Today, students taught each other the about the Five Pillars of Wikipedia, which are basically the core values of the site. Students need to understand these ideas before contributing as editors to Wikipedia.
1. Brainstorming. In randomly selected groups, students had 20 minutes to devise, prepare, and perfect a 5-minute lesson to teach the class the concept.
2. Presentations. Students presented their skits, posters, game shows, etc. to great acclaim. As the audience watched on, they took notes, which should look something like this:
Encyclopedia: is an encylopedia – verifiable facts only. Not dictionary, not newspaper, not blog. No opinions.
Neutral POV: no bias. Balance in articles. No opinion on one side or other. If state someone’s opinion on one side, must state someone else’s opinion on other side.
Free content: no one owns an article. Can be copied and redistributed. Anyone can edit. Can’t make money from writing article.
Civility: be nice. Don’t swear. Don’t ignore other people’s edits. Work things out on the Discussion page.
No firm rules: be bold in your edits. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Someone will fix them for you. Just try to make Wikipedia better.
HW: Read 1/2 novel for Thursday. Do pages 3-4 of Writer’s Notebook. Study for quiz on 5 Pillars on Tuesday 3/16.
ALEXA GARVOILLE 