Our Writing Wiki

In January I contacted schools to gauge interest for using a wiki to create a district writing project for elementary schools. This writing project involved different classrooms in WSFCS working together to compose a story.With the global possibilities for using a wiki, it seemed like a modest goal to complete in just our district, but I wanted something we could get done in a couple of months and gather from teachers the experience they and their children had with the wiki project. If successful, it might open the door for bigger projects in the future. 

Eight educators agreed to take part in the project that entailed a class from each school writing a section of a story and creating an illustration for their section. Melissa from Diggs came up with the idea for the story and volunteered (or maybe I pleaded with her) to go first. And as the story worked its way through the eight classrooms, the story grew and the plot took many interesting twists and turns. I was impressed at how little assistance the classes and teachers needed. Even with the snow days and outbreak of a nasty virus that hit computers in our district, each class met the due date and the story was completed this past week.

I hope the students and teachers enjoyed the project as much as I did, and I would like us to continue these types of collaborative projects across and beyond our district in the future. If you are interested in reading the completed story, check it out on http://writeonwsfcs.pbwiki.com/The-Story