Settlement Language Training PD

I plan to use a Wiki with my LINC 5 students to collaborate and plan for our class field trip to the Pacific National Exhibition.   They will have to determine the best meeting place and time, and the schedule of shows and events to take in at the Fair.    Later they will be able to add some of their photos and descriptions of what they saw and did.

I see potential in using a Wiki to develop a group writing activity reviewing a trip.  Students would be encouraged to add a vocabulary item or simple sentence about the trip.  Reviewing the growing list could encourage reading and vocabulary retention.

I can see students sharing useful information and ideas with the Wiki feature.  This can provide students opportunity to connect and collaborate with each other.

Furthermore, my newcomer students will benefit tremendously because they have to communicate and construct knowledge for real purposes outside of class. 

I think the wikis would work really well to report on any collaborative project. For example after completing the "Four Provinces" section of the LINC 4 Activities, students could work individually or in groups to research and write an advertisement for each of the other provinces and territories.

A wiki can be used to have students collaborate on a document. I have been teaching about job interviews and have largely focused on the language aspect of this. However, in a job interview, a sociocultural faux pas can be more detrimental than mere language difficulties. in order to broaden the students knowledge of this area, a wiki could be used to ascertain how much the students knew about common practices vis a vis job interviews in Canada. In order to broach this subject, I could set up a wiki where students could work on a document where they list what they perceive as common practice in interviews in Canada. They could edit one another's sentences, too. I could then garner this information and use it to inform my own teaching of the topic. after this, The students could then return to the wiki and collaborate on making a poster giving advice to new immigrants in the marketplace for jobs. The students' previous experience of collaborating on a wiki will help them with this mini project.

At the end of the term, I like to let students create wikis that describe a particular talent or interest that they want to share with their classmates.  It's highly motivating for the learner who creates the wiki. Most likely the learner will be using vocabulary that is relevant to his or her life and goals.  

We have so many talented students in our classes.  It's good to give them an opportunity to share their wealth of experience and knowledge.

Creating a wikispace for the students to create projects together is a great collaborative incentive.  Its great to see students work together at their own pace.  They can review their work at their own leisure and input ideas when they want.

However, I do find that you will get students who will do more of the work, while other students lack the confidence to create anything in the Wiki.

Blogs would be useful for fluency writing as well as to comment on events in the news that we have studied.

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