Discussion # 13 Chapters 3

Some people say drill and practice is really "drill and kill." What can teachers do to make sure this kind of use doesn't happen and drill and practice can serve a useful function?


If teachers are stated to "drill and kill,"  the reason may be because the students cannot comprehend the information.  Yes, I have "drilled and killed" because I had given a test to see how many terms through out the year the students actually learned.  Majority did not even recall half of the terms studied through out the year.  I had repeatedly discussed the terms in many of our stories read.  I did feel stressed out after almost a whole year of going over the terms and students still did not know the terms.  I decided to do a jeopardy game with them.  It took time to set up the game on-line/power point but it worked at the end.  They thought of it as an interactive game.  I saw it as a new way of learning the information.
 
I have had students that need more than the basic discussion/lecture.  I noticed many of them need to use flashcards and branching drills too.  I noticed when I had them work on the extensive feedback activities with Read 180, they seemed to have learned more because it was constant immediate feedback.  They did not learn the information the wrong way and then taking longer to reprocess it correctly.  I noticed the drill and practice can serve as a useful function in motivating kids to type and learn musical notes.  Also to prepare for test was very helpful.  For example, it can be used as SAT skills.  Our students have not been introduced to that but they can to help them get the feel of the test.  Drill and practice can be done in a learning style where you may place the children in front of the program for 10-15 minutes, so that they don't get bored.