EDU 652 Creating a Do-Type Activity

Creating a Do-Type Activity for EDU652

Do-Type Activity

Match the Memory

Letter*Sound Match

According to Horton (2012), Do-Type activities convert information gained from an absorb activity into skills and knowledge.  There are several types of Do-Type activities such as practice, discovery, games and simulations (Horton, 2012).  

Drill/practice is generally used to increase a student's ability in a newly learned skill or to refresh an existing one (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, Ottenbreit-Leftwich & Russell, 2011). There are some critics that suggest drill/practice activities can be boring and passive learning experiences (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011).  Online, interactive drill/practice games can provide worthwhile supplemental learning events for students who need to gain mastery in any skill area.  Lever-Duffy and McDonald (2011) discuss how drill/practice software allows students to review and practice skills as often and as long as needed to help them reach the goal of mastery.  According to Newby et al. (2011), in order for drill/practice to be effective, the activities should provide feedback to correct errors students may make while participating.

Horton (2012) describes a three-step sequence of practice activities:

1. The activity is explained in detail and given to the student by the teacher or the computer software.
2. The student directly participates in the activity.
3. The student is given feedback from the teacher or the computer software.

Educators should carefully research and examine drill/practice software for academic alignment and value in the classroom (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011).  Selecting a drill/practice game that students are familiar with makes learning to play the game easy and quick (Horton, 2012).

After much research, I selected and created an online memory game/practice for my assignment.  I chose a memory game because many of my kindergarten students would be familiar with this type of activity which would take less time to explain and give us more time to play.  My choice was also based on the results of the needs assessment I conducted through observation and data collection while assessing my students for their first quarter report cards.  The needs assessment as well as the data sheet were the tools I used to gauge which students needed extra practice on the letters and sounds that have been introduced to this point in my kindergarten class.  A small group of my students are well below the class average in letter naming and sound identification.  My hope in creating this online memory game is to provide these students with an engaging and fun activity to help them master their letter and sound skills.  

Here is the link to the memory game I created through the site, "Match the Memory":

Letter-Sound Match Memory Game

If you would like an introduction video on how to create your own memory game, Giddy (2012), from the Match the Memory site offers one to you:

Get Started Quickly on Match the Memory

I plan to use this Do-Type activity on my Smartboard with the small group of students mentioned above.  I will introduce the activity, going through it with fine detail and then we will work on it together.  After we have taken some time to work as a group, I will give the students some independent time to play the memory game on their own.  The can play as many times as they would like because the cards get switched around after every game.  I will even encourage the students to work together collaboratively.  With the introduction to the game, practice of the game together and some time for independent play, I anticipate this activity to take well over ten minutes.

This program allows you to create a game that offers instant feedback when the student correctly makes a match.  A window pops up and a bell rings.  An example of the window is below:

If the student does not correctly make a match, the cards simply turn back around and they are to try again.  When the student successfully completes the game, another window will pop up with cheering/applause and will provide a message along with the time it took for the student to complete the game and how many times the student turned over the cards.  It also tells the student an average of how many seconds and how many flips per card.