Teachers and Parents asked and Smarty Ears Apps responded and, once again, Smarty Ears Apps has surpassed expectations!
Smarty Ears Apps is proud to bring you Smarty Spell!
Certified educational professionals designed the Smarty Spell app specifically to help students practice and perfect their spelling skills.
Smarty Spell
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Teachers and Parents asked and Smarty Ears Apps responded and, once again, Smarty Ears Apps has surpassed expectations!
Smarty Ears Apps is proud to bring you Smarty Spell!
Certified educational professionals designed the Smarty Spell app specifically to help students practice and perfect their spelling skills.
Smarty Spell words are separated by grade (k-6) or themes (animals, numbers, colors, etc.). However, if those options do not fit what you want, Smarty Spell also offers customized word lists! This easy to use app is incredibly powerful, versatile, and provides loaded data for nearly every need!
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Work individually or in a group!
The app was designed with both parents and educators in mind. Up to five individuals can play at a time with individual data taken for each student. Parents will love being able to practice spelling words at home. Teachers will love having the spelling practice available for their students. Both groups will adore having the customized word lists available to fit individual needs!
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single player screen
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multi-player screen
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Smarty Spell is perfect for Response to Intervention and IEPs
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Smarty Spell is a great companion for Response to Intervention. The data compilation for individual students kept over time, makes Smarty Spell an obvious choice. The ability to customize spelling lists to individualize to any student’s needs is priceless!
To aid in the intervention plan, Smarty Spell includes an easy to read data graph for an at-a-glance visual showing the dates of sessions and the percent accuracy.
For more information, tap on the “by lists” at the top of the graph for a breakdown of words studied.
The “by lists” tab provides a visual graphic of the lists that have been practiced and the success with each list.
A tap on a color-coded list provides a listing of the last four spelling attempts for the words in that list.
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The visual allows the professional to see at a glance how many times it took for the student to spell the word correctly and how many times they have practiced each word. This allows the professional to recognize when students are practicing their words appropriately (dyslexiahelp.com).
To add a player, simply tap “select player” from the main screen, and on the “ADD Player” button from the next screen.
A pop-up window will display and ask for the player’s name to be entered as well as a photo for an avatar to be selected.
Individuals can choose from the stock avatars included in the app, or use the student’s own photo. Tap on “done” when the entry is complete.
Players can also be imported from the free Smarty Ears Apps Therapy Report Center.
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Editing and Deleting Players
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Occasionally an individual may need to edit or delete players. Simply select the appropriate player with a quick double tap. The pop-up window displaying the players name and avatar will populate the screen. At that time, the individual can change either the picture or the name, or delete the player completely.
When playing Smarty Spell, the active player is shown at the top of the screen and his or her name is in the primary player area.
Players waiting to take their turn are listed on the left side of the page. With each turn, a new picture and letter tiles are displayed and an audio clip presents the stimulus word. The student drags appropriate letter tiles to the open spaces.
When the activity is complete, a tap on the “checkmark” button brings the individual to the reports center.
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Visual and Auditory Reinforcement
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After a word is spelled correctly on the first attempt, a star is displayed at the top of the screen. The stars show the number of correct answers for each player.
In addition, after each word is spelled correctly, the words “Awesome Job” are written across the screen.
If the word is not spelled correctly, and “visual hints” are turned on in settings, Smarty Spell will automatically put the first letter in place. If the word is misspelled a subsequent turn, visual hints will continue to add the following letter until the word is spelled correctly. This allows the student to learn without becoming overly frustrated.
Smarty Spell has a settings button on the “home” page as well as on every screen during play.
This button allows the individual to select several customizable features within the app:
– Read Words aloud
– Automatically Transition to the next word
– Change Font Size
– Audio Spell Letters as they are used
– Visual Hints for when words are spelled incorrectly
– Capitalization
– Spelling Order: must the child spell left to right or any order
– Change the number of extra letters available
And last, but not least:
– Customize word lists
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Customizing Word Lists
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From the settings menu, tap on Customize Word List. A pop-up window will display. From here, the professional can deselect words in each list or add custom lists.
To add a custom list, tap on “Add custom list” in the upper right corner.
The professional will be prompted to name the word list.
To create a spelling word within the list, simply tap on “Enter New Word.” You will be prompted to assign a picture to each word entered.
Once the words are entered, simply tap “save” and the word list is saved. The new customized word list will display at the bottom of the word list screen.
Customized word lists are a great way to work on those “weekly” spelling tests that many teachers utilize. Research indicates children learn best when spelling words are connected to other things they are learning (Watson, n.d.). Customized lists are perfect for creating vocabulary inclusive spelling lists from other classes such as science, social studies, and health to help with cross curriculum instruction. Many individuals may want to take advantage of them to create individualized lists with family members or family specific words.
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Spelling to Mastery
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Smarty Spell has a wonderful feature that is designed to help students learn words to mastery. Research shows, and best practice implements, that lessons should be cumulative, meaning old words practiced often and new words introduced only when the student has demonstrated the skills of the old lessons (dyslexiahelp.com).
All of the word lists in Smarty Spell are grouped. New word groups will not be practiced until mastery has been met. When the words in a group are spelled correctly, the student is given a choice of moving to the next group or practicing those words again.
Data compilation is a critical element for the busy teacher or parent. Smarty Spell automatically compiles the data tracked for each practice time into a “report card” for each student.
The report card is available to be emailed or exported to the free Therapy Report Center.
Each report card lists the overall accuracy percentage correct, last session percentage correct, and a graph of each session.
A tap on the “by lists” tab will bring up a visual display of word lists practiced and individual word lists.
“Combining customizable lists with incredible data compilation makes this every Title I, SPED, and RTI implementer’s dream. Using this app with individualized instruction in spelling is a win-win combination.”
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