"Intervention Share Fair"...couldn't we use a wiki for this?

This year, the school where I am placed has decided to adopt an "Intervention" program, for students struggling in math and those struggling in reading.  Every classroom has a new math "Intervention" block twice per week, and teachers also incorporate reading "Intervention" during the regular Language Arts block.  Grade level teams have planned how they will use this time.  Today, we had an "Intervention Share Fair" after school, to open up conversations between grade levels regarding what is working, and not working, with grade-level "Intervention" models .  I think it is really important to have this vertical communication between grade levels and build off teams' ideas.  However, I started thinking that having a school-wide wiki, specifically devoted to "Intervention" strategies, might be a better way to have these same conversations.  Because the meeting today was afterschool, and an hour and a half long, I felt that many teachers were not fully invested in the sharing, simply because they were stressed and thinking about everything else they had to do.  Also, many grade level teams are using almost identical models for this new block.  By putting all of this information on a school-wide wiki, teachers could visit it - to add new strategies and learn from their peers - on their own schedule and when they have a need to share.  Also, they could quickly figure out how grade-level models are similar or different.  I think this could be a very meaningful use of a wiki as well as teachers' precious time and energy :)

Wikis

I am really starting to appreciate the benefits of wikis.  At first - like many of my peers - I viewed wikis as unreliable resources and never really considered making use of them as research tools.  My tune has changed.  I have started exploring wikis for my own use, and have been amazed at the number of resources available on just one site.  This week in my fourth grade classroom, students got on the topic of octopi and were very interested and curious to learn about these animals.  Unfortunately, science has been cut out of our curriculum.  So, this weekend I planned a math unit that integrates content about the behavioral and structural adaptatations of octopi.  When I googled "octopus", a wikipedia site was the first option to pop up.  I used this site as a starting point for my own learning, and even copied a picture from the wiki to use in a SmartBoard slide:

I really can see myself using a wiki in my own classroom, to compile student research or ideas.  I sometimes find that in my fourth grade classroom, students are reluctant to work together because of the fear that their peers will "copy" off of them - when the point IS to share ideas!  I think that starting a class wiki, at the begining of the school year, would set the tone for a classroom community where everyone learns together and sharing ideas is valued. 

Penrod and Blogging

One main idea that resonated with me after reading Penrod's Ch.2 was that blogging provides students with a public audience for their writing.  There seems to be many benefits to this feature.  Firstly, because students are aware that their writing will be read by multiple pairs of eyes – not simply those of their teacher – they will be naturally more inclined to revise and edit their work.  I have found that in the fourth grade class I am in now, students frequently rely on me or my CF to revise and edit their writing.  When students read aloud their pieces to me, I can quickly tell – as can they – that this is the first time they had considered the degree to which their writing communicates what they had intended.  Penrod explains, “students begin to develop the sense that careful writers need to build a relationship with their readers to ensure that a message is understood” (Penrod, p.23)

            A second benefit to the public nature of the blog is that they can open up meaningful, student-to-student written discussions.  In my fourth grade classroom, students frequently give each-other surface level verbal feedback on each other’s writing, such as “I like the way you added details.”  They are able to boost each other’s confidence; however, these comments do not typically spur deep conversations.  The online environment of blogging seems more conducive to discussions where students can either challenge or support each other, through ongoing discussions.

            A third positive aspect of having a more public audience for writing is that students with special needs can have a different mode to have their voices heard. Penrod writes, “…blogs are a way for writers to be treated the ways they have always wanted to be viewed, as thinkers or transmitters of ideas and feelings.  Blogs can become locations where mentally or physically challenged students can exist without being judged or labeled by their disabilities” (Penrod, p. 26).  The purpose of writing is to communicate, and blogging offers students who may typically struggle with verbal or hand-written communication to voice their ideas.  This made me think of a boy that I went to high school with who was in a wheelchair.  People often assumed that because of his physical disability, he was also mentally challenged in some way – which was completely false.  Today, he has his own blog that I have visited, where he shares his very strong ideas about religion, in a public way that he would not have access to without the blog.  Granted, I do no agree with most of the ideas he writes about; however, without reading his blog I would have no idea that he felt so strongly about the ideas he shares in this space.