I think drill and practice gets a lot of bad press in teacher circles these days, but for basic math facts and grammar rules, I find it to be extremely important and even CRUCIAL to the learning practice. I do not think that everything needs to be word for word or number by number memorized, but the more that you repeatedly drill information, the more readily it comes to someone in the event that they need it. There is a reason why classical musicians play their scales every day even after they are professionals. This is something that is being torn out of schools in the modern era, and is why so many students have terrible handwriting and they often need a calculator for basic math skills. We are failing students by removing drill and practice.

I would respond to this question by saying that I do not find drill and practice to be the most effective way for students to learn. I would incorporate this into test reviews and as a way to track student progress throughout the year. I would set up a "Math Allstars" program in my class, where students are given a worksheet starting at Level 1 (addition problems). Once students have mastered Level 1, they will move onto the next level which would be more advanced addition problems. Each level will be more difficult. They have to get a 100% on each worksheet to move to the next level of the Allstar program.

As with most instructional strategies, there is a place for "drill and practice," or "skill and drill." As a coach, we make a living off teaching fundamentals and creating muscle memory through proper repetition. The old saying "practice makes perfect" is incorrect. Practice makes permanent. Therefore, practice must be completed properly in order to produce the desired result. For math purposes, skill and drill is time tested and proven. As a social studies teacher, skill and drill works well for learning vocabulary, dates, places, and people. However, they are do engage students at Level 3 and Level 4 of Webb's Depth of Knowledge model.