Drill and Practice Websites

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.