This week I'll be highlighting different kinds of instructional software for students.
Quizlet is a great place to create your own drill and practice exercises. Check out the video to see why.
Quizlet for Teachers from Quizlet on Vimeo.
Tutorial: Students learn new material from a tutorial just like it was their teacher. Tutorials are designed to teach the lesson, offer practice and then assessment.
The Brainpop websites are a great family of tutorials in all subject areas. They have BrainPOP Jr.®(K-3), BrainPOP and BrainPOP ESL™(English Language Learners). Each tutorial starts with a video, then the students play a game to reinforce learning. After they can take a quiz about what they've learned. While the sites are not free, they do offer some free content so you can try it out.
Simulations: Students can explore models of real or pretend situations to develop their understanding of complex concepts.
Sometimes you just don't have the materials or the science experiment just isn't practical for the classroom. Enter explorelearning.com's gizmos! Gizmos are math and science simulations for grades 3-12. Watch the video below for an extended explanation.
Instructional Games: Similar to drill and practice there is an added level of game rules, competition and/or challenge with fun formats to hold attention.
Game Classroom has collected games from all over the web and grouped them by grade and concept. A great resource for busy parents and teachers!
Problem Solving: Student are either learning directly the steps to solve a problem or is discovering problem solving skills themselves in order to solve the problem.
STEM offers four programs that allow students to problem solve in "real-life" situations. Designed for the middle school level.
Integrated Learning Systems: Computer-based instructions are used along with tracking of student progress and testing that the teacher can monitor.
I have personally used Raz-Kids for the past two years. It it a great tool to get kids reading with books that are at their reading level. Watch the video below for another extended teachers guide.
I also recommend checking out Sheppard Software which has many of the above types of instructional software for free! I learned about Sheppard Software from this post by Cool Cat Teacher.
I love both Quizlet and Brain Pop!You know that a website is good when you use it at least twice a week! I just discovered Brain Pop this school year and the tutorials keep my students engaged and learning.
ReplyDeleteI also use BrainPop; its a great resource for enrichment and practice before a test. I've never used the ESL version, due to the fact that only half of my students are classified as ELL; I however could use the ESL version during small group, tutoring and center rotation. Thanks for the information on Quizlet! I've never heard or used this resource before, but it'all definitely be on my list of resources now,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved the raz-kids.com website. I have never heard of it before, but I would love to use this with my students, as I have a lot of students who struggle with literacy skills. I saw majority of what seemed to be elementary students in the video. Do you know if this is age appropriate for middle school students as well?
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