About my current project...

I guess I should write up a brief description of this project, especially if I'm going to blog about it!

The major concept is that students will take on the role of newspaper reporters, and write articles about a given area of World History (I chose Ancient Rome for this first project). They will do their own research, and publish their articles on a wiki. I came up with 35 different articles that students could write about, and created wiki pages for each of them. Students work in collaborative groups of 3 to 4, so there are only 6 or 8 groups per period.

The first phase of the project is where the students write their initial articles. Using the web, students learn about a particular aspect of Roman history, either a person, or an event, or some other part of life. Then they turn that knowledge into an article, written as though they were writing about current history.

So far, so normal.

The second phase is where I hope to harness the power of the wiki. Since every class has a different set of articles, the plan is to rotate the articles through the classes for fact-checking. In other words, 1st period will fact-check 3rd period. 3rd period will check 4th period. 4th period will check 5th period, and so on.

The third phase (which I may cut, if I run out of time), is the polishing phase. The articles are rotated again, and this time groups go through looking at how the article is written. Did the original authors write as though they were reporters, or did they write as though they were students in the 21st Century?

Once this is all done, students will individually use the completed wiki (if the term "completed" can ever be applied to a wiki) to answer a page of potential test questions. The test itself will consist of two or three of these questions.

That's how it stands in my head at the moment. Like most plans, it is subject to change. Any and all suggestions are welcome!