Spelling course help for TeachersNotes for Teachers and Tutors

Who will benefit from using Spellzone?

Spellzone is ideal for older learners: teenage to adult. It is widely used by teachers and tutors in several different fields: Colleges, High Schools, Dyslexia Units, Key Skills Units, English Language Schools and employee training schemes. It is suitable for:

  • supporting learners who need help with Key Skills or who have spelling problems such as dyslexia
  • use as a whole-school resource to improve spelling and learn specialist vocabulary
  • learners of English as a foreign language (Please see Spelling as part of an English language course.)

Spellzone provides a complete teaching course; tutors do not need to be experienced in teaching spelling as all teaching points are presented clearly, in a logical progression. Spellzone is very suitable for supervision by Teaching Assistants and many students will be able to work on Spellzone entirely by themselves. 

Spellzone has been written especially for older students, as much other material available for learners with spelling difficulties is aimed towards children and adults can find this patronising. In Spellzone, care has been taken to avoid childish text and the cartoon-style pictures that enliven the site have been chosen for their mature style. The Spellzone games are fun but also have clear learning objectives as their main principle.

As Spellzone is an online course, it can be used in school, college or learning centre or can be recommended to students for private study at home. Students can even use the course on a mobile phone or iPod touch. This offers a significant advantage over CD based or installed software. All completed tests and results are stored online so you can always monitor your students' progress.

What does the spelling course cover?

The core program consists of over 450 web pages, divided into 36 units, covering all the main topics of English spelling. This is supplemented by many hundreds of word lists to use in practice games and tests. 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. In addition to the 36 main units, there are twelve extra 'Beat the Spell Check' units with practice exercises and tests on homophones.
  • several sections on easily confused endings e.g. able/ible, ant/ent, ate/ite, cial/tial
  • the differences between British and American spelling
  • practice exercises and tests for every teaching point, 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.
  • games which are carefully structured to provide useful learning practice.
  • a facility for users to upload their own word lists on any topic and learn them with the Spellzone games and tests.

What theory underpins the spelling course?

The Spellzone program combines traditional methods of teaching spelling with current research into this topic. Learners are encouraged 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 such as dyslexia. 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 visual spelling pattern. By the time they reach secondary education most dyslexic learners have some knowledge of sound/symbol relationships: for example, they may know that the letters er. ur and ir make the same sound when reading but are unsure which sound to use in spelling. Using Spellzone will help them to clear up these confusions.

Normal conventions are used to help with the understanding of sound. For example, obliques are used to signify the sound (phoneme) that letters make: /sh/ . Short vowels are shown by a breve: ă. Long vowels are shown by a macron: ā.

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.

When is a student ready for Spellzone?

Only a small amount of pre-knowledge is required before starting this course:

  • Students who are working independently will need a reading age of about 8-9 years. This should not cause a problem as most people with spelling difficulties do find that their reading is at a rather higher level. Those with a lower reading ability can still use Spellzone with the support of a tutor.
  • 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
  • and the short vowel sound e.g. /a/ as in bag, /e/ as in peg, /i/ as in lid, /o/ as in pop, /u/ as in rub.
  • This means they will be able to spell simple words such as run, sit, stand, jump. Those with a lower ability can still use the course games and tests if their tutor uploads word lists appropriate to their needs.

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 usage, for example links, scroll bar and the 'back button'. Great care has been taken to make the site user-friendly.

How should students use Spellzone? A typical lesson plan:

Some learners will wish to work through the complete course while others will use it as a 'dip-in' resource to fill gaps in their knowledge. When working through a typical unit we suggest the following progression:

  • If there is a sound example, click on it and read the teaching text.
  • Read the word lists for all the different ways of spelling that sound; use the dictionary box on the sidebar to check meanings and hear words read aloud.
  • Click on the word list on the sidebar to access games and tests for this page. These can be repeated as often as required:
    • Look, Cover, Write Check practice - help in learning words
    • Listen and Spell - testing knowledge
  • Games: 1) Listen and Spell against the clock

2) Word Search (different levels of difficulty)
3) Bouncing Balls Anagram - click the balls in the correct order
4) Which Witch - beat the witch by guessing the correct letters

  • Return to the course unit and click the link at the bottom of the page to go to the course test. This takes various forms; for example, enter the correct letters to complete a word in a sentence context.
  • Complete the test and check the score. Tests can be repeated as often as required.

For further information on working through the course units, please see the student guide, Unit 1 and the free demo units.

What are the benefits of a site licence?

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

Spellzone is very suitable for supervision by Teaching Assistants. Previous experience in teaching spelling is not needed, as Spellzone itself provides a complete teaching course. This course can stand on its own but can also be adapted to the needs of the individual by uploading your own word lists; these can then be practised with our spelling games and tests. For assessment of progress, all your students' results are saved and can be viewed by a teacher at any time.

It is estimated that the specific learning difficulty of dyslexia affects around ten percent of the population. Spellzone helps your school, college or company to provide support for these learners. Please see Spelling and Dyslexia and the notes above: What theory underpins the spelling course?

In many schools Spellzone is also used more widely, to encourage a whole school spelling policy. Students keep a record of any spelling errors and use these to create their own word lists for use with the Spellzone spelling games and tests. Teachers of all subjects create specialist word lists on the topics they are covering; tutors in company training schemes add word lists that are specific to their employees' workplace needs.

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