Wiki, Wiki, Wiki!

I decided to set up my PBWorks wiki as a place for my high school students to collaborate on literature studies and research papers. It is certainly a work in progress, but I guess that's the point of a wiki, right?

So far I've set up a link to pages designed for each of my preps: English 9, English Essentials 9 (adapted for 9th graders with lower reading and writing skills), and Intermediate Writing. On the class pages, I'm setting up links to units that I feel collaboration would be most beneficial to students' learning: difficult literature and research papers.

My English 9 classes will be starting The House on Mango Street in a few weeks, a unit that can be difficult for students because there are so many ideas packed into so few words. My idea is that each student will be responsible for summarizing/interpreting at least one vignette, so that the workload is spread between everyone. I have also linked the VoiceThread that I created for last week's class assignment, as I felt that the wiki would be the most accessible spot for students to add their connections, comments, and questions.

Following The House on Mango Street is the cumbersome research paper. I say cumbersome because there are so many elements involved in teaching 9th graders how to research responsibly, do ENOUGH research to be able to write a paper, and write the paper in an organized style, complete with thorough revision and proofreading. By using the wiki as a meeting space, students can link their own pages under the English 9/Research paper page to exchange ideas and sources, as well as give feedback to each others' papers.

I approached the Essentials 9 literature study a little differently. Since they did not do too well on the first test, Short Stories and Elements of Literature, I want them to focus on the Elements of Literature as they apply to the novel, Touching Spirit Bear. Students will have to contribute something to the categories that I've set up (characters, plot, conflict, theme, etc.) at least once a week as they read the book.

For Intermediate Writing, I plan to use the wiki as a space for students to exchange ideas and questions about themes in Of Mice and Men to help them write a literary analysis. Later in the semester, they will use the wiki to collaborate on research topics of their choice.

Challenges I foresee are plenty. 1-Will my students actually be able to figure out how to use a wiki? Obviously, I'll give them some lessons, but I know that even with careful instructions, some of my students are going to feel lost at sea. 2-Will requiring them to collaborate motivate them to contribute? Or will they all sit back, waiting for someone else to do the work? I seem to have plenty of students who wait to be given answers in class; I'm afraid that converting the work to digital writing isn't going to change that habit. 3-The solution I see to concerns 1&2 is to take them to the computer lab. But the way the wiki works is that only one person can change a wiki page at a time, right? How do I make the class wiki a successful venture?