As the internet links under this week’s resources showed, there are numerous educational sites which can help with the drill and practice of facts. I had not seen the Prentice Hall Social Studies Tutor http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/ss_skills_tutor/. The tutorials were a bit dry but for a short period of time and for targeting a specific skill, I think it would be beneficial. It might be especially useful for those students who have difficulty reading because it was accompanied by audio. I could see using this site as part of a learning center.
The keyboarding site, (http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cjh/appliedtech/Business/Keyboarding/)
could be useful in my district because we mandate keyboarding training in grades 3-6. This site would enable parents to help their students practice at home or during the summer.
The Webmath (http://www.webmath.com/index.html) site has a variety of math support resources and drill activities. The nice thing about this site is that students at almost every level can use it. For differentiating instruction and providing students with practice at the level that is most beneficial for them, this is a great feature.
Another math and science website that is utilized extensively in my district is the Shodor site, http://www.shodor.org/educators/activities/. Dr. Panoff has provided numerous professional development trainings in my district and his interactivate math site provide teachers and students with some very interesting and engaging math activities: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/
The technology tutorial site is another one I can see myself using often with students http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line.htm . For those who like written step by step directions, this site is perfect. Another technology tutorial site that I like to use is www.atomiclearning.com , this site has short video tutorials related to numerous applications so it is good for those visual & auditory learners. The atomic learning site is a paid subscription but many of the basic tutorials for each application are free.
There are so many great sites for drill and practice that I really do not understand how teachers can continue to rely so heavily on pencil & paper worksheets. I know, in part, it has to do with computer availability in the classroom but hopefully we will continue to move towards a 1:1 computer to student ratio in our schools. While behaviorism based drill and practice generally focus on lower level thinking skills, they do reinforce learning and provide the building blocks for higher learning. The nice thing about internet based drill and practice is that sites can be located that correspond closer to the learning styles and preferences of each student.
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We use the Prentice Hall books for my Geometry and Algebra II classes. It is nice because they have a video tutorial for every section in the book. I include links for these tutorials on my class website so students can use them at home. Prentice Hall also includes an interactive practice quiz for every section in the book, an interactive Chapter Test, and an interactive vocabulary quiz for every chapter. I will encourage students to use these quizzes at home the night before an assessment. The kids seem to think it helps. Here is the link to the page if you are interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=afk&wcsuffix=0099
I have never used the Prentice Hall site before, thanks for the introduction. The skills used would be great for a quick trip to the lab to practice compare and contrast or main idea. I agree that the audio would be particularly helpful with those students who struggle with reading! Oh, what could we do with 1:1 computer to student ratios?
ReplyDelete-Mel.
Kevin, thanks for including all those websites. I have heard of a few of them such as WebMath and Internet4Classrooms. For my math instruction, I tend to use the resources from Prentice Hall or McDougal Littell. I enjoy taking my students into the computer lab so each student has a computer. The video tutorials are a great learning resource and it allows students to learn at their own pace. The practice problems on the site include hints in case students do not understand how to solve the problem. The students receive immediate feedback if their answer was correct. I have received positive feedback from my students when we conduct class in the computer lab. It is something that I'd like to do more often, however we only have one computer lab for the entire school. So I can't always get into the computer lab because it is already reserved.
ReplyDeleteKevin, the links to the resources are a great thing to post and very helpful for educators. The idea of mandated keyboard training in grades 3-6 is a good idea. We do not have any mandates like this in my school district. Especially at that age. With the technology World of today, students must begin their training in technology at a young age to be prepaired for their future.
ReplyDeleteThe web math site is also a great resource. Students have so much access to help at home, but many do not know where to look. Teachers should share these resources with their students.
Nikki & ihang-- you are right, these textbook sites are helpful for students, parents and teachers as they provide a variety of supplementary resources as well as an online textbook. In math, high school’s in my district uses the online textbook resource available from Holt, Rinehart and Winston – (e.g. keyword MG1 Homework Help) http://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=afk&wcsuffix=0099
ReplyDeleteMelissa K -- my district has been purchasing COWS (computers on Wheels) for the past couple of years. These laptops can easily be wheeled from classroom to classroom making integrating technology easier. We also still have computer labs but it is sometimes easier having a class set of laptop computers to use in the classroom. Some classrooms now even have COWS that are permanently in the room for student use. When that happens there is a noticeable shift in how regularly internet resources are used throughout the curriculum.
Wesche – the keyboarding at an early age really helps students develop good keyboarding habits. Since students are starting to keyboard at an earlier age, if they start off learning bad habits it makes keyboarding much more difficult to learn later on. It is nice to visit schools in my district and see how many students are typing correctly. Of course, now with the explosion of cell phone texting – maybe we need to have all thumbs texting training….