Wikipedia:School and university projects/ITESM Campus Toluca

Academic English, A Teacher's Course

Short Description of Course

This course is designed for teachers at Tec-Toluca who need to reach 600 on the TOEFL. Its focus will the the culturally appropriate use of Academic English. "Culturally appropriate" means that students will keep in mind general standards of writing academic English as well as consider the needs of their non-Mexican (and layperson) readers AND the requirements of Wikipedia (for most of the assignments).

If nothing else, this course should push one to think critically about their English use, what to say, how to say it and knowing why certain options were chosen and not others. Many studies uphold that critical thinking can help a learner increase his/her foreign language ability, esp. when grammar and vocabulary are essentially mastered. Another concept that this course leans on heavily is that of "authenticity". Theory states that reading authentic texts (meaning those written for speakers of the language, not learners of the language) are more beneficial to a learner's development. We will not only be reading authentic texts (no textbook) but writing authentically,meaning what we write in Wikipedia is for the world, not just for a teacher's eyes. Contributions here will be permanent, not tossed in a file or bin after the course if over. Authentic work such as this has been shown to increase student motivation and learning.

Wikipedia Project Checklist

Below is a checklist of all the Wikipedia-related assignments students in the English class for teachers will be doing over the course of the spring semester.

I. Userpage

a. Biography

b. Userboxes

II. Collection of Wikipedia pages (like Category:Mexico), terminology (like “stub”) and codes (like {{reflist}}) (in English and Spanish)

III. Contact with Wikipedians (on your talk page and/or the discussion pages associated with your WikiProjects and articles (on these pages, highlight your conversations))

IV. Project pages highlighting your contributions

a. WikiProject Mexico

b. WikiProject related to your field

V. Town page (using “cheat sheet”)

VI. Annotated Wikipedia policies

a. Neutral Point of View

b. Verifiability

VII. “small” contributions

a. Revise 2 articles

b. Translate article for Spanish Wikipedia

VIII. 3 new or extended articles

a. Related to Mexico

b. Related to your field

c. Your choice

Advanced A

Advanced A will do some work on Wikipedia, mostly writing/improving articles about town and cities in Mexico, using a template that can be seen on Template:Mexican_municipality. I would really appreciate if someone could put in a template for an infobox there but its not really that necessary.

Depending on how well this goes (these students are not quite as advanced as Adv B), I can design projects for them that can include more flexibility on the topic. However, as this is not a Wikipedia course, I cannot spend a lot of time teaching them how to use the site.

Advanced B

Congratulations to all my English Advanced B students who survived the Fall 2007 semester!!!

Below is a list of the groups and their final projects....

Student Groups from Advanced B, Fall 2007

Appleteam (A. Jaramillo, T. Tavira, H. Garduño and E. Juavek) ---Final Project = Raúl Velasco

ZYANYA06 (Z.Ramirez, A. Padilla, R. Acosta and O. Moreno) --Final Project = Club Toluca#La Perra Brava

Copitas (D. Becerril, K. Llanas, E. Mejía and L. Zaldivar) --Final Project = Tenango del valle

Mexico Japan (M. Garcia, M. Shimizu, H. Magaña and E. Chuayffet) --Final Project = Plan de Tuxtepec

Lirdoco (M. Damian, E. Contreras and C. Peñaloza) --Final Project = Chabelo

Borbotonesteam (H. Torres, F. Davila and E. Encastin) --Final Project = Mythology of Mexico

LovelyGirls (I. Gersenowies, S. Arriaga and M. Barragán) --Final Project = Mexico 68

TacoTeam (A. Zepeda, M. Morón, L. Prado and C. Vazquez) --Final Project = Ixtapan de la Sal

Park Lovers (K. Romero and K. Illescas) --Final Project = Manuel Acuña

From the South (A. Lorenzo, S. Vargas, M. Rodriguez and M.B. Rios) --Final Project = Amecameca

Tim Nomber Juan (C. Panchana, F. Lopez, F. Ureña and R. Sosa) --Final Project = San Mateo Atenco

Los Pancakes (K. Escamilla, M. Gonzalez, A. Prado and I. Muñiz) --Final Project = Amar te duele

International All Stars (C. Guerrero, A. Justiniano, R. Arechavala and E. Dominguez) --Final Project = Amboró National Park

Los Boogeys (D. Reyes, D. Callejas and I. Fragoso) --Final Project = Cosmovitral

Shocked Heads (J.L. Mendoza, A. Sandoval and J.L. Gonzalez) --Final Project = Atlacomulco