Spelling program user feedback
Lincoln gets ten out of ten every week
"Prior to Lincoln starting to use
Personal Best Spelling he was getting, on average, only two out of
ten words right in his weekly spelling test at school. Within one
week of using Personal Best Spelling, Lincoln got ten out of ten
in his weekly spelling test and he has continued to get ten out of
ten, each and every week."
It's like the teacher I never had
"I left school at 15 not knowing how to spell simple words
like 'any', 'there', 'their', 'dancing', 'colour', 'become', 'because',
'believe', 'open', 'once', 'days of the week or month'. Since I’ve
been working with Personal Best Spelling improvement in my spelling
has been unbelievable. At 47 years old I thought I was just thick
as two planks. Not the case. I have a learning brain and I am enjoying
it. It's like a teacher I never had."
Your program gave Marian confidence and method
"Your program gave Marian the confidence and the method of
how to learn and remember her spelling words. This in turn greatly
improved her reading ability. Marian's confidence in herself has
helped her to believe in herself."
100% on his weekly tests
"After beginning to use the Personal Best Spelling program,
my son has successfully gotten 100% results on his weekly tests.
I have recommended your product to others and hope that they find
the success that my son has."
The only tutor (including human) that has helped him
"I wanted to take a minute to let you know how much your program
has helped our son. He is 11 and in the 5th grade. He has struggled
with spelling since at least 3rd grade. Your program is the only
tutor (including human) that has helped him."
Jonathan immediately experienced success
"Many tutors working in adult literacy programmes are often
faced with learners who are showing limited progress despite everyone's
best efforts .... This was the case of Jonathan, a mature learner
in Galway, Ireland. Following a few brief Old Way/New Way® workshops
with Jonathan he was immediately experiencing success and able to
self-correct. Jonathan is now able to remember the spelling of words
months after being learned, which previously would have been forgotten
in hours."
So much less stressful for teachers
"The greatest thing about Old Way/New Way® is the
self-correction children do. It's such an amazing thing to say to
a kid, 'Can you see any Old Ways? ... Now, can you do the New Way
for me?' and then they select their Old Way and do the New Way all
by themselves without me doing a thing except ask those two questions.
Old Way/New Way® is so much less stressful for teachers.
I no longer get frustrated when some children have so many errors
to correct. The notion of a 'dumb child' disappears and instead you
know that they simply have more resistant Old Ways."
We recommend it (Department of Education)
In 1985 the Commonwealth Department of Education employed the services
of Personal Best Academy on behalf of several Aboriginal students.
In a letter of referral dated February 5, 1986, the Education Officer
reported that,
"Most of the cases were with secondary level students where
the intervention techniques with English and mathematics problems
proved most beneficial to all the students. Further to this, the
techniques proved remarkable in the case of a young adult who had
previously been struggling to hold a position in the Public Service.
This young person has now assumed increasingly more difficult and
complicated tasks and aspires to permanent employment and promotion.
I would recommend the programme highly on the results I have seen
in only one year."
Learning to spell
- This spelling program transformed many poor spellers into proficient, confident spellers
when all other methods failed.
- It is a genuine learning tool for spelling, not just another computer
game dressed up as educational software.
- It does not insult the learner's intelligence.
- The program knows how your brain learns, so it works with you, not against you.
- It is being used by adult and workplace literacy tutors, adult learners,
medical practitioners, police officers, colleges, universities,
companies, government departments, schools and early learning centres
to improve spelling.
- It identifies bad spelling habits (habit pattern errors) and quickly
corrects them, once and for all.
- It helps you learn and remember your words from one day to the next.
- The program tests your spelling and tracks your progress
- It uses proven learning methods endorsed by Australian education
departments (USA spelling version also available)
- This is the only spelling tutor that uses Old Way/New Way®,
an effective research-based and user-friendly learning method
- It uses an improved version of Look Say Cover Write Check, the old
standby method for learning spelling
- It provides hundreds of editable word lists in both U.S. English
and U.K./Oz English, plus you can create and edit your own lists
- The program runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems
- It is available as an affordable Windows software program or as
a low-cost one-page, self contained, multiple-user, re-usable, printable spelling
tutor.
Features
Personal Best Spelling is three spelling programs in one, so you
can Learn New Words, Test Your Spelling and Correct Bad Spelling
Habits.
