FAQ's

=Project Frequently Asked Questions:= toc

What is //The 1001 Flat World Tales// Project?
This project takes the traditional Language Arts "Writing Workshop" into the 21st Century in three easy (but radical) ways:
 * 1) it replaces pencil and paper (or MS Word) drafting, revising, and peer editing with a better (and simpler) writing tool: a wiki;
 * 2) it expands the options for peer response and peer editing beyond the walls of your classroom--and your clock, city, nation, and culture--by enabling peer feedback, editing, and connection with students from around the world;
 * 3) it replaces the "authentic" publishing of the 20th century classroom--hallways, newsletters, literary journals, etc--with authentic publishing in the //1001 Flat World Tales "blook":// a potentially endliess series of stories from students around the world, inter-linked on individual student blogs. (More below.)

Is there a deadline?
No. This wiki, since it's web-hosted, is open 24/7/365--all century long. As long as two classrooms from around the world want to collaborate, then "Flat World" collaboration is always possible.

In the three weeks since this project was announced, over a dozen teachers from over seven countries (on four continents) have expressed interest. Add your name and time-frame, and another classroom will likely have the same timeframe in mind. Then connect via this wiki.


 * 1) After registering for the project using the Google Form, all participating schools will be listed on the wiki.
 * 2) Teachers of the same grade level and writing style can join together to form small cohorts to help make the peer review process more manageable. It is recommended that cohorts be no larger than 4 classrooms. Please feel free to write to the teachers using the contact information provided on the participating schools page. You will need to create your own cohort by individually contacting the teachers you are interested in working with. In these groups, you will define your starting and ending dates for your cohort. The main focus of your work and communication will be within your cohort.
 * 3) Once a cohort has been established, please list your classes on the Students & Partners page so that students can be grouped with peer-editing partners in their cohort group. Last year we used tables to coordinate the students in each cohort.
 * 4) All students in all cohorts need to be a member of this wiki. All teachers have been made organizers of the wiki so they can add their own students. It is recommended that teachers invite students to the wiki using the "[|Manage Wiki]," "[|Members]," then "Invite A New Member" instead of having students request to join the space (if students are requesting to join the space all organizers will receive an e-mail).
 * 5) Each teacher is responsible for only their own students joining the wiki. Please note that students //do not// need to have their own e-mail address to create a wikispaces username - [|follow the instructions here] to set up accounts for your students.
 * 6) Each student in each cohort will have their own page linked to the Students & Partners page on this wiki. Each student should create their own page. Please follow the naming protocol: SchoolInitials_StudentFirstName (ex: ISB_Nadia). This will help us manage all of the pages we will have on the wiki. It is recommended that all files uploaded to this wiki follow the same naming protocol. All writing will take place on this page.
 * 7) Each students page will contain all of their writing - from the brainstorming stage, to the first, second & final drafts. All changes can be tracked using the history tab. Please see last year's project for student examples.
 * 8) Peer review partners can share peer feedback using the discussion tab on the individual student page or peer edit on the actual wiki page.
 * 9) Suggested lesson plans can be found on the Getting Started page.
 * 10) Once each individual story is complete, please feel free to have your class vote on which stories are the best and post on the Hall of Fame page.
 * 11) As an extra activity for a group of grade 4 ISB highly able students last year, we wrote a never-ending-tales style story connecting all of the stories in our cohort. It was a great experience for the kids that were already very fluent in their writing.

What is this "blook" thing on which successful stories will be authentically published?
We gave the name **//blook//** to the idea of a new type of publication, never possible in the history of reading and writing until the invention of wikis and blogs: a "book" of short stories that is published on inter-linking student blogs. A //blook//.

The official list of published students will be maintained on this wiki.