VocabularySpellingCity

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CertifiedEducation quality
01/2018
VocabularySpellingCity

VocabularySpellingCity

Vocabulary Spelling City
Vocabulary, Phonics & Spelling
A browser-based service to practice English vocabulary, phonics and spelling.

VocabularySpellingCity is a platform for practicing English vocabulary, phonics and spelling. It provides a large variety of gamified learning activities and tools for teachers to keep track of students’ progression. Teachers can create a list of words or use lists shared by other teachers.

Age groups 
Preschool
Elementary
Price 
Subscription
Languages 
English
Platform 
Browser-based
Registration 
Not required
Offline play 
Playable offline
Pictures
Videos
Pedagogy
Educational Quality
Learning Goals

The pedagogical analysis covers how the product supports learning of the identified skills. The student’s role is assessed by four contrary pair parameters, which are selected to cover the most essential aspects on the use of the product.

Passive
Active
The solution provides a wide variety of mini games which promote activating emotions such as enjoyment of learning, hope for success and pride of achievement.
Rehearse
Construct
All activities support the development of vocabulary, phonics and spelling. The learning goals are set by CCSS, Australian, New Zealand and UK curriculums.
Linear
Non-linear/Creative
Students can choose freely which mini games to play and what to learn. However, teachers and parents are provided with a way of giving learning assignments and tracking the student's progress.
Individual
Collaborative
Users are given individual learning goals. The solution supports private usage.

The following are the high educational quality aspects in this product.

SpellingCity is a comprehensive platform for practicing spelling and vocabulary, covering the majority of vocabulary, phonics and spelling goals of CCSS, Australian, New Zealand and UK curriculums.
SpellingCity has multiple varied game tasks which require active engagement and provide instant feedback.
Teachers and parents are given a lot of autonomy and freedom to tailor the learning content to meet the learners’ needs and competency level.
Teachers and parents are provided with comprehensive tools for keeping track of the students’ progression.
The gamified approach promotes activating emotions such as enjoyment of learning, hope for success and pride of achievement.

The supported learning goals are identified by matching the product with several relevant curricula descriptions on this subject area. The soft skills are definitions of learning goals most relevant for the 21st century. They are formed by taking a reference from different definitions of 21st century skills and Finnish curriculum.

Subject based learning goals

Capitalize dates and names of people.
Print all upper- and lowercase letter
Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
Identify real-life connections between words and their use.
Identify frequently occurring root words and their inflectional forms.
Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner and adjectives differing in intensity.
Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases.
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Define words by category and by one or more key attributes.
Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.
Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
Use words and phrases acquired to signal simple relationships.
Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future.
Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences.
Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns.
Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
Use frequently occurring prepositions.
Use frequently occurring conjunctions.
Use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word.
Use frequently occurring adjectives.
Use end punctuation for sentences.
Use determiners.
Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words.
Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.
Use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.
Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.
Sort words into categories to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.
Read words with inflectional endings.
Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences.

Soft skills learning goals

Learning to understand and interpret diverse types of texts, from vernacular to academic
Learning the basics of spelling
Learning to notice causal connections
Practising visual recognition
Practicing categorization and classification
Practicing to observe spoken and written language
Practicing letters, alphabets and written language
Learning to find the joy of learning and new challenges
Practicing to evaluate one's own learning
Practicing to set one's own learning goals
Practicing to notice links between subjects learned

The Finnish Educational Quality Certificate

Our Quality Evaluation Method is an academically sound approach to evaluating a product’s pedagogical design from the viewpoint of educational psychology.

The method has been developed with university researchers and all evaluators are carefully selected Finnish teachers with a master's degree in education.

More about the evaluation