Ultimate Spelling Software

Test Yourself Against The Scripps Spelling Bee Contestants

September 19, 2013

Do you have what it takes to be a spelling champion? Learning how to spell words requires practice and dedication, and a willingness to take time to learn some basic spelling rules. If you’re going to compete in a spelling bee, you also need to develop your ear for words, because you’ll be given words to spell out loud – that means that someone will say a word out loud for you, use it in a sentence, and ask you to spell the word correctly. If you don’t know how a word is pronounced, or the letter patterns that can be used to create those pronunciations, then you’ll have trouble winning a spelling bee.

Take a look at some of the words that knocked contestants out of the most recent Scripps National Spelling Bee (for the full list, click here). Can you pronounce, spell, and define these words?

cynosure
pergameneous
diplodocus
nubuck
witloof
pekoe
douane
prerogative
jicama
totipotency

Contestants in the Scripps Spelling Bee have been winning with words as well, ever since the competitions started in 1925. Here are some of the words that helped early champions win the match. How many of them can you define, pronounce, and spell correctly?

asceticism
chlorophyll
autochthonous
kamikaze
deification
vignette
canonical
meticulosity
gladiolus
appoggiatura

If you’d like to get involved in the 2014 Scripps Spelling Bee then you need to make sure that your school (or your child’s school) is registered before October 15th. You can get more information on enrollment, registration, and rules for the competition at the official Scripps site.

Kelly Walsh Brings 21st-Century Strategies to Teaching Spelling at www.EmergingEdTech.com

September 16, 2013

The education provided to children helps them to grow up to be scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and philosophers. They dream up, invent, discover, and create the innovations in society and technology that are used to educate the next generation. Since the late 20th century more and more of those technologies have involved computers and the internet. We talked to Kelly Walsh about the convergence of technology and education, and ways that parents, teachers, and children can learn to profit from modern tools and methods.

US: You’ve got a strong background in information technology, and are comfortable with the “cybertools” that are becoming an increasingly bigger part of everyday life. However, not everyone has that advantage. What’s the first thing that parents and teachers – and even children – need to do to learn how to best use the 21st-century technology available to them?

KW: Well, obviously spending time with these tools is essential in order to become comfortable with them. Kids these days tend to be so connected with tech, it’s kind of hard to avoid. Social uses are often their first exposure, and it’s important to use that as an opportunity to start conversations about how these tools can be used to look up information and support learning, make it easier. Tutorials from the Khan Academy are a great example of the vast array of resources out there to help kids learn. This is a great way to put these tools to use constructively.

US: Not only are technology tools being used more in classroom settings, there’s also a need to have students graduate with the knowledge of how to use them in many employment sectors. How can schools address both sides of this issue?

KW: The exposure in the classroom raises the comfort level and familiarity and sets the stage for more in depth and career relevant learning. It is important that high schools and higher education courses discuss and focus on ways that businesses use these tools. At The College of Westchester (where I work as CIO), I just started teaching a section of one of our core courses, which focuses directly on this. By making this a required part of our first term curriculum, students are going to get this exposure early on and carry it with them throughout their degree program. We consistently build opportunities to use these tools in the ways that business uses them in our curricula – office productivity, presentations, product and service research, collaboration, and so on.

US: What is “flipped instruction,” and how does a “flipped classroom” work?

KW: Flipped instruction is the idea of changing how you use class time by pushing more of the routine teaching and learning outside of the classroom. By making learning content consumable in a digital format, students can consume it at their own pace and review they might struggle with, and also get reinforcement when they want it. Moreover, this allows teachers and students to use class time in more constructivist learning modes, getting hands on, interacting, and identifying and address learning gaps. There is more to it, but that’s the basic idea. Teachers should know that they can ease into this, and that the tools and techniques used are just that – tools to help them teach. It doesn’t require a radical change in the way they approach an entire course. My new Flipped Classroom Workshop in a Book and the online workshops I run help teachers get up to speed and build a plan to introduce flipped teaching techniques at a pace of their choosing.

US: Have you found resources and techniques that are particularly suited to helping students learn English skills like spelling?

KW: I’ve seen lots of resources – online sites and tools, plenty of apps, online services and so on. I am not immersed in this particular area, so I don’t have a lot of experience with it. I recall that we published this article not too long ago on EmergingEdTech, which shared 15 apps that can help with the teaching languages. The Internet and the phone and tablet app world offer so many good resources to help with language skills, many of which are free or very low cost.

US: What do you think is the future of technology in the classroom? And will there even be classrooms in the future?

