For an "activity" (measurable), a theory of gradualism may work (how parts of speech as basic
literacy teach students how to identify basic sentence patterns which teaches them how to punctuate
sentences). Parts of speech lead to sentence patterns which lead to proper punctuation which
eventually leads to solid sentence structure (and paragraph writing).
If one know basic literacy, one will have a stronger foundation for "literary literacy" since the
former provides the foundation for the latter. For example, knowing basic parts of speech means
one knows sentences.
Basic parts of speech as sentences:
N V. (John ran.)
PN V. (He ran.)
Adj N V. (The boy ran.)
V. (Leave.--command)
Who is he? (PN V PN?) (question)
Who is John? (PN V N?) (question)
To test if a student understands basic grammar, turn these into sentence patterns. PN V or N
V now =S (for sentence).
S. S (John left the game. I went to school.
N V Adj. N.
PN V P N .
S; S (John left the game; I went to school.
S, and S (John left for school, and I went to school.
The basic parts of speech now guide the reader where to put punctuation. Between two
sentences, one needs a period, a semicolon, or a coordinate conjunction (and , but or, so, yet) with a
comma before it. Then one can add introductions to make the patterns more complicated.
Step 1) SC PN V, PN V V. (SC=subordinate conjunction or sentence killer)
Step 2) (Intro), S
(S=sentence)
Step 3) If he leaves, I will cry.
(This sentence matches both the pattern and the parts of speech exactly, and a comma always goes
after an introduction to separate it from the main sentence).