-+WIKI+PROJECT

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**//Now that we’ve started to try our hand at wikis and other Web tools, we should come up with ideas so that our class wikis begin to take shape. Below is a list of possible activities. If you think an activity is inappropriate or too difficult for our students, leave a comment next to it. Add your own ideas as they come along!//**

**GO TO TEACHER'S CORNER FOR ACTIVITIES, LESSON PLANS, LINKS AND MUCH MORE****!** BELOW YOU WILL FIND A LIST OF SUGGESTED IDEAS FOR OUR CLASS WIKIS:  =**Study material**=

- We can include a variety of links to practise grammar, vocabulary, reading, etc. (E.g. a link to the Incredible English website for our students to practise from home). - **We can **create a calendar on the wiki showing assignment deadlines, exam dates, etc., and encourage our students to add their own personally important dates. I’ll get a calendar widget shortly and share it with you. - //If// they feel like it, students can take turns to type in the class activities carried out every week. Absent students can then catch up with the rest of the class. - Any time a student creates anything online, ask them to link to it or upload it to the wiki so that everyone can use it. - (Add your own ideas and comments) - -
 * Have a look at a demo wiki for ideas on how to use wikis as a database of study materials.**

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=**Writing**=

- We can assign one (or two?) **collaborative writing** task(s) in this initial part of the wiki project. For example, if you are dealing with narratives, have your students write a short story together, each writing just one part of the story. Click here for an example of collaborative writing.. The same can be done with descriptions, letters and other types of writing tasks. - For **process writing**, we can assign a task for the whole group or a small group. Student A writes a draft and student B corrects it. The different versions can be seen by clicking on the //history// button in your wiki. - We can also ask our students to do **individual** writing tasks (e.g.: describe your pet, write about an exciting moment in your life, write a letter to your teacher, etc). Students can then **comment** on each other’s productions. **Peer correction** (editing each others’ work for spelling, grammar, vocabulary, style, content, etc.) is a very useful correction technique, but you need to train your students if they’ve never done that before. - They won’t be doing a lot of writing in the first term (or will they?), but if the idea takes off, we may end up with huge amounts of written work that can be too large to be included in one single wiki page. In this case, we can assign individual portfolio pages to each student (e.g. //Juancito’s e-portfolio//). - You can have your students write a film or book **review** about a class reader or a Hollywood blockbuster they’ve watched. - Students can make a slide show on Slide and add written comments. They can share news, photos, and current achievements. - They can write a newspaper article by using Fodey - In Dvolver, they can create cartoons and type in the words they want to appear on the screen. Cartoons can’t talk. - makebeliefscomix.com !!! - They can also upload their own personal videos, write a short comment and respond to their classmates videos as well. - In every case, you need to give your students proper **feedback** by posting comments on their written production. - (Add your own ideas and comments) -**We are writing a report on a given culture. It'll require students to contribute with one or two lines and put their names alongside the lines they created. (//Teens 4..English In Mind 3 - Module 1.. requires students to write a report ..but it'll be fun if we can do it here//) Any ideas? Do you think it'll work? Gosh... they can even put up here some pictures about the different aspects of a specific culture ....** (GO TO **SPEAKING** BELOW FOR ANOTHER IDEA ON THE SAME TOPIC).  - Students can have e-pals and write emails to foreign students. e-Pals is a <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">global community used by educators from all over the world. Teachers can <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">communicate with other teachers in ePals forums and collaborate on ePals projects.

- Students can use Penzu to write individual tasks (e.g. letters, compositions, articles, etc) and write collaboratively. Images can be uploaded to the margin of the text and be used as prompts. **Have a look at a** sample ** made on Penzu. **

<span style="color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">**Important: Take a look at your coursebook and check what type of writing task is included in each unit. We may come up with a brainwave!**
 * Enter the <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">demo wiki for examples of the applications explained above. **

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=Speaking= - Our students can create their own avatar in Voki and embed it into their wiki individual portfolios and/or their personal blogs or homepages. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> - They can have group conversations around images, documents, and videos on [|http://voicethread.com] - Another website for them to talk online is [|www.voxopop.com] - (Add your own ideas and comments) - ** They can use Voicethread and record their very own report on a culture and include pictures from the different areas they are going to talk about! I found a sample here, check it out... I look forward to reading your feedback! (Miss Karina) ** <span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">http://room9nelsoncentral.wikispaces.com/voicethreads08

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 * Check out the <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">demo wiki for examples. **

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=Vocabulary= - We can ask our students to make vocabulary lists including words that they’ve had trouble with, along with a dictionary entry. There are very good online dictionaries on the Web.

- We could use word clouds to generate discussions and focus on vocabulary they've learned. More on word clouds later on. There's an example below:

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- We could create our own crosswords for vocabulary revision or, even better, ask our students to create the crosswords themselves. <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Just Crosswords is a nice crossword generator, very simple to use. The downside is that crosswords can't be embedded, so a link to website should be created instead. Also, the clues should be only 25 characters long.

- (Add your own ideas and comments)

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=Listening=

- We can include a link to a video for them to watch and do a comprehension exercise. Add links <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> - We can also upload podcasts along with a listening activity. (INCLUDE LINKS) - (Add your own ideas and comments) - - -
 * Have a look at the <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">demo wiki for examples of interactive listening exercises.**

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=Reading= <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">- We can include a link to...... for students to do an interactive reading comprehension exercise. (INCLUDE LINKS – BBC, etc) - (Add your own ideas and comments) - - -
 * Check the <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">demo wiki for sample reading activities.**

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=Exams (PET, FCE, CAE, TOEFL)= <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">- Include links to online practice websites. - i-Tests - (Add your own ideas and comments) - - - Here's a wiki for international exams.

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=Personal photos and videos= <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">- Students can make their own slide shows, albums, etc by using <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Slide, Animoto, <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Mixbook, and other  image and video sharing tools. Personally, I think Animoto is the best, but a free video is really short. Why not ask Mariana and Silvia to pay $30 a year for an upgrade? - Students can also create their own <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Voki. - They could also link to their personal blogs and favourite websites. - As Silvia suggested in our last meeting, it'd be interesting to create a social network on Facebook or <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Ning featuring institutional social events (e.g. Halloween, Talent Show, etc). - (Add your own ideas and comments) - - -
 * Enter** **demo wiki** **examples of the applications explained above.

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=Music (karaoke and music editors)= <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">- <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Karaoke Party <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">is a nice website to sing karaoke online. Students can register to get a score for their singing. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Button Beats <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> is a virtual piano where music lovers can play hundreds of real songs.

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=** DEMO WIKIS **= <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Sample wiki for teens Sample wiki for children Sample wiki for international exams Leaders wiki (with links to all the class wikis)

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<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #00b050; display: block; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">WE SHOULD ENCOURAGE AND __REWARD ACTIVE PARTICIPATION__ AND CONSTANTLY TRACK OUR STUDENTS’ PROGRESS. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">- We can have a short feedback at the beginning of your lesson (once a week?) to make our students have entered the wiki and done the assigned tasks <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">- (Add your own ideas and comments) - -

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