KW: I believe there will always be classrooms, both physical and virtual. The interaction with passionate, inspired teachers is essential to rich learning and will always play a role in good quality education and in achieving the best learning outcomes. This can happen online and of course it has been happening face to face in physical classrooms for centuries, and I have no doubt that this will continue in various forms even as online learning becomes increasingly common.

The future of technology in the classroom is about a higher degree of embracing richer integration. As the evidence continues to come in showing that properly leveraged technologies can have a clear impact on engagement, grades, retention, degree completion, costs, and more, educational institutions will continue to improve on how they leverage the resources available through these emerging education technologies. It begins with awareness, robust planning and professional development, so that’s a good starting point for those wanting to get ahead of the curve. Of course, subscribing to articles from EmergingEdTech and other education technology blogs can go a long way to help!

The Single Most Important Rule For Double Letters

September 12, 2013

There are many words in English that differ by only one letter, and when it’s the same letter repeated, it’s easy to get confused. However, English pronunciation comes to the rescue to help with English spelling rules, and there’s an easy way to tell the difference between words that have a single letter and words that have a doubled letter: the sound of the vowel. Learning the pronunciation of a word helps you know which to use to get the word you want.

Take a look at these word pairs and their pronunciations:

scraping / scrapping
(SKRAY-ping / SKRAH-ping)

waging / wagging
(WAY-jing / WAH-ging)

hoping / hopping
(HOH-ping / HAW-ping)

doting / dotting
(DOH-ting / DAW-ting)

diner / dinner
(DAI-nuhr / DIH-nuhr)

caped / capped
(KAYPT / KAHPT)

In each of the pairs, the first word is pronounced with a “long” vowel sound in the first syllable – that is, it has the sound of the letter itself: a = AY, i = AI, o = OH.

In the second words of each pair, the doubled consonant has changed the vowel from a “long” vowel sound to a “short” vowel sound: a = AH, i = IH, o = AW.

Note: In today’s post we focused on single and double consonants, but there are also ways to use pronunciation to help with doubled vowels. We’ll look at those in another post.

5 Steps To Perfect Spelling

September 5, 2013

Learning how to spell a new word isn’t as difficult as it might appear. All you need to do is take a little bit of time to pay attention to the word and follow a few simple steps to lock the spelling of the word in your brain, using easy methods to help form the mental connections that will create the long-term memory of the word that ensures you’ll always spell it right in the future.

Step 1: Focus on the word.

Your eyes are your first tool for learning spelling. Find the word spelled correctly on line or in a book or other text, or copy it onto another piece of paper. Focus on this word and examine it closely. Look for prefixes and suffixes that you already know how to spell, or any word roots that you recognize. Linking new information to knowledge you already have in your brain is a good way to make sure you remember the new material.

Step 2: Write the word on a piece of paper.

Even if you’re looking at the word on line, use your hand to shape the letters of the word on a piece of paper. Using your muscles like this activates a new set of neurons in the brain that help form the strong mental connections you need to memorize and recall the word and its spelling. If you find that you’ve made a mistake when you compare the word to the original, make a note of that so that you’ll be sure to avoid that mistake the next time.

Step 3: Visualize the correctly-spelled word.

Set aside your copy of the word and look at the original one again. Look at it as a whole word, as a series of letters, and as a shape or image. If you learn to recognize the shape that the word makes on the page, you’ll unconsciously also be seeing the spelling of the word. Turn the paper over or hide the computer screen, close your eyes, and recreate the image of the word in your mind.

Step 4: Write out the word again.

Open your eyes and immediately write out the word on a blank piece of paper. Check this word and its spelling with the original. If it’s correct, then write the word out several times more to make sure that you really know the word and will remember it. If you misspelled the word, go back to Step 1.

Step 5: Go back and review.

When you review something, you strengthen your ability to remember it correctly. After you learn a new word one day, review it every day for a week, then set it aside for a month or so. When you go back to this word, make sure you still know it perfectly by going through the first four steps.

Roxie Carroll At www.AKidsHeart.com Provides Spelling Resources And More

September 3, 2013

Is your child tired of writing out each week’s list of spelling words to practice on a boring rectangular sheet of paper? Then print out a fun shape with lines to write on that matches the theme of that week’s list or the time of year! Writing out words like PLOUGH, GOURD, HARVEST, and AUTUMN on a pumpkin-shaped piece of paper will help kids remember the words and their correct spelling by visually linking the words with the shape of the paper. That’s just one of the many teaching and learning ideas you can find on Roxie Carroll’s website, www.AKidsHeart.com. We talked to Roxie recently and asked her about some of the other resources she provides.

