Background
I, personally, am a terrible speller. I don’t know what it was that never clicked, but my Es always come before my Is. I have had the app Spelling Bee on my tablet for several months to practice my skills on the bus and, at times, in between classes. In terms of adult use, the app has great vocabulary building power but I cannot say that it has helped my spelling. When I was considering apps for this assignment, I chose this one, so that I could collect the opinions of my professional peers as to whether or not this app is appropriate for the elementary school classroom. I have collected survey data from three participants which will be discussed below, along with features and drawbacks for the app from my own perusal.
The app is free download with advertisement support. It is available for android devices only from the google play store.
About the App
When you open Spelling Bee, a menu with four options appears. These four options are Study, Spelling Bee, Settings and Kids Videos. When you click the settings options, you are brought to a screen where you can choose a difficulty level from the options Beginner, Easy, Medium and Hard. The user can also change how many items would appear when you test your spelling prowess. The front page notifies the user of what level the application is set.
The Study option brings the user to a page that has a vocabulary word in big bold letters, a clickable sound icon, and a definition. If you click the sound icon, a female voice reads out the word. This allows users to learn how to pronounce and define a new word. If you drag the screen to the left, then a new word appears, and so on, depending on how many items you have set to be on your test.
The Spelling Bee page has a sound icon that, when clicked, says the word that the user is supposed to spell. The page also features the definition of the word, and a field in which to type the spelling. This screen allows the student to test two different skills: by clicking the sound icon, the user can hear the word and attempt to spell it. By not clicking this icon, the user can read the definition and attempt to recall what the word was based solely on this information. It is important to note that the same words in a round on the Study page will appear on the Spelling Bee page.
The final section is, to be frank, random. When a user clicks the option Kids Videos, they are brought to a page that seems to be an endless scroll of educational videos that are simply links from youtube. The videos are viewable in the app, but they are not about spelling. Examples of titles include “10 Facts about Velociraptor (Dinosaurs for kids) – raptor” and “Arithmetic: intro to addition (whole numbers).” There are videos about each letter for very young children, but since the app’s beginner level requires users to already be able to write, its users will already have letter knowledge. It is thus a questionable inclusion, even though it does cover several math, science and social studies outcomes.
Survey
The survey questions were chosen or designed to gauge the age appropriateness of this app as well as if it is easy to understand, and to see what kinds of uses it could have in the classroom that I had not thought of already. It must be noted that the answers to the questions were all similar and followed a comparable line of thinking. It can be concluded, then, that the level of the app and its uses are either obvious, or the way that I introduced it to my peers was reflected in the answers. Regardless of the reason, several questions have been definitively answered. The survey can be found here.
All survey participants agreed that the app was suitable for grades 4-6. The “Beginner” level is a mixture of common sight words and more difficult and less frequently seen words. so, although there are many words in that level that primary students would be able to spell, it would not be wise to have them use the app, since unpredictable frustrations do not help the drilling process.
The level “Easy” would be appropriate in terms of reading level for grade 4 and 5 and 6 students, and the levels “Medium” and “Hard” would be useful for students who excel at their grade level spelling outcomes, and are looking for a challenge, like a real spelling bee.
In terms of feedback, when the spelling is correct it is green, and if it is wrong, the correct spelling appears in red. This simple colour-based system allows students to know how they are faring each round. At the end of the round, Spelling Bee tells the user what percentage of the questions were correct, and how long it took them to complete it. The data is not saved, however a student could easily keep track of their scores, as well as new words, in their notebooks or personal dictionaries.
The next question asks whether or not the app increases student understanding. The general consensus from the survey participants was that it can increase student vocabulary with persistent use, but it does not offer users strategies to become better spellers. When teaching phonics to students, teachers generally teach multiple strategies for tackling certain letter clusters. This app simply tests what students know, rather than helping them improve rather than through practice.
The app is very straightforward in its use, but does not offer easy to read instructions. It relies on its interface for students to know how to use it. Students are usually very used to these types of software interfaces, but there is a possibility that a child would not know how to use it because of the lack of instructions. Unfortunately, the app requires sound and the home screen plays a very audible “flight of the bumble bee,” so if this were to be used in an otherwise quiet classroom, headphones would be necessary.
In terms of when this app could be used in the classroom, the Daily 5 literacy block has a station called “word work” and this would be a possible to to help students realize gaps in their spelling abilities. They would be able to record new words to practice and then come back to the app to test their new knowledge.
Criticisms and Verdict
This app has a major problem with it: sometimes when in test mode, the sound icon does not appear and the user is unable to know exactly what word they are supposed to spell. Also, there are some inappropriate words that can pop up in the lower levels, such as “beer.” I feel that this app could be used in the elementary school classroom, but I would not assign it without to each student without thinking. If I feel that a child needs drill work and would benefit from the apps structure, I would recommend they use it, or if a child has not learned how to spell new words this year because they are performing above grade level, they could use this app on the higher level, such as “Hard,” to enrich their vocabulary. On the whole, the app is a useful tool for certain areas, but if I, as a teacher, want a child to become better at spelling as a general skill, this is not the software that should be used.
Sample words from each level
Beginner | Easy | Medium | Hard |
both
heart course find quite rather word home woman |
collar
pillow infant artificial donation rice decent comprehend limit pupil |
oaken
triangular rotation continuity tacit incarnate affable blouse novice patriarch |
scintillating
colonist propitious torpor downtrodden soothsaying disseminate recrudescent conundrum flatten |