Learning and Teaching in WANDA Wiki Wonderland: Literature Circles in the Digital Commons

In the 2007-2008 school year, Jennifer Hunt, language arts teacher for the 8th grade pre-Advanced Placement class wondered how she could harness the power of Web 2.0 tools to develop her students' literacy skills and deepen their engagement with literature and ideas. To that end, she wrote a su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Teacher librarian (Vancouver) 2009-12, Vol.37 (2), p.23
Main Author:	Moreillon, Judi
Format:	Magazinearticle
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Academic Achievement Active Learning Adolescent Literature Arizona Behavioral Objectives Classrooms Collaborative Writing Communication Skills Computer Assisted Instruction Computer Mediated Communication Computers Creativity Discussion Groups Education Educational aspects Educational innovations Educational Technology Electronic Journals Electronic periodicals Grade 8 Graduate Students Grants Independent Study Information Technology Inquiry Internet Knowledge management Language Arts Learner Engagement Learning Activities Learning Experience Library Science Literacy Literature Methods Online education Participative Decision Making Practice Reader Text Relationship Reading programs Sharing Behavior Social Networks Student Motivation Student Teachers Teachers Teaching methods Technology in education Technology Integration User generated content Web 2.0 Web 2.0 Technologies Workstations
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Summary:	In the 2007-2008 school year, Jennifer Hunt, language arts teacher for the 8th grade pre-Advanced Placement class wondered how she could harness the power of Web 2.0 tools to develop her students' literacy skills and deepen their engagement with literature and ideas. To that end, she wrote a successful Qwest Arizona Technology in Education Alliance Classroom Technology Integration Competitive Mini-Grant to add eight computer workstations to her classroom for student use in online literature circles. In the summer before the 2008-2009 school year, Ms. Hunt and the author, the newly-hired teacher-librarian for the Emily Gray Junior High-Tanque Verde High School (EGJH-TVHS), met to collaborate on fulfilling Ms. Hunt's goals for this year-long grant project she called WANDA (Works Analyzed Notated Discussed & Archived). Literature circles provide students with choice in what they read and allow them to discuss and collaborate in an inquiry-based framework. This discussion format is intended for students to make personal connections to the texts they read and to describe and discuss the issues raised in literature selections through social discourse. In this article, the author discusses the WANDA project which added an additional technological element to students' learning by providing them with the digital means and support to create wikis and use other Web 2.0 tools to organize, discuss, and present their responses to the texts and to collaborate with others in their classroom and beyond. (Contains 2 tables.) ["Learning and Teaching in WANDA Wiki Wonderland: Literature Circles in the Digital Commons" was written with Jennifer Hunt and Sarah Ewing.]
ISSN:	1481-1782