Update on the K-12 "1001+ Flat World Tales" World Writing Project

I just sent this email to actual and potential participants to update them on the project. Here it is for everybody else, since the door is always open:

Dear Everybody,

Some of you have already expressed interest, others have no idea what I’m talking about, and yet others are getting this as a gentle (and cheerfully indifferent) nudge to play.

Here’s an update on the K-12 world writing project, the 1001+ Flat World Tales (working title), that I and some partner educators around the world have been cooking up. It’s exciting, easy to join and manage, and open whenever you want to jump in–this year, next year, whatever.

In the two weeks since I blogged about the idea, five countries have expressed interest: Korea (my classes and others), Canada, the USA, China (Shanghai), and New Zealand.

Today, I got around to posting the invitation on ePals, a world-collaboration educators site, and expect it will produce more bites from more countries.

So what is the idea? Briefly, this:

If you are a K-12 teacher who at any time will have a creative writing or personal narrative assignment involving the revelation of students’ cultures in well-written student works, this project will provide you with these advantages:

1. A wiki-based writing workshop wherein all students from all countries can use the writing process to draft and revise their work.
1. Advantage to teachers:
a) the wiki saves every revision in the writing process in the “history” section of each student’s page. You can quickly compare each revision to the prior one with color-coded text showing additions and deletions in the new draft;
b) you can give feedback on each student page on the “discussion” section. Faster, plus a running, permanent record of all feedback you’ve given each student;
c) students from your own or, better still, other countries can give peer feedback to each student writer using the same “discussion” tab–and you can see all student feedback at a glance. Fast and efficient;
d) adding wiki writing to your teaching toolbox might energize your practice and spur new creative ideas.
2. Advantages to students:
a) students can read other student drafts and benefit from the skills and imaginations of their strongest world-writing peers;
b) student drafts are all saved on the wiki–no lost papers;
c) students can get feedback on their work from other students on their own wiki “discussion” page;
d) students can connect with other students around the world;
e) students can learn the power of this new literacy tool called a ‘wiki’ by simply using it;
f) students learn about other cultures and countries through personal contact and interaction with partner classrooms;
g) students learn multi-cultural sensitivity through authentic collaboration;
h) students have a real audience, not just “teacher;”
i) students are authentically published on their blogs (we can help them set one up easily), if their final product is selected for publication. No more “hallway bulletin board” as “authentic publication.” (In fact, no more “Student Literary Magazine”: this is real publication to the real worldwide web.)

For more, see my blog, Beyond School (http://burell.blogspot.com , and click the label “wiki” for the Arabian Nights/Flat World Tales posts; also visit the rough but functional wiki itself at http://burell9english.wikispaces.com . If you’re interested in joining, click “join this space” and include in your message who you and your students are–ages, location, etc–and leave an email address!)

Please share this with any teachers, K-12 (we’ll have separate sections on the wiki for different age groups–5-9, 11-14, 15-18–so all grades are welcome), who you think might want to play. Again, it’s open all year.

Thanks for listening, and hope to hear from you, your colleagues, and your students soon!

Clay