Drill Practice

Sporkle

Sporkle is an excellent website that could definitely be used for drill practice. I found myself in high school playing these kinds of games in study hall with some of my friends. We would all work together to solve some of the harder ones, like naming all 50 presidents in less than 5 minutes or naming all the states in Africa. This kind of website can be used in a variety of different content areas.

Geography

In the first game I chose, I was to name as many European countries as I could within 8 minutes. It started of easy, but after awhile, I got stuck. Talley was around, so I rallied her to help me think of a few more. It was a fun way to name the countries, and I was able to work with a teammate as well.  

I really like how at the end, it labels the countries you missed. That way, you can play again and again and work on getting more each time!

Language

This is my personal favorite category, and I found many games that I enjoyed. This, however was my favorite. 

In this game, players are to choose (in a very short amount of time!) the correct spelling for several words. These words all end in (-ent) or (-ant). When time runs out, words that you have not gotten to will turn run, and words that you got wrong will be crossed out. This could be a great warm up spelling game to see what kids know even before we work on these words. Then, we could sort the words based on -ent or -ant to see what similarities they find and whether or not they see a pattern to create a rule. Then, they could play the game again to see if their pattern works!

Science

Lastly, I chose a science game. This one was quite simple, but it does not allow you to name them out of order, so students must be able to name them correctly in order!

PROS:

Sporkle is fun, easy to use, and a great for if you have just a few minutes before class is over that you need to fill. It has so many categories, so the teacher is bound to find games that work. Also, the teacher can create his or her own game to use in the classroom!

CONS:

This could be difficult to use in primary grades, as you would need to know how to type and type quickly. Also, there is no autocorrect, so they may be trying their hardest to spell a correct answer, but Sporkle will not count it. There are also so many categories (some not as educational as others) that students may possibly get distracted by other categories if the teacher does not monitor well.