A TRC Facilitator Shares a Novel Wiki

Each December, our fourth grade students study the novel "Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson. This year, our innovative teachers decided to create a wiki where students used voki to share their character study products. Click on one of the navigation links on the left hand-side of the project wiki to listen to the perspective of each character as depicted by the students. Note: if you have an ad blocker on your browser (e.g. Firefox) you may not be able to see the vokis. Try opening in a new browser (e.g. Safari) if necessary.

In addition to their vokis, students worked on reading fluency by choosing a descriptive passage from the book and drawing a picture to illustrate the passage. They then combined their illustration with a voicethread recording of them reading their passage. The student voicethreads were then compiled into a class-wide voicethread and posted to the wiki.

Voicethread allows students to record their thoughts for an authentic audience (i.e. peers, parents, grandparents and friends) who can, in turn, provide them with online feedback. Using voki is not only fun but provides a place for shy students to shine because they are not presenting in front of a group of their peers. A wiki is an easy and quick way to share samples of student learning. It also provides a professional looking product that has an authentic audience. This project was fun and rewarding for the students while they covered several reading standards and learned to use some new technology tools!

Stop by our wiki and take a look at: http://bgs4christmas.wikispaces.com

~Cynde Neufeldt, TRC Facilitator, Buhler USD

Please share your K-12 interactive wiki, voki, and voicethread links, tips, and applications in the Comment box below!