogically, I know that students perform better when they feel they
have an authentic audience. Students are also more engaged when they are involved in
collaborative and cooperative learning opportunities, especially if these collaborative and
cooperative learning opportunities involve technology. Offering student choice is also key in
student engagement. In all of these ways, my wiki lesson addresses the pedagogical knowledge
(PK) part of the TPACK model. When all of this is combined, TPACK is achieved.
Conclusion
Ten years ago, my students would have researched a particular decade and then
written an essay comparing and contrasting their fifth grade life with the fifth grade life from a
different decade. Thanks to technology and, more specifically, wiki pages, I am able to create an
assignment that, in the end, is more engaging, more assessable, more informative, and more
empowering for my students. What used to be an individual or small group assignment becomes
a larger and more collaborative experience. Students are learning from each other and a part of a
more organic experience. In this way, my lesson demonstrates an understanding of the TPACK
model.