Topics & Research: Spelling Skills Today

Most elementary schools today teach spelling fundamentals as part of their language arts curriculum. These programs typically feature workbooks, supplemented by varying degrees of teacher reinforcement. Research has shown that students who master weekly spelling assignments rarely generalize and apply this knowledge to their authentic writing. Many students enter the upper grades with seriously limited spelling ability, a situation rarely addressed by middle and high schools. In this technological era, weak spellers become “spell-checker kids.” Spelling is recast as a presentation issue like page formatting and margin setting.

SpellDoctor™ Transforms the Spell Checker into a Teaching Tool

At SpellDoctor™ we recognize that spelling is an essential part of the verbal skill set. Spelling is far more than a “presentation issue.” We also believe that the role of the computer in education is to create leverage for solving problems, rather than performing tricks to work around them. Our program is designed to pick up where one-size-fits-all spelling instruction leaves off – to spotlight the gaps in a student’s understanding of words. Using SpellDoctor, a teacher can deliver instruction specifically targeted to the needs of each student with an efficiency only a computer can provide.

SpellDoctor also looks at spelling mastery as an ongoing process. Our Individualized Spelling Journals continuously track and highlight trouble words. As specific deficits are isolated, teachers can tailor future lessons to address them. SpellDoctor presents a powerful new teaching model to insure that students build solid word knowledge to apply to their own writing.