Unit 1: Guide to the Spellzone Course

The course covers all these topics:

basic background information to ensure clear understanding of terms such as vowel, consonant, syllable, suffix, prefix

• tips on different ways to improve your own spelling and how to remember tricky words
  
  
• several units which take one sound and teach all the different ways of spelling that sound, for example:
  - all the ways of spelling the sound // as in boat, hope, arrow, though, toe
  - all the ways of spelling the sound /sh'n/ as in action, pension, musician
  
  
• spelling rules, such as when you need to double or change letters, for example:
  hop > hopping         hope > hoping, hopeless          deny > denied, denying
  
  
• the common, short but often hard to remember words, for example:
                does  could  which  sure  because
  - and when to use there/their/they're and to/too/two
  
  
• the differences between British and American spelling
  
  
• much on 'homophones' - those tricky words which sound alike but have different spellings for different meanings, for example:
                meet/meat   wail/whale   paw/pour
  
  
• ............and much, much more.

The course is presented in a way that combines tried and tested ways of learning to spell with the latest research into this topic. Spellzone helps students to learn by using their ears, eyes and hand - by looking, listening and writing or typing.
YOU control your path through the program. You can look at each unit and decide if you need to study that topic.

If at any time you want to move on, or review some earlier work, just click on the 'Program Contents' link at the top of the page. If you wish to keep a record of your work, or to learn by writing as well as typing, you can print any page of the course.

For a detailed list of all the units in the Spellzone course, click here