TOS Review - IEW Phonetic Zoo Spelling

Admit it, when you hear a catchy jingle from a commercial, there's no telling when that rhythm will pop into your head without warning. This is part of the idea behind IEW's Phonetic Zoo Spelling, and I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Phonetic Zoo Spelling Level C (Starter Set) from Institute for Excellence in Writing.

What is the Phonetic Zoo Spelling?

The Phonetic Zoo Spelling system is based on the half-century studies of Mrs. Anna Ingham called the Blended-Sight-Sound Program. She discovered that combining sound and vision were very effective in learning. With this in mind, IEW developed a spelling program that uses sight and sound along with the overall functioning of the brain for learning spelling words, of knowing that the information needs to first go in and then be stored before it can be fed back to spell. It uses mnemonics in a sequential fashion and gives enough, but not too much, information at one time.

The program begins with the parent/instructor watching the 1 hour 10-minute video about how the brain works when it comes to learning spelling words. The link to the video is provided within the teacher manual that comes as a pdf download with the CDs.

The 6-CD pack contains the lessons. Each lesson takes about 10 minutes to complete.

• The lessons begin with showing the student the large phonics card. Read the rule out loud and then have the student spell each word, and discuss how the animals relate to each rule.
• Next, you set up your student with headphones, a pen, and paper and have them listen to the lesson.
• The student takes the test and then self-corrects by listening to the correct spellings on the CD. The student re-takes each test until he or she reaches 100% and then moves on to the next lesson.
• Every 5th lesson has the student fill out a personal spelling words card.
• There is a Final Exam at the end of each level.

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I received a physical starter set. It contained:

6 discs that covered 47 lessons, the Final Exam in two parts, and grading information.

Phonetic Zoo Lesson Cards, and Spelling Zoo Cards.

How Did We Use It?

I was so excited to get to present this to my daughter. She is in 8th grade and a very avid reader. Her spelling has come a long way since she had hearing issues in Kindergarten and, unbeknownst to us, was not hearing the sounds of words so could not spell them phonetically.

I first downloaded the files online that came with a pdf teacher notes file, and then I handed my daughter the physical set of CDs for her to play on her laptop, along with the cards. I noticed that one of the first things included in the teacher notes was a video to watch about how the brain works when it comes to spelling. The video is just a little more than one hour and really gives a great background to how the Phonetic Zoo Spelling program works. I also downloaded the audio mp3 files from the IEW site so I could play them on my laptop which is a new PC that does not have a disc drive.

What Did We Think?

I think the idea behind this program is pure genius. It's based on solid research, and I think it works. I still remember little jingles of tidbits of information put to rhythm or a catchy tune from when I was younger, and with use of this product, I'm sure these memory jingles for each new spelling rule will pop into these students' heads every time they attempt to spell a word. I think it's a great method that makes learning to spell memorable and stick. When all is said and done, I wish I would have chosen my 4th grader for the review, as I think she would benefit from the program best as it seems to be more at her level than my 8th grader's level. With all of the visual effects bombarding our media, it took me awhile to get used to the CD as being audio and not another visual overload of images. Though, I appreciate why it was done this way, and I love that the picture cards are able to be held, looked at and touched while learning. It covers the bases for senses learning.

Find IEW on Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Vimeo, and on the IEW blog.

Read what other members of the TOS Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:

A Little Chocolate Makes Everything Better - Even Spelling - Scrabble The Chocolate Edition for Education

Spelling - There are those who get it, and for the rest of us - There's CHOCOLATE!

I think we either get it or we don't. At least that is how it's been with my children.

I have three children - One of them is a natural at spelling, the second one struggled with spelling, and we are still waiting to see with the third, but so far she is showing signs of also being a natural like her older brother.

I have never had to run down boring lists of spelling words with my oldest or youngest (so far), because they just seem to know how to spell like it's as natural as walking, sleeping, or eating. My middle child has had to work a bit harder to get it right. She does a good job of it now, but I have discovered a tool that helps.

CHOCOLATE!



The other day I was shopping, and I ran across Scrabble The Chocolate Edition. I had to have it. So, I bought it. In fact, I bought two. One of them is for sale on eBay currently, if you find it as irresistible as I did.

