Online Practice & DIY

I like to play Minesweeper. My students are always amazed at how I can zoom around and click-click-click without making a mistake. Well it's not that I'm particularly smart; it's just that I've had LOTS of practice, and so now I can recognize patterns that help me decide which boxes to uncover and which to mark as mines.

And we know that fluency comes with practice. As you read more, your reading becomes smoother. As you write more, you develop your 'voice.' As you drive more, your back and arms stop hurting from sitting rigidly and gripping the wheel. (It was a minivan with manual transmission, okay?!)

While I wouldn't want to use these sites as lessons in and of themselves, they do provide a way to practice that takes out some of the tedium. They're automated, but interactive, and there's immediate feedback.

http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html - Grammar Ninja
freerice.com - grammar and vocabulary
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/quizzes/ - easy peasy
http://a4esl.org/q/h/grammar.html - ranges from easy to tough
http://chompchomp.com - with fun prizes!
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/la-grammar.html - list site
http://www.theteacherscafe.com/Grammar/Grammar_Games.php - list site

http://www.easybib.com/ - put in the info & it formats your Works Cited entry (only MLA is free)

So, yeah. I don't know how "authentic" these would be for practice. But what I do know is that when I play these games and muck around on the sites, I can feel my brain stretching in different ways, and I think that's a good thing.

What are some of the online games you like?

Image thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/dothezonk