User:ELTted/Projects/Pan-SIG 2012

Welcome to this Pan-SIG 2012 Project Page. I created this page to support a workshop for language teachers on how to use Simple English Wikipedia. Pan-SIG is an annual conference presented by Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) This is not a regular Wikipedia article.

There is a Talk page with this project page where anyone can ask questions. If you plan to attend the workshop, you might try asking some questions in advance. Attendees can add notes or questions during or after the workshop. I hope this will also be a useful record for people who could not attend.

Workshop abstract and other info

Title: L2 Reading/Writing Tasks With Simple English Wikipedia

Abstract: Simple English Wikipedia (SEWP) describes itself this way: “Wikipedias are places where people work together to write encyclopedias in different languages.” However, the primary English Wikipedia is far too demanding for most learners to contribute to. Simple English Wikipedia is much more inviting and offers a range of tasks for learners from low to high language proficiency that require students to think and allow them to communicate with native and non-native speakers of English. Participants will actually perform some of these tasks in this workshop and leave ready to try them with students.

Room: K201

Time: Sunday, 17 June 2012, 11:15 to 12:15

(Please note that this is based on the preliminary schedule. That schedule shows no break between Hiromi Nagao's plenary talk and the start of this concurrent session. I am also scheduled for a roundtable beginning at 12:15 in another room with no break between sessions, so I expect we'll have more like 40-45 minutes than the actual hour scheduled.)

Introduction

I'll run the workshop in a few stages.

• Get the computers turned on and everyone logged in etc. I don't yet have any information on the specifics on logins etc.
• Find out how many people have edited on any Wikipedia project or other wiki.
• Direct people to this page.
• Discuss the rationale and aims for using this Wikipedia project and past experience using WikiTravel with students.
• Then dive in and be bold.

Quick start for new editors

The Student tutorial is written in very clear, simple English. It is really the best way to get started writing articles. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here.

I like to use paper handouts too. Most students are not yet comfortable working with multiple windows or tabs.

Writing tasks

• User page

• Easy, practice space, informative. Use a paper handout.

• Just do it

• Write what you know
• Japan-stub improvement

• Summary writing

• From English Wikipedia with attribution
• From other websites with reference

• Translation

• From Japanese Wikipedia with attribution

• Peer editing

• Set up a table of authors/editors or teams. Use CMS forums, Excel, or Wikipedia itself to organize. Or, just let students manage it using New Changes if they are editing in class as a group.

• Research: adding references

• The quick and dirty, but gets the job done (like this <ref>Put a URL in here</ref>)
• Better: requires some comfort with more advanced Wiki markup, but not too bad.

Reading tasks

• Everyday reading. I always direct students to Simple first. Even if the Simple page is incomplete, it is better than this:

From English Wikipedia: ____ is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis... The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fine vellus ___. Most common interest in ___ is focused on ___ growth, ___ types and ___ care, but ___ is also an important biomaterial primarily composed of protein, notably keratin. In many human societies, women predominantly grow the ____ on their head long while men cut theirs short.

• Read critically

Ask to students to look at and possible add the following:

Links

Citations

Interwiki links

• Read and curate

Any editor can assemble a book from Simple Wikipedia pages. (See Print/export in the sidebar.) One example is a somewhat snarky themed graded reader. Another is a book all about some very cool lizards. Or, look at this one that any students could make: Things I Like.

A few hints for teachers and schools

• Login limits
• IP editing
• Class counts
• Individual accounts
• Templates and monitoring

Project members

This can become a continuing project. We can work together to build up knowledge and resources for other EFL or ESL instructors. We can just help each other out. Anyone for a class-to-class connection? Or, just add your name as an expression of interest and support.

• ELTted (talk) 00:17, 10 June 2012 (UTC)