Collaborative Writing

I think wikis would be great for teaching literary theory. Students would be assigned a theory such as the feminist theory or the reader-response theory. In groups they could then create a wiki which could include the following pages:

• A history of the theory
• A description of the theory
• An application of the theory
• A page of further resources
  

An entire class could also just create one wiki, and small groups of kids would be responsible for one theory which could then be one page of the wiki.

I also really like Liz Boeser's consistent use of wikis as a class-made study guide for the books they read. Students would be given different responsibilities as the reading occurred. One group could collectively be responsible for plot elements, one could map literary devices, one group could pose reader-response questions for each section, etc.

Here is the commoncraft video of instructions, which would be easy for students to understand.

Here is a link I think Mike Walker sent to us about 50 uses for Wikis in your class.

I think the problems are pretty obvious concerning collaborative writing. Some people may not complete their part of the project or may be passive participants. This is true in any class activity, however, and perhaps, since this is such a public forum of presentation, it would motivate those students to be engaged.