Using a Wiki in the 3rd Grade Classroom

EAT ME WIKI http://eatme.wikispaces.com/Apples

Wiki can serve a purpose in my classroom. After visiting the wiki on Eat Me I checked to see if it is a protected site or if it is a reciprocating wiki and it is reciprocating wiki or in other words my students will be able to edit and save on it. My idea is to have my third grade students visit the Eat Me wiki and read the students entries and see what other students thought about the apples. Then the students will go to their desk and write their thoughts on apples. Did they like them or not? While all of this is going on I will have another group reading the Eat Me wiki. It is kind of like a Round Robin reading group. Once the last group is done reading the entries then the first group returns to the computers and writes their final responses to the Wiki and saves them. I don’t think that my school allows YouTube videos download so I need to check and see what is available to me, but I am sure that there are other websites that allow educational video downloads. My goal will be to update the Eat Me wiki. The Eat Me wiki is missing vegetable photos, and other foods and videos. What I liked about the wiki is that it is simple and needs a lot of work. My students will find it easy to use and they will definitely see the progress as it is happening. Before the activity starts I will need to explain what a wiki is, how it is used, and how they can edit and save to it. To do this I will show them the videos on wiki, the same ones that we saw in class plus I will add one on how to use the wedges. Finally, I will model how to make an entry and how to post it and save it. I will not be grading the students for this activity because it is going to be hard enough for them to understand the purpose of the wiki but once they understand that is accessible to everyone is the World and that anyone can edit and save to it they will be impressed.