Interactive computer system for instructor-student teaching and assessment of preschool children

Abstract

A computer system contains and displays a cartoon-like story with a plurality of displayed components (such as cartoon characters, play items, etc.) recognizable by a preschool student on a first portion of the display screen along with an accompanying voice message on the speaker. Written instructions for teachers to follow in a personal one-to-one interaction with one or more students are displayed on a second portion of the display screen. For some activities, the student may actually respond using the computer such as by touching a touch screen or using a mouse to select one of the displayed components in response to a request to select a displayed component having a predetermined aspect. For other activities the teacher enters the response of the student as observed by the teacher. When one or more correct responses are entered by the student or teacher, achievement of a goal can automatically be entered into the educational management system.

1 . A system comprising:
 a processor, machine readable memory operatively coupled to the processor, and a user interface including a display screen operatively coupled to the processor;   a pre-school level assessment computer program stored in the memory, the computer program executable on the processor so as to realize the steps of—   interacting with a teacher user, using the user interface, to select a knowledge area for assessment of a pre-school student;   playing a cartoon story associated with the selected knowledge area, the cartoon story including a plurality of visual elements for display on the display screen and accompanying audio portion, wherein the audio portion includes a voice message that requests a student user to select one of the displayed visual elements via the user interface;   concurrently with playing the cartoon story, displaying textual guidance on the display screen for a teacher user to read, wherein the textual guidance includes the text of the audio portion of the cartoon story, so as to enable the teacher user to assist the student user by repeating the text of the audio portion.   
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein the cartoon story is configured to display and pronounce words and letters in the words, and assess the student's understanding of how changes in a letter of a word changes the word to a different word. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the computer program is further configured to realize the steps of, responsive to selection of a knowledge area for assessment, displaying a list of animated activities that assess at least one goal in the selected knowledge area, and further displaying, for each of the listed animated activities, at least one corresponding goal that the activity is designed to assess, to support teacher selection of an animated activity based on a desired goal. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of pronouns. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 3  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of action words. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 3  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of negative words. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 3  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of positional words. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 3  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of words that describe qualities of physical objects. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 3  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of past and future tenses. 
     
     
         10 . A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
 interacting with a teacher user, through an interface, to enable the teacher to select a knowledge area for assessment of a pre-school student;   playing a cartoon story associated with the selected knowledge area, the cartoon story including a plurality of visual elements for display on the display screen and accompanying audio portion, wherein the audio portion includes a voice message that requests a student user to select one of the displayed visual elements via the user interface; and   concurrently with playing the cartoon story, displaying textual guidance on the display screen for a teacher user to read, wherein the textual guidance includes the text of the audio portion of the cartoon story, so as to enable the teacher user to assist the student user by repeating the text of the audio portion.   
     
     
         11 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 10  wherein the instructions cause the processing device to perform operations further comprising:
 responsive to selection of a knowledge area for assessment, displaying a list of animated activities that assess at least one goal in the selected knowledge area, and 
 further displaying, for each of the listed animated activities, at least one corresponding goal that the activity is designed to assess, to support teacher selection of an animated activity based on a desired goal. 
 
     
     
         12 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of pronouns. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of action words. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of negative words. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of positional words. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein at least one of the list of animated activities is designed to assess the pre-school student's understanding of words that describe qualities of physical objects.