Wiki Assignment

Written Component
Aria Bailey
Bellarmine University

Introduction
For my Wiki Assignment, I created a lesson series to be used with 3rd through 5th grade
elementary ESL students to enable them to create a wiki webpage to share elements of their
cultures with their classmates. The series was designed as a means of giving students practice
with new skills students will need to participate in an economy dependent on their abilities to use
and communicate information (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Commack, 2004). A variety of standards
as set forth by the International Literacy Association (ILA) for teaching professionals, the
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and the Kentucky Educational and
Professional Standards Board were addressed. Careful consideration of concepts related to
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and Common Core ELA standards was
also included.
ILA Standards
The ILA standards addressed in the lessons are as follows:
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.
2.2 Candidates use appropriate and varied instructional approaches, including those that develop word recognition,
language comprehension, strategic knowledge, and reading-writing connections.
2.3 Candidates use a wide range of texts (e.g., narrative, expository, and poetry) from traditional print, digital, and
online resources.
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.
5.1 Candidates design the physical environment to optimize students use of traditional print, digital, and online
resources in reading and writing instruction.

Wikis offer a departure from traditional methods of teaching students how to interact with
informational sources. Development of a wiki helps students build necessary skills to manage the
wealth of information now available (Sandon and Darragh 2011). As part of this lesson, in
preparation for the writing portion of the wiki creation, students engage in small reading groups
around the cultural topic of their choice using reading materials they have found online as well as
reading materials provided by the instructor during which they are taught traditional reading
skills such as word recognition and text comprehension strategies. Students are encouraged to

find a variety of sources in various formats to optimize their understanding and to enrich the
understanding their classmates have of the elements of students diverse cultures that the students
themselves view as important. During the lesson series, students alternate between work around
a kidney table during which they participate in small reading groups and work at computers
where they will conduct research and create their wiki.
ISTE Standards
The ISTA standards addressed in the lesson series are as follows:
1. Creativity and innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative
products and processes using technology.
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.
3. Research and information fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct
research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and
resources.

This lesson series sets up authentic situations in which students are able to engage with
technologies and each other to find information about topics they find to be personally
meaningful and share these findings with others. Wikis enable students to communicate and
collaborate on a product with a great deal of flexibility with regard to when and where they work
(Educause Learning Initiative, 2005). Students must use higher order thinking skills to
determine which information to include, and in what format in order to create their finished
product.
Kentucky Teacher Standards
The Kentucky teacher standards addressed in the lesson series are as follows:
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.

Technology is used in almost all aspects of this lesson series planning and
implementation. With the exception of small reading groups designed to develop students basic
reading skills, every step of the wikis planning and creating make use of the latest technological
tools. Throughout the lesson series, students are required to engage with technology for
conducting research and creating the finished wiki website.

Common Core Standards

The Common Core standards addressed in the lesson series are as follows:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately
through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.5
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.7
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding
of the subject under investigation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each
source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.10
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a
single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details
and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7
Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well
as in words.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9
Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the
approaches the authors take.

The end goal of creating a wiki website and publishing it for use by others is most closely
related to Common Core ELA anchor writing standards2-8, and 10, and reading standards 2, 7,
and 9. Students begin the lesson series by conducting research based on specific questions about
their topic of choice (writing standard 7). Students gather relevant information from multiple
sources (writing standard 8). Once found, students read information with teacher support to
interpret main ideas (reading standard 2) and build knowledge (reading standard 9). Finally,

students integrate and evaluate knowledge gained through a variety of sources (reading standard
7) to collaboratively produce and publish a website (writing standards 2-6, and 10).
TPACK
Consideration for TPACK was included when choosing the learning goals of the lesson
series and which tools would produce the greatest impact. Research is conducted online, but
students are also provided with the opportunity to read materials offline to practice basic skills
during reading groups when navigation of technology can serve as a potentially distracting layer
of complexity. Students are encouraged to explore available digital resources in a variety of
formats to build knowledge and to include in their published work. Students are also expected to
edit for coherence and comprehensibility, printing materials for editing purposes or editing
directly on the wiki page as they see fit.
Conclusion
Wikis are a wonderful way to achieve multiple pedagogical goals (Educause Learning
Initiative, 2005) and for students to integrate their skills and create something new and
significant to them and hopefully to others. This lesson series was created to give students an
ongoing authentic outlet for sharing their personal experiences in a way that can create cultural
competence in others. It is hoped that through this lesson series all aspects of good practice as
outlined by Sanden and Darragh (2011) can be addressed.

References
Educause Learning Initiative. (2005, July 15). Retrieved from Educause:
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf
ILeu, J. D., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L., & Commack, D. W. (2004). Toward a Theory of
New Literacies Emerging From the Internet and Other Information and
Communication Technologies. In R. R. Ruddell, & N. J. Unrau, Theoretical
Models and Processes of Reading (5th ed.) (p. 1571). Newark, DE:
International Literacy Association.
Sandon, Sherry and Darragh, Janine. (2011). Wiki Use in the 21st Century Literacy
Classroom: A Framework for Evaluation. Contemporary Issues in Technology
and Teacher Education, 6-20.