Twurdy (Too Wordy)This free, web search service powered by Google, differentiates web material for students and colour codes websites from easy to difficult.The following is information directly from the Twurdy website: ![]()
The philosophy
Everyone has different reading abilities. Some people searching the web are university professors and others are 5 year old children. Twurdy has been created to provide people with access to search results that suit their own readability level.
What does it do?
Twurdy uses text analysis software to "read" each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will be to understand.
The Goal
Twurdy's goal is to provide web searchers with information that is most appropriate for them. This will mean that 10 year olds doing school assignments don't have to click through difficult material to find something they can use. It will also mean that older students do not have to click through websites designed for kids in order to find what they are looking for.
Presented by the New York Zoos and Aquarium, the website, Build Your Wild Self allows the user to select different animal body parts in order to create a new species. You can print your Wild Self which can include a list and short description of the type of body part added such as spider crab claws, monarch butterfly wings and an African lion tail.How can I use this in my classroom? Here are some Saskatchewan curriculum examples.Grade 1 ELA curriculum: Compose and Create
CC1.4 Write and share stories and short informational texts about familiar events and experiences in a minimum of five sentences.Grade 2 ELA curriculum: Compose and CreateCC2.4 Write stories, poems, friendly letters, reports, and observations using appropriate and relevant details in clear and complete sentences and paragraphs of six sentences.Grade 3 ELA curriculum: Compose and CreateCC3.4 Write to communicate ideas, information, and experiences pertaining to a topic by creating easy-to-follow writing (including a short, a procedure, a letter, a story, a short scriptScience 6 curriculum: Outcome DL6.4 Examine and describe structures and behaviours that help:- individual living organisms survive in their environments in the short term
- species of living organisms adapt to their environments in the long term
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Google Squared is an experimental tool that takes a category (like Canadian provinces, roller coasters, or digital cameras, etc.) and attempts to create a starter "square" of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web. You can modify your square by removing rows and columns you don't like--or by adding new rows and columns and having Google Squared attempt to fetch the relevant facts. Verify and correct the facts in your square by exploring the original sources and investigating other possible values. If you're happy with your square you can save it and come back to it later. Google Squared does the grunt work for you, making research fast and easy."
