Spellzone

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CertifiedEducation quality
03/2025
Spellzone

Spellzone

Spellzone Limited
Reading and writing
Spellzone is an online resource for practicing English spelling.

Spellzone is an online resource that unlocks the mystery of English spelling. It has three main components: The Spelling Ability Test, a complete spelling course and 1000's of word lists. It is used by students aged six to adult in schools, colleges, workplace and homes

The Spelling Ability Test provides students with baseline scores and individual learning pathways. Automatic retesting keeps them on track with little intervention. The phonics-based spelling course covers all of the English spelling rules. Teaching includes definitions, sentence context and learning tips.
Spellzone also provides learning analytics for teachers to keep track on their students' progress. Teachers can create their own subject-specific word lists or use the ready lists on Spellzone. These can be set as classroom or homework tasks for individual learners or whole classes.

Age groups 
All education levels
Professional education
Tertiary Education
High School
Middle school
Elementary
Languages 
English
English US
English UK
Platform 
Browser-based
Desktop Windows
Desktop Mac
Mobile Android
Mobile iOS
Registration 
Required
Offline play 
Internet required
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
Spellzone offers a responsive and adaptive learning experience: the initial test analyses the learner’s performance and builds a tailored learning path accordingly. Learners benefit from a wide range of pre-curated materials, including numerous tasks and searchable word lists, while teachers have access to a large library of ready-made resources. Progress is driven by the learner’s performance in tasks and tests, ensuring that advancement is based on real learning. Recent updates have improved the way feedback is delivered. In addition to the existing performance-based progression system, the platform now provides visual badges and enhanced feedback to recognise achievement. This added layer of encouragement helps to positively reinforce progress and motivates learners in a more engaging, visual way—moving beyond simple scores and percentages.
Rehearse
Construct
Success and progress in Spellzone is based on the ability to adapt knowledge that the solution delivers: The tasks are provided and the learning path is personalized according to the student's results at several points during the course pathway. The spelling ability test at the beginning of the course defines the contents of the course pathway. Progress is based on replicating instructions. For a solution teaching spelling, this is a strength - Spellzone provides examples and demonstrations, and the students practice until they know them by heart. The learner can choose some learning tools or methods based on one's own interests, and the teacher can also set tasks. With the recent addition of a self-evaluation feature, Spellzone now supports more reflective learning. Learners are prompted to rate their confidence levels at the end of each main unit, helping them to assess their own understanding and identify areas for improvement. This update supports key elements of independent lear
Linear
Non-linear/Creative
Learning progress is individual and the solution can create custom learning paths for all users. The content is adapted based on the Spelling ability test. Learning outcomes have a fixed effect on progress - the users will get on when they have successfully passed the previous sections.
Individual
Collaborative
The solution continues to empower learners by allowing them to make individual decisions and progress at their own pace. In addition to personalised tasks set by the teacher, the recent introduction of multiplayer games adds a valuable collaborative and competitive element. These new features encourage engagement through playful interaction, offering opportunities for learners to practice together and stay motivated. This is a positive step toward making the experience more social and dynamic.

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

Spellzone provides a great amount of online exercises, games and activities for the learner, and many printable worksheets for classroom use.
Spellzone is an easy tool for learning spelling and vocabulary. There's plenty of examples and chances for practicing.
The Spelling Ability test makes the solution adapt to the skill level of the user.

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

Use a thesaurus.
Use dictionaries to check the spelling and meaning of words.
Use knowledge of morphology and etymology in spelling and understand that the spelling of some words needs to be learnt specifically, as listed in English Appendix 1.
Continue to distinguish between homophones and other words which are often confused.
Spell some words with ‘silent’ letters [for example, knight, psalm, solemn].
Spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1).
Spell further homophones.
Use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them (English Appendix 1).
Apply spelling rules and guidance, as listed in English Appendix 1.
Add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly.
Distinguishing between homophones and near-homophones.
Learning to spell more words with contracted forms.
Learning to spell common exception words.
Learning new ways of spelling phonemes for which one or more spellings are already known, and learn some words with each spelling, including a few common homophones.
Spelling segmenting spoken words into phonemes and representing these by graphemes, spelling many correctly.
Using letter names to distinguish between alternative spellings of the same sound.
Using the spelling rule for adding –s or –es as the plural marker for nouns and the third person singular marker for verbs.
Using the prefix un–.
Apply simple spelling rules and guidance.
Using –ing, –ed, –er and –est where no change is needed in the spelling of root words [for example, helping, helped, helper, eating, quicker, quickest].
Spelling common exception words.
Spelling words containing each of the 40+ phonemes already taught.
Apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (morphology and etymology), as listed in English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that they meet.
Apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet.
Read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word.
Read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.
Read words containing common suffixes.
Read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the same graphemes as above.
Read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognising alternative sounds for graphemes.
Continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent.
Read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs.
Read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings.
Read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.
Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words.
Using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read.
Read words with contractions [for example, I’m, I’ll, we’ll], and understand that the apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s).
Respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes.
Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds.
Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

Soft skills learning goals

Learning to notice causal connections
Practising visual recognition
Practicing to observe spoken and written language
Practicing categorization and classification
Practicing memorizing skills
Practicing letters, alphabets and written language
Learning to find the joy of learning and new challenges
Practicing to take responsibility of one's own learning
Practicing persistent working
Learning the basics of spelling
Practicing keyboard skills and touch typing
Using technology as a part of explorative process
Enabling the growth of positive self-image
Practicing to use foreign language as a communication tool
Supporting student to build their own linguistic and cultural identity
Learning about different languages
Practicing to set one's own learning goals

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