Notes for Teachers and Tutors

Spellzone can be used in the school or college classroom, or can be recommended to students/parents for private study at home and students can even use the course on a mobile phone or iPod touch. As all progress and results are stored online then it doesn't matter when and where students work on the course, you can always monitor their progress. This offers a significant advantage over CD based or installed software.

The program consists of over 450 web pages, divided into 37 units, covering all the main topics of English spelling. The aim is not just to test spelling, as other programs do, but also to provide a comprehensive teaching course. The program includes:

• underpinning instruction in the basic concepts of spelling such as consonants, long and short vowels, syllables, prefixes and suffixes
• the different sounds in the English language; extensive word lists showing the various ways of spelling each sound and any rules that govern the choice of spelling
• regular English spelling rules e.g. when (and why) we double or change letters when adding suffixes
• words which break spelling rules; and tips on how to remember these difficult words
• a special emphasis on homophones - e.g. wait/weight, herd/heard, currant/current: those words the computer spellchecker will not spot; tips on how to remember which spelling for which meaning
• several sections on easily confused endings e.g. able/ible, ant/ent, ate/ite, cial/tial
• the differences between British and American spelling
• for every teaching point there are practice exercises and tests, often with a choice of different levels of difficulty; all these are interactive and marked instantly; the user has the option of skipping or repeating any exercise.
• In addition to the 37 main units, there are twelve extra 'Beat the Spell Check' units with practice exercises and tests on homophones.

The Spellzone program combines traditional methods of teaching spelling with the latest research into this topic. Recent drives to improve the teaching of literacy in the UK have recommended this approach:

• start by hearing the sound
• learn the different ways of spelling that sound

Spellzone follows this approach but also encourages students to use multi-sensory methods:

• use ears to hear the sound
• use eyes to learn when words 'look' right
• use the hand for practice in writing and/or typing words with similar spelling patterns

Multi-sensory methods are particularly suited to people with spelling difficulties. Most of us perform better in some areas than others. Students who have strengths in visual memory but difficulties with auditory perception will benefit from the way Spellzone presents words grouped together firstly by their sound , then sub-divided according to viusal spelling pattern.

Much of the material available for dyslexics is geared towards children. Many programs have attractive spelling games but, once the novelty has worn off, adults can find these patronising. Spellzone does not contain games but does have a variety of interactive exercises. Care has gone into choosing pictures which enliven the site without making it appear childish.

Normal conventions are used to help with the understanding of sound. For example, obliques are used to signify the sound letters make rather than the name: /sh/ . Short vowels are shown by a breve: ; long vowels by a macron:

When looking at spelling rules, the course is carefully structured so that knowledge is gradually built up. For example:

• Before learning the 'doubling' rule for adding suffixes (Unit 9), users learn about long and short vowels (Units 6-7) and how patterns in syllables can affect a vowel sound (Unit 8). Then they can understand the logic behind the doubling rule.
  
  
• Before teaching word endings such as calendar, monitor, computer (Unit 25), currant, current (Unit 33), the program looks at stress in syllables and introduces the weak vowel sound, or 'schwa' sound, which is often found in unstressed syllables (Unit 24). This sound causes many spelling errors - yet so many courses ignore the concept altogether.

A certain amount of pre-knowledge is required to tackle this course:

• Students will need a reading age of about 9 years. This should not cause a problem as most people with spelling difficulties do find that their reading is at a rather higher level. (This particular page, for obvious reasons, assumes a higher reading age!)
  
  
• The course assumes that they will have a knowledge of basic sound-symbol correspondence for consonants e.g. /g/ as in golf, /r/ as in random, /t/ as in traffic. The consonant variations e.g. qu, ph, wh, soft c and g etc., plus all vowel sounds, are taught during the course.
  
  
• It is assumed that students will be familiar with normal website conventions, for example the use of links, scroll bar and the 'back button'. Great care has been taken to make the site user-friendly and quick to download.

'Teachers and tutors in several different fields - Colleges, High Schools, Dyslexia Units, Basic Skills Units, Language Schools, etc. - are finding Spellzone a useful resource.

Previous experience in teaching spelling is not needed, as all teaching points are presented clearly, in a logical progression. Spellzone is very suitable for supervision by Classroom Assistants and Learning Support Assistants. In fact students can work on Spellzone entirely by themselves and their results and progress can viewed by a teacher online whenever is convenient.

If any organisation purchases a 'site licence', this entitles all staff and students to use the program on their home computers as well as in their school or college.' This makes it a more flexible resource than a CD based program.