SUBJECT: English

GRADE: High School

TECHNOLOGY: Internet

BY: Peter Bodnar, Lauren Garrett, Susan Maggiore, Karen Swann, Michael Tubbs

Choose Your Own Adventure

Target Group:

The General Tenth Grade World Literature Class is composed of 26 male and female students who have diverse home and academic backgrounds. Many have demonstrated a dislike for writing about or reading literature outside of contemporary fiction. More interest is shown when given the opportunity to explore literature of their own culture. In this developmental stage there are varying levels of academic interest and ability. This lesson will allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of current vocabulary words. It is challenging but not overwhelming and therefore seeks to involve all students to the best of their abilities.

Objectives:

SOLs: English 10.1, 10.7, 10.10

· Given the class website address and their weekly vocabulary list and definitions, students will participate in an exploration of word choice by selecting vocabulary words to complete the given narrative.

Materials:

· Computer Lab with internet access

· Class Website

· Vocabulary List and Definitions

Lesson Description:

· The teacher will have already prepared the class website for this activity.

· The teacher will lead students to the computer lab.

· The teacher will direct the students in accessing the website with an appropriate web browsing application (i.e. Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.)

· The students will click on the first link, which will lead them to a practice exercise in which they will have access to fifteen vocabulary words, along with their parts of speech and definitions. Students will be prompted with cues to familiarize themselves with the list of words and the correct usage of them.

· The narrative will be constructed of fifteen separate pages, each of which advances the story in logical progression. The full list of words (along with the prompts) will be available at all times from which to select the word that properly fills in the active blank. For example, the first page could read: “Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom far away, there lived a(n) ___1(adj)___ little toad.” Students will then have fifteen possible word links from which to select. Only one word will best complete the sentence. They will continue through the story until all fifteen words are used (and thus all pages are completed).

· The students will receive feedback after they have completed the first “adventure” activity from a screen that explains any errors they may have made. A link back to the main page will appear also.

· Students will begin the evaluation portion of the activity after returning to the main page and clicking on the second link there. The same format will appear, with a new, but similar, narrative. This time, however, the definitions and parts of speech will be omitted.

· Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the vocabulary words and their proper usage by successfully completing the assessment “adventure.”

· Students will print out the final version of the completed narrative and submit it to the teacher.

Evaluation:

· The final print out will be graded as to whether the blanks are completed correctly or incorrectly. Total possible points will be awarded out of a total of 15.

· Scoring will be as follows:

13-15 A

10-12 B

7-9 C

5-6 D

4 or below F