US: There are lots of great ideas on your website for making learning fun. What inspired you to set up the website and share it with others?

RC: I began the website by making little bits for my granddaughter twelve years ago. During the years that followed, I taught Kindergarten, First, Second, and Third Grade at a private school with a very tight budget. Hence, I began making more and more resources to use with my students, and since I spent so much time making them, I felt as if I should share some of them.

US: Your site provides or links to many resources for teachers as well as parents and kids. Do you have a background in education?

RC: Oops, I guess I answered that in question 1. Yes, I do have B.S.E.D in Mathematics Education from the University of Georgia. My husband was in the military and we moved quite often. I received my certification in quite a few states, and have had wonderful experiences teaching a variety of levels and subjects, from Kindergarten to Post Secondary Technical Schools in a variety of environments and cultures.

US: You’ve got some featured games right now on the site that focus on getting kids ready to go back to school. Which ones do you recommend to help them work on their spelling skills?

RC: The Word Making Games that are found on the word games page, I also have a page where teachers or parents can make their own word search puzzles to print for their students or that the students can play online.

For younger children, the nonviolent hangman type games with the Dolch and Fry’s Frequent Word List, are a lot of fun and helpful in learning to spell the sight words. Also, hidden in the website is an older windows downloadable game called Cleft, the Spelling Clown. It lets the teachers or parents add up to ten lists of words at a time. It is also a nonviolent hangman type game, but instead of hanging guys, it pops balloons. It still functions in Windows 7.

US: The preschool resource section of the website has alphabet games, simple puzzles, basic math learning tools, and fun pictures to color – all things that any parent will be glad to use for entertaining and educating at home. How early do you think parents can start teaching spelling to children?

RC: Phoneme awareness should be taught along with letter recognition. If the child is able to learn letter formation, he needs to be taught the sounds…and the spelling process has already begun.

US: What games, lessons, and materials are you planning on featuring in the next few months?

RC: The last few days, I have been working on designing some fun holiday stationery for another site of mine, http://storyit.com/. This week, I plan to add three or four more word-making type games to akidsheart.com. For the upcoming months, I will be featuring fall favorite themes-apples in September and pumpkins in October.

Taking Apart Words To Pull Spelling Skills Together

August 26, 2013

If you’ve got a list of words to learn to spell for a quiz, or you’re practicing for a spelling bee, try taking the words apart to get a different perspective on them. This can help you concentrate on specific issues you have with a particular word, or with words that have a letter pattern you find hard to remember. Here are three ways that you can focus on a word like thoughtfulness to help you remember how to spell it:

Separate the word by syllables. Break down the word into its syllables – if you don’t know where to make the breaks, check a dictionary. The dictionary will show you how to separate the word; most dictionaries use a dot to indicate the break. Learn the spelling of each syllable separately, and then start combining them. If there are three or more syllables, try combining the first two, and then the last two, and then stringing them all together.

thought · ful · ness

Look at the letters individually. Sometimes all you need is a new way to look at the word. If the letters aren’t making sense in a horizontal line, try writing them out vertically and learning the order of the letters that way. Using word-search puzzles is another way to learn to recognize words and their spellings.

T
H
O
U
G
H
T
F
U
L
N
E
S
S

Practice patterns. There are several patterns you can remember in this word, such as ought, ght, and ness. Reinforce the spelling patterns by finding other words to review and write out that use the same letters.

sought, fought, doughty
night, fright, delightful
happiness, businesslike

How To Use Anagrams To Improve Spelling

August 19, 2013

There are several approaches to learning spelling, and if you’re having problems with one method, try another. Whether you’re an adult working on spelling improvement for yourself, or helping a child learn to spell, remember that there are many ways to learn. If you can combine games with the lesson, younger children will be more likely to pay attention and spend more time concentrating on their studies. That’s why spelling games and spelling bees are such effective tools for helping children learn. The same goes for adults, too – there’s no reason that you can’t have fun studying, as long as you continue to learn.

Anagrams are often used in games and puzzles, where the goal is to unscramble the letters to make a word. Games like Boggle and Scrabble are based on anagrams, and in fact there’s an actual game called “Anagrams” that has been played since the early 19th century. There are many different variations of the game, including the game “Bananagrams,” but you can play with any set of letter tiles, like those from a Scrabble game. For an explanation of how to play one version of the game, watch this YouTube video. Anagrams help in learning letter patterns, and since points in these games are only scored by correctly-spelled words, they’re a good way to focus on and remember the spellings.

