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

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.

Week 1
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 &quot;article&quot; 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:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
 * Evaluating 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.)

Each student has a Wikipedia account.

Week 2
'''NB: Wikipedia changed this block to suggest you have three activities due before our 3-Sep class. You have   two   ! Please read &quot;Evaluating articles and sources&quot; (above) and do the exercise &quot;Evaluate an article&quot; (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
Evaluate an 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
Choose your article

Week 3
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.

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

Exercise
Add a citation

Week 4
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

Everyone has started improving their articles.

Week 5
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.

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

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

Week 6
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
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
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 &quot;mainspace.&quot; 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
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).

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

Week 10
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.

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

Week 11
We'll figure out the order for these 15-minute presentations in October. Please consider these Guiding Questions as you prepare for this assignment.

Week 12
To keep these private, you'll upload them to an Assignment Folder on D2L. Please consider these 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.