There are tons of educational games that allow students, varying in age, to interact with lessons and material presented to them. I recently created an interactive lesson on spelling simple words using phonics. After completing this lesson, I decided to search for educational apps that help students practice spelling words phonetically. Some of the apps that I discovered were more effective than others.
One of the apps that I found was
Endless Wordplay. This apps was one of my favorites out of all the apps that I tried. This app is very easy to navigate and very interactive and engaging. I like this app because it says the word first, then it jumbles up the letters and gives the student a chance to spell the word. The student must drag the letters and put them in the correct order to spell simple words. One thing that I really like about this app is that when the student drags the letter it says the sound of the letter until the student places it in one of the boxes. Then once the letter is put in the correct box it says the letter. I also like how after the child places the second letter of the word in the correct place, it says those two sounds together, and then after all the letters are placed in the correct spaces, it says each letter and then says the word. After the student spells three words, it shows a short clip with a sentence under it that describes what happened in the clip using the three words that they just learned how to spell. I think that this app would be very effective in allowing students to interact and practice spelling simple words using phonics.
Another one of my favorite apps that I found was
ABC Spelling- Spell and Phonics app. I really liked this app because it has three different ways the student can practice spelling simple words. They can choose to either practice with spelling, fill in the blank, or blank spelling. The spelling option lets the students drag each letter to match it to the correct letter in the box. This option could be used for students who are just starting to spell simple words. After they master this concept of matching the letter, they can move on to the fill in the blank option, which allows the student to listen for the missing sound and choose the letter that makes that sound. Once this skill has been mastered then the student can move onto the blank spelling option. This option allows the student to really use their ears to listen for each sound of the word and drag the correct letter to the right box. I really like this app because it gives the student a picture of the word that they are spelling. Just like the Wordplay app, when the student drags the letters, it says the sounds of the letters. After the student spells the word correctly, it repeats the sounds of the letters, blends them, and then says the word. After the student has spelled a certain amount of words, it allows the child to choose a sticker as a reward. Another thing that I noticed about this app is that if the student takes a while to drag the letters to attempt to spell the word, it encourages the students by saying things such as "I believe in you," and "You can do it." I think that this could really help and motivate the student to participate and practice this skill. I think that this app is very useful and successful in helping students learn how to spell using phonics.
I also found the
PhonicsTown2: CVC app. This app is very engaging, useful, and a successful way for students to learn and practice spelling simple words. This app allows the student to listen to the sounds of each letter in the word, drag each letter to the correct place, drag the missing letter to the right place, choose the correct spelling of the word by looking at a picture, and choose the correct picture for that word. I really like how this app sounds out each letter of the word using phonic skills and then blends the sounds and says the word. I also like how it mixes up the way that the child practices spelling each word. I think that this app is very effective for students learning how to spell. This would not be the first app that I would have chosen for my students to use, but I think that it would be very effective way for students to practice and engage in material that they learned.
Lastly, I found the
WordGames for Kids app. This app is not my favorite, but it could be just as effective as the other apps that I have mentioned. One thing that I like about this app is the different categories that the student can pick from. The student can choose to practice spelling three-letter words, four-letter words, and words that have different vowel letters in them. Once the child chooses what kinds of words they want to practice spelling, they can then choose what kind of activity they want to participate in to help them practice. Some of the options that they have are word builder, match up, word search, unscramble, missing item, crossword, memory cards, bingo, and reader. I like that this app has so many options as to how the students can interact with the material, but one of the faults in this app is that it does not say the right word or letters that appear on the screen. For example, there was a picture of a cat and it had the letters to spell the word cat, but it said the word "sit." If the sounds and words to this app matched the pictures and letters, then this would be a very effective and practical app to use.
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