Karen Niegelsky, our 6th grade Humanities and 8th grade Composition teacher, has developed an intriguing 21st Century unit based around the principles of Heidi Hayes-Jacobs' Innovators' Challenge. She describes it below:
Students are usually cautioned about using Wikipedia as a source
for academic papers, but when doing “real world” research, many of us head to
this popular website to find information to everyday questions. Rather than
simply dismissing it as an unreliable resource for “real” research, Canterbury
eighth graders will spend the second trimester exploring its virtues and
producing their own contributions to an actual Wikipedia article.
Each eighth grader will choose a topic to research thoroughly
and then produce a Wikipedia-style article that is fluent, reliable, and
non-biased. In completing this project, students will gain experience in
writing for a real audience and in dealing with criticism and suggestions that
may come from readers other than fellow students or their teachers. Finally, they will get the thrill of
seeing their work online. (Their privacy is protected; Wikipedia authors are
anonymous.)
Students should be able to use much of their work to meet
the requirements of the Canterbury portfolio project including
· Develop a fundamental understanding of emerging ethical
issues and dilemmas regarding new media and technologies.
· Respond to an experience of
failure in a way that acknowledges that innovation involves small successes and
frequent mistakes.
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