Children often find it easier to learn words in groups, and you can use anagrams to teach a set of words. Use the same letter tiles, or write individual letters on pieces of paper or index cards. Select a longer word that contains letters which can be used and rearranged to form several shorter words. Here are a few examples:

KITCHEN
(thicken, ethnic, chink, thick, cent, chin, etch, hike, hint, itch, kit, hen, ink, the, ten)

FLOWERS
(slower, flows, loser, lower, roles, worse, flew, owls, role, slow, wolf, few, row, sew)

BLANKET
(ankle, blank, table, bake, bank, lake, lean, neat, talk, ant, bat, eat, tab, net, tan)

You can make a game out of finding the most words in all, or finding the most words in a set time period. Using the individual letters in this way helps to learn how words are formed, and is a quick way to teach or learn multiple words and their spellings at the same time.

Dave Regan’s Word Games Help Spellers At www.ArmoredPenguin.com

August 15, 2013

One of the best ways to learn is through playing games, and that’s particularly true when you’re learning new words. Whether you need help with matching definitions to words, or with learning how to recognize letter patterns to improve your spelling skills, games like crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, and scrambled word solvers will help you train your eyes and your brain to recognize and remember words and the way they’re spelled. At Dave Regan’s website, you can create your own puzzles to focus on words you’re currently learning or practicing.

US: When did you first get interested in word games?

DR: Mostly, I’ve used word games as a way to explore different things about programming, which I’ve been doing for 30 years. I wrote the program to build wordsearch puzzles as a weekend project a long time ago. As I had to learn what the web could do, I moved that program into the web and let other people use it. As other people have used the web site, I’ve added additional puzzles and improved the older puzzles.

US: Have you used word games like crossword puzzles to improve your own vocabulary or spelling skills?

DR: Not on purpose, but it happens by accident. When a person creates a puzzle on my website, they have the option of listing the puzzle for the public. How many puzzles of the list of presidents do you need? As people created puzzles and listed them for the public, I saved the best of the puzzles in a permanent archive. But that does require that I look to see that most of the words are spelled correctly. In addition, if the puzzle is in a language other than English, I have to look at the words to try and decide if the puzzle is appropriate for the category or not. I’ve learned quite a lot.

These puzzles are available for others to look at as well. The quality is not uniform as there are many different authors, with different skill levels. But it still makes for an interesting collection if you’re not in the mood to create an original puzzle right now.

US: The free word search puzzle generator you provide is a great way for students to have fun with lists of words they need to learn for an upcoming spelling test. What other ways have people used the games on your site for studying and school work?

DR: I have a number of different audiences, but clearly teachers and students are the core of audience.

1) The wordsearch, word match, and word scramble puzzles are great to help people recognize a set of words. This is used for spelling lists, and vocabulary words. This is commonly used for K-6 or so.

2) The crossword puzzle helps people match up a word with a definition or concept, and tends to get used by older students. I’ve seen crossword puzzles for middle school up through graduate classes as well as specialized groups (such as fire fighter review).

3) I’ve had many special requests.
a) Some teachers working with very young kids, or kids with developmental problems have trouble with wordsearch puzzles where the words go backwards. So there are options to control how simple the puzzles can be.
b) I had a person from Europe ask me to add a sign language font for helping teach sign language. Did you know that there are many different sign languages? It caught me by surprise, and taught me something new.
c) I had a person who wanted to use the wordsearch puzzle to do simple equations for doing tutoring in a prison system. It sounded sort of niche, but was able to do that for him.

4) I’ve set up a “quiz mode” with the crossword puzzles where students can work a crossword puzzle (without an answer key), and when they get done, the results are mailed to the instructor.

5) I have a web page to make simple arithmetic work sheets. This one came about because my son wanted to do additional math problems.

6) I’ve had adults chide me because I rearranged the web page, and they couldn’t find the new puzzles that people had listed for the public. They would print off a puzzle or two while they ate their morning breakfast.

7) I’ve had adults build simple puzzles, in a very large font, for their parents who are in assisted living situations. Playing with words never has to stop.

None of these applications are earth shattering, but people enjoy a simple challenge. If they accidentally learn something and have fun at the same time, then everyone wins.

US: Another useful and fun puzzle tool on your site is the Word Match puzzle, where users can type in lists of vocabulary words they’re learning along with their definitions, so that they can practice matching the word to the correct meaning. Rather than typing in words and definitions one at a time, can users upload files with the words and definitions to save time?

DR: All of the puzzles have a way where you can create a simple text file with words, and upload those into the program. Look for the “Text file name” entry to pull this file into web site.

