SpellDoctor™ promotes a variety of critical
skills and outcomes, related not only to spelling but
to literacy, verbal abilities, reading, and comprehension.
- Customized Spelling Lessons. With SpellDoctor, the days of one-size-fits-all spelling studies are over. Our lessons feature a mix of curriculum words and spell-checked words captured from the student’s own document work. In addition, SpellDoctor attaches an incidence number to each word. “Repeat offenders” are quickly identified and trigger additional corrective work.
- Strategic Intervention. SpellDoctor teacherscan quickly construct tailored word tutorials using roots, root meanings, spelling rules, and self-composed strategies to address the specific error patterns of each student.
- Practice Writing Clear and Meaningful Sentences. SpellDoctoroffers teachers a powerful tool for teaching sentence writing. Each word studied in SpellDoctorlessons must be used in a sentence. “Repeat offenders” require multiple sentences. This work is passed in to the teacher over the web. Teachers can quickly assess sentence quality and return inadequate work to the student as necessary. Accepted sentences are used in the Practice Dictation section of the lessons. Students hear their own sentences read back to them as they consider the correct spelling of a word.
- Vocabulary Building. In addition to focusing students on their individual spell-checked words, teachers can load and assign vocabulary words. These words can address grade level spelling, test preparation, special education, ESL, and the like. Words can be loaded in bulk or one-at-a-time. Custom lists are easily created for students with special needs. All word loading and assigning is done via web browser.
- Efficient Conduit for Inclusion of Cross-Curriculum Words in Spelling Studies. From Science to Music to Math, students learn new vocabulary in every subject. Why not include these words in spelling studies? SpellDoctor offers a streamlined utility for adding extra words to spelling lessons.
- Incentive for Proofreading. Rather than spell-check “on the fly,” SpellDoctor students run their spell checker after they have thoroughly proofread a document. This approach raises the level of thoroughness the students bring not only to their spelling, but also to their whole writing project. Teachers can easily spot careless proofreading in their Lesson Set-Up screen.
- Confidence With a Dictionary. Kids today dislike using dictionaries, phonebooks, encyclopedias, and many other types of reference books. Ask a kid to “look something up,” and he/she immediately runs to a computer. At SpellDoctor, we love search engines too, but we also believe that reference book skills are essential to a balanced education. SpellDoctor students are encouraged to look up each of their words in a dictionary to verify spelling and meaning. We have found that efficient dictionary skills translate into higher confidence with words in general.
- Personal Computerized Spelling Journal. Spelling journals are widely regarded as the essential tool for spelling instruction. However, the effort to maintain a hand- written spelling journal can be prohibitive, both for the student and the teacher. SpellDoctor automatically creates an individualized spelling journal for each student. Teachers and parents can analyze this document to pinpoint error patterns. Words that are “repeat offenders,” often the majority of spelling errors, are highlighted.
- Dictation Skills. Our text-to-speech dictation feature allows students to practice the process of spelling with spoken words. Repeated rounds of word dictation coupled with phonology-based spelling strategies encourage students to think about the phonological structure of words and discourage students from simply memorizing the correct spelling of the word.
- Re-Establishment of Teacher Spelling Oversight. In the pre-computer age, teachers noted spelling errors on writing assignments all through high school and college. This oversight extended growth in spelling skills long after the end of curriculum-based spelling instruction. Many students today start doing their homework on the computer in the 5th or 6th grade. Spell checkers help create documents that do not accurately reflect the spelling skills of these students. Oversight is lost. SpellDoctor re-establishes the traditional connection between student and teacher. Moreover, the SpellDoctor tutorial process gives teachers more precision and leverage to direct improvement that is far beyond what they could ever accomplish with a red pen.
- Ability for One Teacher to Manage Dozens of Custom Lessons. SpellDoctorteachers use their web-based Status Window to monitor all the lesson activity of their students. Teachers can quickly click between rosters and perform tasks as needed. All teacher tasks are highly streamlined. Using the leverage of the PC, and the convenience of the web, SpellDoctorallows teachers the opportunity to deliver true, individualized learning to every student.
