ROOM+6

"Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing."
 * Donna J. Abernathy **



Hi I'm Nadine Mackereth. I teach a knowledge-thirsty, year 6/7 class.
===Together with Marquerite, I will be conducting a Teacher Inquiry focusing on the use of Wikis to improve the students' ability to communicate their opinions and ideas about what they have read. We believe that this online literacy circle will also benefit their comprehension and their vocabulary.=== ===This Inquiry will be focusing on the extension reading group as we have found that these students usually work independently and due to time constraints, do not have sufficient time for deep discussions about what they have read.===

**__Term 2__** **Week 3:** Introduction and format: set expectations from the teacher and from students, as well as question & answer time. Set up Wikis. **Week 4 onward**: monitor quality, frequency and motivation on the Wiki. **Week 11:** End of term evaluation, including: pair-assessment and group assessment with the teacher, eg. Visiting independent Wikis.
 * TIMELINE:**

Week 3 :
Our Literacy Circle has begun this week with one group choosing to read 'Bloody Tower' by Valerie Wilding and the other choosing 'Land of Promise' by ... We began the week by going over my expectations and allowing them to offer suggestions and ask questions. I have decided to assign them each a colour each to write in, as I think this will make organisation easier.My BT (Bloody Tower) group is showing keen motivation and all members have posted to the Wiki at least once. I will have to be more vigilant with my LP (Land of promise) group as they appear to be slower to post. One issue that has arisen is that due to the allocation of the pods, I have had to change my timetable each day in order to have the computer's during reading time. Secondly, this is also limiting the use of laptops by other students. I will have to think about these issues... Here is an extract from the wiki I think that Princess Elizabeth and her men rode out to meet Mary to show Mary that she was trustworthy and loyal and so that Mary would trust her and maybe let her keep the throne if she was polite and kind. Also so that Mary wouldn't try to rebel or lead an army against Elizabeth, because Elizabeth knew that Mary had a lot of forces. And if Elizabeth just wanted to be close to her half sister but that is unlikely. M.R I think that princess Elizabeth and her men rode out to meet Queen Mary because she wanted to see how her sister was getting on as queen. I think she also rode to meet her because she may be going to tell her about Tilly or telling her about what she had been up to. She could also be telling her about different people and things she saw as she rode through the village. OR she could just be going to say hello. I think princess elizabeth and her men rode out to met queen mary because she was on her side and wanted to show that she would be there. That to be kind and maybe try to be a bit sneaky while she thinks she is on her side. To try and be greedy by acting nice cornering her and then becoming the top. || Students are well into the method of using the Wikis as part of the reading programme. What I have found is that I am still not getting quite enough discussion. Perhaps I have been too structured with how I have designed the tasks and guidelines. What I have decided to do is have a section on each weeks' page for them to freely make comments or ask questions. In our group time we have focused on asking questions and looking specifically at what makes good questions. I want to transfer this to what they are doing on the Wiki.
 * Why do you think Princess Elizabeth and her men rode out to meet Queen Mary ?
 * Week 6 : **

There has not been a lot of progress on the Wiki tasks as we have had some network issues with the students not being able to edit their pages at all. We've also been focusing on our Inquiry Learning and have to change the timetable around to have the laptops available for that. Despite that, the girls are really thinking about their reading and discussion is slowly beginning. After visiting Point England School, I am wondering whether a Blog might suit this purpose better. I will give the Wiki a more intensive effort till the end of term and then change my approach.
 * Week 9 :**

__** Term 3 **__ This term I wanted to try something different with my Literacy Circles on the Wiki. I had 3 groups with Literacy circles and I made the wiki requirements less formal; they could post summaries and needed to post/ contribute to discussion when they had finished their book work. As I was generally using my pod slots for maths or writing this term, I was relying on the use of my two class computers. What I have found is that the less formal structure has not worked well for some students and they only posted chapter summaries and very few discussion comments. I think this was due to not having specific allocated time for their wiki work and possibly the small size of some of the reading groups. Next term I will try having a rostered timetable for wiki work and I will only have 2 larger groups. I think this will generate more discussion. I will put a student in charge of the roster initially, to make sure all are posting. I might also do a bit more modeling to show them what I would like to see and how they can get a discussion going. The students are now familiar with the process of publishing onto a wiki, this makes it a smoother process- less time taken on the technical skills, more focus on what they are saying.

One new aspect introduced this term was the use of google docs to save work.

Here is an extract showing the new way of posting discussion.
 * [[image:BrittDiscuss.png width="633" height="293"]] ||

__** Term 4 **__ week 1 : The students have been rostered onto using the 2 class computers, two/ three students from each group will be able to access the wiki during reading time each day.

I will assess their improvement by their second PAT (Comprehension & Vocabulary) and their Probe reading test. These will be done later on this term.

weeks 2-5 : The new system is working well. Students have a limited but daily time to check up on what has been posted and reply or post new ideas. It's like checking your email before starting work. They are starting to talk about what they have read in terms of their own experiences. There is better buy-in, and the deeper thinking is coming through. When I see them as a group, they launch right in discussing what was previously referred to by someone on the wiki. Some are going onto the wiki from home and posting extra comments- absolute proof of their buy-in!
 * [[image:EmMirrdiscuss.jpg width="800" height="360"]] ||

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