Activity 3C
C&I 335
Summer, 1998

Sue Bogren
Urbana Middle School
Urbana, IL 61801

Parts of Speech Assessment Using An Applet Site on the Internet

Background Experiences

  • Students will have learned basic navigation of the Internet
  • Students will have learned how to print information found on the Internet
  • Students will have completed an instructional unit to learn to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs

    Objectives

  • Assess how well students can identify a word's part of speech
  • Assess vocabulary development and word retrieval ability

    Materials

  • A computer with an Internet connection and using Netscape 3.0 of higher or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 or higher
  • An HTML document with instuctions for the activity downloaded from the server to each student's computer
  • A hard copy of the instructions for the students to use during the assignment

    Procedure

    Students will complete the following activity:

    Parts of Speech

  • Read all of the directions before you begin.

  • Go to the Twisted Tales page.
  • Choose a story title that interests you and open that file.
  • In the right column do one cell at a time; delete the information and add your own word for that part of speech. If you get confused, the left column will remind you what to do.
  • When you have finished every cell, and you are happy with your words, click the Twist button at the bottom of the page.
  • Read your tale and get permission to print it.
  • Be sure to write your name on your paper.

    You may complete another Twisted Tale if you wish. If you complete two tales, you may choose which story you want to count for your assessment.

    Considerations

    Assessment activities are often stressful situations for students, especially so for special education students. By using interactive technology from the Internet, the teacher may complete the assessment without resistance from the students. Using Twisted Tales has the advantage of allowing for a variety of skill levels amd vocabulary development. Since the skeleton of the tale is in place, students can concentrate on using interesting words and the correct part of speech. The result is usually amusing since the students will not know the story line before they begin.

    This activity could also be used to teach creative writing or vocabulary usage. Some students may have difficulty with spelling and may need more support at the keyboard, but the use of technology will make the activity more pallitable for most students.

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