Instructify

BY KEVIN HODGSON

In those spare moments of class — those five to 10 minutes before the bell rings — I will often reach for my large stack of Mad Libs. As a teacher, I like that Mad Libs reinforce parts of speech and use humor in storytelling. My students also love the craziness that comes from the strange juxtaposition of words out of context, and they also enjoy pairing up or working in small groups to create these crazy stories that have been around for years. And just try to stop students from reading aloud what they have written. It’s nearly impossible.

For the paperless classroom, or perhaps for those empty 10 minutes when a student is done with a technology project while the rest of the class works, the Wacky Web Tales site can offer a nice Mad Lib-like diversion and, like the Mad Libs of old, the story activities reinforce creativity and understanding of parts of speech. I also appreciate that at the bottom of the page of prompts for each story, there is a link to various parts of speech. This tutorial is easy to read and understand and gives good examples of some parts of speech basics.

Use in the classroom:

As noted above, the Wacky Web Tales site is perfect for filling in a small amount of time and can be a fun collaborative activity. There are more than 60 possible story ideas, and new ones are being added all the time to the site, which is run by Houghlin-Mifflin’s Education Place. While the site says that the stories are good for students in grades three and up, there is more than enough variation to keep most elementary and middle school students engaged for short periods of time. The downside to Wacky Web Tales is that it is not easy to share the stories when they are completed. You can print them, I suppose, but it would be nice to email the stories to your teacher or family or friends. My students have been disappointed that once they are done with the story, it disappears.

Wacky Web Tales