How do you ensure that students have completed the reading and are ready for class discussion?
In creating this wiki project, one of my goals is to guarantee that my students come prepared for class discussion, having read the literature and answered the questions. But just as importantly, my goal for this project is for students to learn to work collaboratively.
As they take turns playing the roles of writer, editor, and proofreader; students collaborate on a common product. Collaboration is essential as I believe that students learn from each other. It also forces students to communicate their needs and expectations with each other-in French. In French B, I really encourage students to understand that communicating in French isn’t one way (student-teacher) anymore, but they need to take on every opportunity to communicate in French with everyone in their immediate environment, including their classmates (student-student).
Collaboration also means helping each other become stronger French speakers and writers. Peer-editing both the content of the text and the language in the answers will hopefully reinforce the importance of proofreading. Too often, students turn in “completed” work without checking. It takes commitment to take the time to self-evaluate, but when they work on a public project, students tend to care more about the results because others will be reading and evaluating their French skills.
Maintenant, à l’attaque!
Photo: The Musketeer at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower by Matito
What a great use of a wiki and a great way to get students intrinsically motivated to do their best work. I hope we find that as students are intrinsically motivated by their peers...aka...peer pressure that there quality of work will increase. Peer pressure is not always a bad thing. :)
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