Which thing is the tallest?

• Introduction
• Learners
• Standards
• Process
• Resources


• Student Page

by Stacia Wagner, Nakago Junior High School

This webquest is targeted toward second year junior high school students (about 13 to 14 years old) studying English as a foreign language. The webquest's main grammar focus is how to use comparative and superlative adjectives( -er, -est). In addition, this activity should continue to develop beginning English students' reading comprehension and deductive thinking as they attempt to answer the question, "Which thing is the tallest?"

Teacher Introduction

Though Japan is a technology frontrunner, I have found that using technology to aid students in learning English--a core subject in the Japanese curriculum--is a frontier that remains vaguely untouched in the classroom.  This WebQuest is designed to enable students to view the online resources such as simple grammar review games, and resources that use simple English to explain topics of interest in what otherwise might be quite technical jargon.  The simple English version of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia is one such example of a resource students can use and see to aid in their comprehension of the English language (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).

The grounding topic of this WebQuest is to assist students in understanding how to use comparative and superlative adjectives in English.  By incorporating technology into this lesson, I hope that this sometimes bland and abstract grammar point might come alive to my students who enjoy using the internet, playing video games, and breaking away from their notebooks periodically.