In addition, if you have cookies enabled, you can use the computer you created the puzzle with, and go to “My Puzzles” on the left, and edit any of the puzzles you’ve made in the recent past. Further, if you save the web page containing your puzzle, you can feed that HTML file back into the program (using that same “text file name”) and it saves all of your words as well as all of the other settings for the puzzle.

US: What other games and puzzles do you plan on adding to the site?

DR: The most recent puzzle I’ve created is to create “Secret Codes” or ciphers. This really doesn’t fit in well with education, but is a way to make a simple to challenging puzzle.

If you take this seriously, you can teach yourself a lot about letter frequency, and (very) basic code breaking.

Right now I don’t have any particular word puzzles that I’m looking at. I do pay attention to my user’s suggestions, and occasionally look at the puzzle books at the store. But it’s clear that the things that best fit my model are puzzles where teachers and students are working on some list of vocabulary, concepts, etc. So I am open to suggestions.

Summary:

I started this web site as a hobby to explore programming and the web. I seem to have hit a chord with an audience, as the web site is used to make millions of puzzles each year, and that’s great. It’s given me an opportunity to exchange email with people from around the world. Often the message is a simple “thank you”, but sometimes it is a question that makes me try to see how to make the programs fit an interesting situation.

Having a hobby that allows me to help people is quite wonderful.

5 Quick Spelling Tips

August 14, 2013

When you’re in a hurry, you might not think you have time to check what you’ve written for spelling mistakes. That’s a mistake. A spelling error in an e-mail at work can lead to miscommunication that slows down a project at the office. An error in a letter or application could prevent you from being called in for an interview. Mistakes in spelling on an exam or essay could cost you crucial points that make the difference between getting an average grade and getting an excellent one that will help you apply for scholarships and qualify for admission to study for an advanced degree. No matter what you think, there’s always time to check your spelling – or to learn to avoid spelling mistakes in the future. Here’s how:

Use a dictionary to look up words before you use them in a sentence. If you’re on the computer, keep a window open to an online dictionary, and you’ll find that looking up the word is quick and easy.

Turn your spell-check function on so that it highlights words that are misspelled as you type, and you’ll be able to make your corrections as you go, and then …

… turn your spell-check function off so that you can easily read through the text to do your own proofreading to eliminate mistakes like confusing who’s and whose. Since a spell-checker will often highlight things like correctly-spelled proper names, it may distract you from finding any errors still in the text.

Make a note of errors that seem to constantly crop up in your writing (like the who’s/whose error mentioned above). Practice those spellings so that you don’t make those mistakes in the future.

Ask someone else to proofread important documents. If you’ve spent hours writing a paper or working on getting your cover letter just right, then you’ll benefit from having someone else look at the document for you. They’ll be able to check the text from a new perspective, since they won’t know exactly what’s in the document.

Resources For Parents To Help Build Children’s Spelling Skills

August 7, 2013

Children who know how to spell will find it easier and more fun to read books, because they won’t be slowed down by words they don’t recognize and can’t figure out. They’ll also be better writers, because they’ll know more words, and will be able to use exactly the right word to express themselves. These skills will help them achieve higher scores in school, and eliminate the frustration that students feel when they’re falling behind and can’t seem to keep up with the rest of the class. Success in school translates to success in the workforce, and educated adults become the parents of educated children in the next generation. For all of these reasons, it’s important for parents today to help their children improve their spelling. Here are some ways you can help the children in your life learn to spell:

1. Encourage them to learn new vocabulary, including how to spell and use each word.
2. Read to children and with them, helping them with unfamiliar words.
3. Give them opportunities to practice writing, both by hand and on the computer.
4. Teach them how to use a dictionary (paper or on line).
5. Play word games like Scrabble together, and look for spelling-related apps for their smartphones.

If you run out of ideas, there are many books available that are designed to make spelling study fun. Even if a book is written for a classroom setting, parents can use the same games and exercises at home to help with homework, or to keep up a child’s spelling skills over summer breaks. Here are some books to look for:

Age 4-7
20 Super Spelling Centers: Fun, Ready-to-Go Activities That Help Kids Master the Words on Their Spelling Lists ( Erica Bohrer)

Age 8-10
25 Super-Fun Spelling Games (Nancy Jolson Leber)

Age 10-14
Spell Well!: 50 Quick, Fun-Filled Ways to Help Kids of All Learning Styles Master Their Spelling Words (Dee Benscoter and Geri Harris)

Age 15-18
Month-by-Month Phonics for Upper Grades: A Second Chance for Struggling Readers and Students Learning English (Dorothy P. Hall and Gene Shanks)