Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/U of Arizona/Theories of Language Development (Fall 2019)

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Course name
Theories of Language Development
Institution
U of Arizona
Instructor
Cecile McKee
Wikipedia Expert
Shalor (Wiki Ed)
Subject
language development
Course dates
2019-08-27 00:00:00 UTC – 2019-12-11 23:59:59 UTC
Approximate number of student editors
7


This course focuses on theories of language development. We will orient with major issues in the cognitive sciences, such as the nature-nurture continuum and modularity of mind. We will read and discuss primary source material written by linguists, psychologists, and other cognitive scientists who work in the field of language acquisition.

Student Assigned Reviewing
AVCharles1138 Psycholinguistics Biolinguistics, Language proficiency
Coffeekoala Negative evidence in language acquisition Psycholinguistics, Theories of second-language acquisition
Zhujialei Poverty of the stimulus Language acquisition by deaf children, Negative evidence in language acquisition
Ninackjeong Biolinguistics Psycholinguistics, Universal grammar
Hyeonah Theories of second-language acquisition Negative evidence in language acquisition, Language acquisition by deaf children
RemoLing Universal grammar Biolinguistics, Negative evidence in language acquisition
JoeNavek Language acquisition by deaf children Language proficiency, Universal grammar
Versa1 Language proficiency Theories of second-language acquisition, Language acquisition by deaf children

Timeline

Week 1

Course meetings
Thursday, 29 August 2019
In class - Introducing Wikipedia

Welcome to the timeline for our Wikipedia project. This guides you through the steps that you'll need to complete for this semester-long Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces. Note that "article" here means Wikipedia article. You'll start to focus in Week 3 on one of the articles I've already chosen based on their ratings and their relevance to 533 (Available Articles under Articles link above).

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach that person through the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resources:

Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia.

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link that your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

Milestones

Each student has a Wikipedia account.

Week 2

Course meetings
Tuesday, 3 September 2019   |   Thursday, 5 September 2019
Assignment - Evaluate the Fluency article.

NB: Wikipedia changed this block to suggest you have three activities due before our 3-Sep class. You have two! Please read "Evaluating articles and sources" (above) and do the exercise "Evaluate an article" (below). As noted in class and below, bring to class a list of problems you find in Fluency. You do not have to leave notes in the article's Talk page. Ignore that (surprising to me) instruction from Wikipedia. It was added after the course started.

It might help to reread Week 1 Resources. Next, get to Available Articles (from Articles above). This is a list of Stubs, Starts, and C-class articles related to 533's content. Apply to the Fluency article what you've learned to date. This Start-class article concerns a characteristic of completed language development (i.e., the automaticity we see in fully proficient users of a language). Its many problems should make it easy for you to suggest improvements. Bring to Tuesday's class a list of several problems you found with this article.

Exercise

[[../../../training/students/evaluate-wikipedia-exercise/take-notes-in-sandbox|Evaluate an article]]

Assignment - Evaluate some other article.

Choose one of the Stub, Start, or C-class Available Articles and prepare to discuss in class some ways to improve that article. In case you choose a biographical entry, see the article on Steven Pinker for comparison. If you decide on a non-biography article, see the article on Black American Sign Language for comparison (or other FA or GA articles in Available Articles).

Use your Sandbox to sketch your ideas. This could be what you work on for the rest of the semester, or it could be a practice shot for you. By next week, each of you will focus on one and only one article that no one else is working on.

Exercise

[[../../../training/students/choose-topic-from-list-exercise|Choose your article]]

Week 3

Course meetings
Tuesday, 10 September 2019   |   Thursday, 12 September 2019
Assignment - Choose the article that you'll work on for the rest of the semester

In addition to what you do here (which is the proper assignment), I'd appreciate your emailing to tell me the reasons for your choice, and any challenges you're particularly concerned about.

In class - Preliminary ideas

Each student should now have his/her own article. We'll discuss content gaps and bias should refer to your target articles.

Assignment - Add to your article.

Exercise

Add a citation

Week 4

Course meetings
Tuesday, 17 September 2019   |   Thursday, 19 September 2019
Assignment - Add more to your article.

Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top-right of this page.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Milestones

Everyone has started improving their articles.

Week 5

Course meetings
Tuesday, 24 September 2019   |   Thursday, 26 September 2019
Assignment - Preparing for peer reviews

Please do this training module before our 24-Sep class meeting. In case you want more guidance for reviewing, including specific questions you might address, please see this page.

Assignment - Peer review two articles.

Your peer reviews should be started by 10:30 AM on 26-Sep so I can check them before class.

Milestones

Every student has reviewed two articles. Every article has two reviews.

Week 6

Course meetings
Tuesday, 1 October 2019   |   Thursday, 3 October 2019
Consider your reviewers' comments.

You should now have some feedback from other students and possibly also from other Wikipedians. Consider each suggestion, and decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete. Sketch out some ways to respond to these considerations.

Resources:

  • Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
  • Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Week 7

Course meetings
Tuesday, 8 October 2019   |   Thursday, 10 October 2019
Assignment - Respond to your reviews.

You've had a week to consider feedback from other people and to draft some ways in which you'll respond to that feedback. Start editing your draft to respond to these considerations.

Resources:

  • Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
  • Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Week 8

Course meetings
Tuesday, 15 October 2019   |   Thursday, 17 October 2019
Assignment - Start moving work to Wikipedia.

Now that you've responded to feedback from others, it's time to make at least some of your work live by moving it to the "mainspace." You can dip your toe in this water, or jump in with both feet. After you go live, watch for awhile to see how other Wikipedeans react to your contributions.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Week 9

Course meetings
Tuesday, 22 October 2019   |   Thursday, 24 October 2019
Assignment - Keep improving your article.

It's time to revisit your article and refine your work. Good options include:

  • doing more research to find missing information;
  • rewriting the lead section to represent all major points;
  • reorganizing the text to communicate the information better;
  • adding images and other media; and
  • linking to other articles (see page 12 in Editing Wikipedia).
Milestones

Everyone's work to date is live on Wikipedia's mainspace.

Week 10

Course meetings
Tuesday, 29 October 2019   |   Thursday, 31 October 2019
Polish your work.

Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert if you need further help. See Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.

Milestones

Everyone's used the check-list to finalize their article.

Week 11

Course meetings
Tuesday, 5 November 2019   |   Thursday, 7 November 2019
In class - In-class presentations

We'll figure out the order for these 15-minute presentations in October. Please consider these [[../../../training/students/in-class-presentation-exercise/guiding-questions|Guiding Questions]] as you prepare for this assignment.

Week 12

Course meetings
Tuesday, 12 November 2019   |   Thursday, 14 November 2019
Assignment - Reflective essay

To keep these private, you'll upload them to an Assignment Folder on D2L. Please consider these [[../../../training/students/reflective-essay-exercise/essay-questions|Guiding Questions]] as you prepare for this assignment. Once these are turned in, everyone will have finished their Wikipedia work for 533. The project will then be ready for grading.