Online Study Rooms

East of the Web is a site which provides teachers with the opportunity to design and create a unique "Study Room," or a site that offers students the opportunity to access games and activities based upon the classroom content. The teacher can create definition quizzes, word games etc., and then keep track of the students' individualized progress through an online report. Most of the games/quizzes are often timed, making it more competitive for students, and the animation  is visually attractive and engaging.

While I would probably not use Study Rooms often, I think that it could be a very good way to review grammar and vocabulary, particularly definitions of pre-fixes, suffixes, and common root words. I would create a timed game for prefix definitions, another for suffix definitions, and a different one for root words. I might also develop games based upon identifying different parts of speech, or diagnosing incorrect sentences. At the beginning of the grammar unit, without any prior grammar instruction, I would take students to the computer lab and have them take the various quizzes, recording their scores afterwards. Then, after completing that particular grammar unit, I would would bring students to the computer lab and have them re-take the same quizzes, recording their final scores and comparing them to their initial scores. Hopefully this would provide a fun, interactive way to challenge students and allow them to witness and quantify their own progress and achievement.