Monday, February 11, 2013

Spelling City Update

I have been exploring the web 2.0 site, SpellingCity.com, to get a better understanding of some of the features it has to offer. One area that was new to me were the teaching resources. On the teacher resource section, teachers are able to explore articles, find already created-useful word lists, and get lesson ideas for teaching different phonics and parts of speech skills. The teaching lessons were the most intriguing to me, but many of them seemed suited for intermediate aged (3rd-5th grade) elementary students. Some example topics include: analogies, verb tenses, and figurative language. There were a few categories that I discuss with my first graders, so I decided to look at compound words. Once you click on your topic, you are taken to a page with different in class activities to teach this topic and sample word lists that range from first grade all the way through twelfth grade! You are also able to watch videos, see enrichment activities and play games with already created word lists! I could see myself using this with some of my reading groups in the future. Right now, my on grade level students are working on contractions, so I'm excited to see if this aspect of the site helps them!

This screen recording shows some of the different activities I explored when checking out the teaching resources. Take a look!

2 comments:

  1. Wow, Mandy! I feel as though you've revealed a treasure trove of excellent language arts resources. I had never explored SpellingCity beyond some of the spelling games for some of my weaker spellers, and I am pleasantly surprised to see numerous resources that would support other areas of my language arts instruction, especially the language mechanics printables and games. Thanks!

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  2. One of my math students has trouble with spelling. He's been using SpellingCity for a few months now and it has worked wonders for him and his family. During conferences, his mom shared with me that he uses this program on a weekly basis and his spelling his improved greatly. He used to have trouble understanding words when his mom quizzed him, but he can hear the letter sounds when he uses SpellingCity to practice. It is easy enough for students to use independently at home. Thanks for sharing all the other things you can do with this site!

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