When we each picked at article in Jeff's class, I tried to pick the most obscure and uninteresting thing that nobody cares about, so I picked Chinese Finger Trap. That's right; the weird little tube I got my fingers stuck in as a kid because I was too dumb to realize that you can just push it together and get out. Of course, it was a start page, but I was pleasantly surprised to look into the edit history and see a small group of people gradually listing off every movie and TV series they could find that included any reference to the elusive and mysterious Chinese Finger Trap. Another interesting thing they are trying to figure out is how that toy even got its name; there doesn't seem to be any clear source at the moment.
This made me really excited about the idea of having students finding a start page on Wikipedia and gradually edit it in order to increase the rating. I would definitely have the kids work in groups of two or three because it would be fun to talk about your page with others and doing all of the research, citing, writing, and editing with no help would be a lot of work. I would start this project at the beginning of the semester and have it going until the end because it would take a while to do and waiting for feedback from Wikipedia's FA team might take some time as well. Students would turn in weekly check-ins describing what they did with the article that week to make sure they are staying on it and to track their progress over time.
Working with the FA team would be great practice for writing essays and research papers because they would receive feedback several times and have to translate that feedback into meaningful changes in their article. Revising their writing will be a huge part of their success in any of their ELA classes, and this is a perfect way to practice. If they work at it enough, they can take a crappy Wikipedia page and turn it into one that has a high rating and gets tons of views. Not only will they learn a ton about collaborative writing and revision, but now they have something to be proud and brag about that they contributed to themselves.
Mrs. Morris would be appalled!! This is such a great activity as a class and it would teach so many essential skills (and meet so many standards!). I like how you want to frame this as a project that is done over time, so students understand what it means to have a long term project they can chip away at. I am personally a little hesitant to do this project simply because I do not feel familiar enough with Wikipedia. I don't feel like I could answer even the most basic of student questions!
ReplyDelete*You could definitely make a sweet instructional video out of how to edit a Wiki page!* I will dabble a little more in the world of Wikipedia so that I feel more comfortable, but until then, please let me know how it goes when you try it in your class!