Jennifer Hill

Part 3: WIKI Written Component

ILA Standards:
Standard 1: Foundational Knowledge: Candidates understand the theoretical and evidencebased foundations of reading and writing processes and instruction.
1.2 Candidates understand the historically shared knowledge of the profession and changes over
time in the perceptions of reading and writing development, processes, and components.
When students enter school, often times the only word they know is their name. We focus on
learning our names for several reasons:
1. Community building-students can learn their classmates names.
2. Students learn letter names.
3. Students learn that letters put in certain order have meaning.
4. Students learn the concept of a letter.
5. Students learn the concept of a word.
6. Students are engaged because the learning is meaningful.
With the addition of the Wiki, student engagement is even higher.
Standard 2 Curriculum and Instruction: Candidates use instructional approaches, materials,
and an integrated, comprehensive, balanced curriculum to support student learning in reading
and writing.
2.2. Candidates use appropriate and varied instructional approaches, including those that
develop word recognition, language comprehension, strategic knowledge, and reading-writing
connections.
Students are supported with opportunities for whole group practice before they work with a
partner. By modelling literacy and technology skills concurrently, students have multiple
opportunities to gain understanding. Students are able to be supported by working in partner
and/or small groups.
Standard 4 Diversity: Candidates create and engage their students in literacy practices that
develop awareness, understanding, respect, and a valuing of differences in our society.
4.2 Candidates use a literacy curriculum and engage in instructional practices that positively
impact students knowledge, beliefs, and engagement with the features of diversity.
Students are engaged because they are personally invested in the lesson that uses their names.
They will be supported with scaffolded instruction (I do, We do, You do) and partner activities.
They are exposed to letter names and sounds in a variety of ways.

Standard 5 Literate Environment: Candidates create a literate environment that fosters

reading and writing by integrating foundational knowledge, instructional practices, approaches
and methods, curriculum materials, and the appropriate use of assessments.
5.1 Candidates design the physical environment to optimize students use of traditional print,
digital, and online resources in reading and writing instruction.
Working with student names is something that many teachers do at the beginning of kindergarten
because it provides students with so many opportunities for practice and eventually mastery of
letter names and sounds. By incorporating traditional print with the digital resources, student
engagement and motivation is increased.
ISTE Standards:
Standard 1: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop
innovative products and processes using technology.
1.a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
1.b.: Create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
Many students upon entering school are able to write their name. By using a different medium,
the WIKI, students will have collected everyones names. Students will be working as a team to
create essentially a class list that we will use for many future activities when completing word
work and math activities. This product will be used to discuss and analyze word lengths, terms
like longer and shorter, letter blends, word families, etc. Because the product is something
created by them, their motivation is high.
Standard 2: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work
collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the
learning of others.
2.d Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
Students will work together to create a document unique to our class. We will use the
information for future problem solving activities as we study students names in our class.
According to the readings, an effective strategy is for students to be able to gather information
and then use it to answer questions (Coiro & Dobler, 2007; Leu et al., 2004).
Standard 3: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
3.d Process data and report results.
As a class, we will look over the data collected on the Wiki. Using the information, students will
be able to compare and contrast names of classmates. This is a great way to integrate literacy,
math, and technology into several lessons.
Standard 4: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage, projects,
solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.

4.b.: Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

After students have collected the data, we will use the Wiki project to complete several
integrated activities for Literacy, Math, and Art. In Literacy, we will use names to see whose
name has more vowels/consonants/tall letters/short letters/specific letters, etc. For Math, we will
use the information to decide who has the longest or shortest name, or how many more letters
does _____ have in his name than ______ does? For Art, students will be able to use their name
as a way to tell who they are and where their interests lie. Students need these early gatekeeper
skills in order to understand how to use information to problem solve (Leu, et al., 2011, p. 7).
KTS Standards:
Standard 6: The Teacher demonstrates the implementation of technology.
6.2

Uses available technology to implement instruction that facilitates student learning.

Students will be able to independently use the available technology through a series of lessons
that will teach them basic skills that can be used in future activities. The lesson integrates
Literacy, Math and 21st Century technologies for young learners but provides them with authentic
engagement and a motivating task.
TPACK
This activity and the activities that will follow are an example of TPACK because young students
are learning the most basic of technology skills during this lesson. Students will learn what a
Wiki is and how it works. The basics of the Wiki can then be used throughout the school year in
more independent activities across the curriculum. Students are aided by instructional activities
that provide a lot of support. Many of the activities that go along with this lesson are those that
are often taught at the beginning of Kindergarten when students are just entering school, often
for the very first time. The support of whole group and partner activities, plus multiple
opportunities for practice allows students the chance to gain independence when using the
technology. Having students write their names provides students with the ownership and an
authentic opportunity to practice reading and writing words and letters. The content extends
across Literacy, Math, Art, and even into Community Building. This gives students a purpose
and high engagement for future activities across the curriculum.