BUY CHOCOLATE EDITION GAMES - SCRABBLE, MONOPOLY, OR CANDY LAND!

It plays like the regular game of Scrabble, only the winner gets the gold chocolate coin, and everybody gets to eat their game pieces.

You would think that this kind of game is a one-time-shot at play and then it's done. But, we learned that you can still save your game piece wrappers when the game is over and the chocolates have been eaten, and keep playing as long as you like.

And, just for your educational boost - Following are a few spelling lists -
Find them at GRADESPELLING.COM.

Schoolhouse Review: VocabularySpellingCity Premium Membership

I was asked to review VocabularySpellingCity Premium Membership The Premium Membership sells for $29.99 for families with up to 5 students and can be used with any aged student in elementary, middle or high school from Grades K-12.

Compare Basic to Premium:

There is a free version which offers a lot, but there is even so much more offered with the premium membership.  Check out the comparison here.

Summary:

Summed up, the program is a hands-on, fun and interactive way for students to learn while giving the teacher/parent full control of their word lists and assignments.

Learning Games:

Students learn through games like these:

 Letter Fall

 

Word-O-Rama Game

 

Flash Card

 

How Did We Use It?

I used it with my 7 year old and my 11 year old. My 7 year old is tackling third grade level reading, but is only technically in the first grade, if you go by her late September birthday and our public school district, though we are calling her our second grader. My 11 year old is in sixth grade and is an avid reader but has ironically always struggled with spelling.

My Daughter's Hearing Problems:

I think it’s largely because she had ear infections as an infant/toddler which led to her flat lining a hearing screening test when she was entering Kindergarten. We had no idea that she was not hearing until then as she was so good at accommodating for her hearing difficulty by reading lips, which we realized she was doing only after she flat lined the hearing test. After treating the fluid on her ears from the infections, she is now hearing well. But, has always had trouble with spelling words when given to her on oral tests, especially with letter blends that I think she could never really hear. Regardless, I was extremely interested in seeing whether or not VocabularySpellingCity could help her.

Long story short, I really think it is becoming a great tool to boost her spelling skills.

What Did I Think?
I found that my lists were limitless, since I could either import an existing list or create my own.  I chose to use no more than 5 words at a time on the lists I created so my students could focus and really learn each word without becoming overwhelmed.  The premium membership level also allowed my girls to learn writing sentences and paragraph skills.  I got to read what they wrote, and the results were priceless keepsakes.

The Teacher Resource tab was amazing.  I was really excited to see that I could mix subjects with the spelling and vocabulary because the site offered Arithmetic terms, Geography terms, plus a whole host of language arts lessons.  I found a list of words specific to our state as well as a whole bunch of holiday-related words for every month of the year.

What Equipment Did I Need To Use It?

It required that we all had access to a computer or a mobile electronic device. We tried it on both a laptop and our idevices, which includes my iPhone and my older daughter’s iPod Touch. My laptop runs Windows 7, and both of my daughter’s laptops run Windows XP. It was easy to use on any of the devices, though not all of the games and activities are available for use on the mobile devices. The premium membership allows the parent/teacher to be in charge of assignments for the students. You can create your own spelling lists or import lists that are already on their website. I did both.

What I Liked:

I really liked being able to create my own, but I also liked the option of finding lists that were already created. I found the Dolch word lists to be useful with my second grader, and I was able to also import lists from local schools who had made their lists available, which is always interesting to see what the schools around us is requiring of students in the same grades as my daughters.




Additionally, you are not limited to sitting in front of a computer or iPod Touch to learn. The site also allows you to print off your lists. I chose to print some flash cards and some handwriting sheets, which you can also view online if you prefer.

 


I loved how I could choose printing, D'Nealian writing or cursive for the printed sheets.  Having the ability to print out the flash cards also makes it nice to actually have a piece of paper to hold in your hand while learning.

My girls really liked learning spelling and vocabulary words with VocabularySpellingCity. They would ask every day if I had assigned them new words.

Please Read More:

Please read what other Schoolhouse Review Crew Members thought, here, or click on the picture below: