Interactive Spelling Bee by Annenberg Learner

Free!

Interactive Spelling Bee by Annenberg Learner provides users with practice spelling activities. To begin, users must load the website and then click their desired grade level at the bottom of the screen. Next, the website will ask for users to input their name, and then it will load the practice exercises.

At this point, text along with blank spaces appear and users can click in the blank spaces to type the word. If users cannot deduce the word by the context, they can click the red “?” next to the blank, and the website provides users with the word’s enunciation and part of speech. Users are then to click in the blank space and type the word. After users have typed all the words required by the exercise, they can click the “Check Score” button, which will show users the words they spelled correctly and incorrectly. At this point, users can choose to advance to the next level or redo the level they just completed.

Instructional Ideas for Interactive Spelling Bee

1. Teachers can use this resource as a diagnostic assessment to evaluate students’ spelling skills. When students complete a level, they can take a screenshot of their score and email it to their teacher. Teachers can use this data to inform their selection of spelling words for students.
2. As practice before a test, teachers can have students complete spelling exercises using this website. Teachers can have students repeat a level until they score 80%, 90% or 100% of the words correctly.
3. Once students are familiar with this website’s format, teachers can have them select passages from a text they are reading and copy and paste or type them into a document. Students can then create blanks for spelling words. For each spelling word, students will have to look up its definition and part of speech and write a note. Once there are 5-10 blank spaces in the passage that each represent a spelling word, students can get in pairs and quiz each other using these passages. When finished, students can email their teacher the passage along with the notes, and teachers can save them. Over time, teachers will build a library of these passages that students can use to develop their spelling skills.

Screenshots of Interactive Spelling Bee