I've had my grade 8 ELA students working on creating a Wiki page as their end of unit assessment project. Part of the project incorporates student collaboration where they have to visit three other student Wiki pages and "help" them achieve at a greater level.
What I did not expect was many of the students rushing to other pages and leaving messages like, "Way to go! Great Work". I'm still not sure how the students equate a pat on the back and meaningful collaboration as the same thing. Often they were going to the pages of students who were already doing a great job. These students would be the most difficult to collaborate with due to their high level of understanding. I had to stop the class several times to explain the difference between a "way to go!" and what is required to actually help each other with the project. I kept asking myself why this was so difficult for many of them and I had really spend time modeling what was expected for this collaboration.
The thought finally came to me that they are often or have often been asked to "edit" each others work. What would be easier editing a page with little or no errors or a page with a tremendous amount of errors? These students had already found the easy way. Asking the students to make meaningful collaborations where they could directly add content to another student page was foreign to them.
As a teacher this process was very rewarding. Students became aware that it was much easier to collaborate and help those who were having difficulties. It may have been more work, but I hope that they have had a chance to see the value of this process.
I look forward to spending my time and seeing the finished projects.
What I did not expect was many of the students rushing to other pages and leaving messages like, "Way to go! Great Work". I'm still not sure how the students equate a pat on the back and meaningful collaboration as the same thing. Often they were going to the pages of students who were already doing a great job. These students would be the most difficult to collaborate with due to their high level of understanding. I had to stop the class several times to explain the difference between a "way to go!" and what is required to actually help each other with the project. I kept asking myself why this was so difficult for many of them and I had really spend time modeling what was expected for this collaboration.
The thought finally came to me that they are often or have often been asked to "edit" each others work. What would be easier editing a page with little or no errors or a page with a tremendous amount of errors? These students had already found the easy way. Asking the students to make meaningful collaborations where they could directly add content to another student page was foreign to them.
As a teacher this process was very rewarding. Students became aware that it was much easier to collaborate and help those who were having difficulties. It may have been more work, but I hope that they have had a chance to see the value of this process.
I look forward to spending my time and seeing the finished projects.
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