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Group 3 – Amanda Fernandez & Jose Giron Collaborative Wiki Assignment - Week 4

Jane,

We are glad that you are making the effort to expose your students to technology and we have given much thought surrounding the problems that you are facing… First, we wanted to better identify specific issues so that we could address them more accurately. Then based off of the prioritized list, we brainstormed possible solutions, examples, and links to help you implement the solutions suggested. One reoccurring problem we saw was a lack of guidelines to the students. Our suggestion to you is to include a rubric addressing the science content, your expectations for the essay and for the collaborative effort. This will help students know exactly what efforts to put into collaboration, writing, and presentation. This will also alleviate your frustrations when it comes to grading. As a science teacher, or content area teacher other than English, your concern is the content and feedback received from students; however, a poorly written essay will leave us questioning if the student understood the assignment because of the bad grammar, spelling and other problems a paper might have. We wanted to also suggest the importance of RIGOR and the importance of challenging students without guiding them throughout the whole process. The STARR test and District expectations are based on thinking outside the box and traditional teacher centered teaching is no longer seen as the norm. The issue of RIGOR will give students the opportunity to set their own guidelines and expectations as well. Please see the attached video concerning RIGOR to help you set guidelines that can help you and your student reach their maximum potential.

Best Wishes,

Jose and Mandy


 * Prioritized Problems **


 * 1) One student wrote the essay – unequal division of labor
 * 2) Tensions regarding ownership and credit – work deleted & work changed
 * 3) Too much time on eye appeal not enough spent on content
 * 4) Expectations of essay should also be included even though not English or Writing teacher


 * Possible Solutions **


 * 1) Need Rules and Guidelines – how to collaborate effectively & make a rubric
 * 2) Ownership and Credit is solved through guidelines and rubric
 * 3) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Time spent on eye appeal could be solved using guidelines or rubric
 * 4) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Rubrics/Guidelines could include scoring of essay and collaboration wiki or Jane could collaborate with English teacher


 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Five Links - to back up solutions **


 * 1) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">This link is a kind of jumping off point for creating a rubric. If you notice there is a Science section, as well as, and collaborative work skills section – maybe you want to use two separate rubrics, one for collaboration work (writing, wiki design, and creative thinking) and another for science content. []
 * 2) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">This is a Teacher Checklist for Wiki Projects that poses questions for you to reflect on so that you can better organize your project; I thought it could be helpful. []
 * 3) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">This Link provides you Power Point that can give you an example of the expectations your administration may be looking for using RIGOR as your guideline for your assignment. []
 * 4) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">This link can help students with writing their essays and remind them of the expectations of making a good essay. []
 * 5) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">This link is to a video that describes what a project board is, why it is an important part of the inquiry project, and the video demonstrates how to use it. I think adding this to everyone’s wiki will help the collaborative effort. []