1. Learn spelling—Learn New Words
This helps you learn new words quickly so that you remember them
better. It uses a modified form of the widely used and recommended
method of learning spelling called Look Say Cover Write Check. Practice
or drill is built into the program in a special way to improve your
learning and memory.
You can create your own word lists, use the inbuilt lists or use
a wide range of ready-made special purpose word lists that you can
download from this web site. Ready-made word lists include lists
of commonly misspelled words, words that cause special difficulty
to adult learners and other useful lists.
You can learn sentence structure using the special contextual learning
feature that allows you to enter more than just one word at a time.
Foreign language learning is also possible using this feature because
you can learn words in their proper context.
You can also learn specialised occupational vocabularies.
2. Test spelling—Spell Tester
You can test your spelling of previously learned words. A special
feature is that the program remembers any errors you make. If the
error is consistent , i.e., you spell it incorrectly in
the same way, the program recognises that you have developed
a learned error and it automatically saves these errors in a separate
word list for special treatment and correction.
3. Correct spelling—Correct Bad Spelling Habits
The program uses a new learning method called Old Way/New Way®.
With Old Way/New Way® you can correct persistent,
learned and habitual errors. You can also, once and for all, learn
to spell those tricky words that you are uncertain about and often
have to look up before you use them.
Homonyms, words like "their" and "there", that sound the same but
have different meanings, often create confusion but this can be readily
resolved by placing the word in context when using Old Way/New Way®.
Old Way/New Way® is a new user-friendly and truly
effective method for changing incorrect learning to the correct version
and for eliminating uncertainty.
Personal Best Spelling is especially licensed to use Old Way/New Way®. The learning advantages that Old Way/New Way® gives
you and its other special benefits are all described and explained
in this web site.
And you can read some typical spelling case
studies where Old Way/New Way® has helped people
of all ages become competent and confident spellers.
Reviews
The school teachers, parents, adult literacy teachers, learning support tutors, and their students in these spelling program case studies tried many different spelling programs, mnemonics, and other spelling aids, including catch-up classes or personal tutoring, before they tried Personal Best Spelling.
Using these conventional, and some not so conventional, methods of teaching spelling they found that children and adult learners still forgot the words they had learned from one day to the next.
Personal Best Spelling changed all this. Learners who used this program actually improved on spelling tests immediately after they started using the program; their vocabulary increased; they actually remembered the words they had learned the day , week or month before; their self confidence improved; their teacher's assessment of their learning ability changed and their outlook on learning became a lot more optimistic. This was empowering for both teachers and students.
These spelling program case notes should be read in conjunction with the spelling program's theoretical underpinning of this program and the long history of successful research, workplace trials and independent evaluations to which the underlying teaching and learning methodology has been subjected. The sum total of this evidence will stand up to the closest scrutiny.
Old Way/New Way® Learning is used in Personal Best Spelling and is an Australian Education Network quality endorsed resource.
Old Way/New Way is officially gazetted as an approved learning method by the South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services.
Five Star rating
Personal Best Spelling received the Five Star Rating at TUKIDS, the children's software section of the TUCOWS software library. The adult version was Editor's Choice in the ZDNET software library.
Computer Corner review of Personal Best Spelling by Bill Gillespie,
school Principal
".... This program takes a no nonsense approach to
the teaching of spelling... This is not a game dressed up as educational
software.... One advantage of this approach is that it can correct
persistent, learned and habitual spelling errors... It is worthwhile
visiting the web site just to read the information on the Old Way/New Way® approach to learning." Education:
Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation.
The Way Ahead: Old Way/New Way® and Mediational
Learning
Classroom. Issue 7, 2000, pages 12 - 13. Scholastic Australia
Pty Ltd.
This article describes how Old Way/New Way® is used to
improve spelling.
ZDNet Software Library review, 17 December 1998 (version 1; old
name for the program)
Personal Best Speller received a four star rating and was
the Editor's Pick.
"Learn new words and correct problem spelling with Personal Best
Speller. Using an innovative and progressive method, this program
encourages you to say the word, asks you to type it several times
and tracks your problem areas. Three modules include learning new
words, testing and correcting problems or habitual errors. The
error correction uses a psychological approach by having you analyze
what it is that you do wrong and repeatedly spell it the wrong
way and then the correct way. You're asked to state what you've
been doing wrong, typing in this statement and then correcting
the spelling several times. Two word lists are available to work
with in the demo version and registered users will be able to input
their own lists. Personal Best Speller requires dedication and
time, but its effective methods are sure to improve your spelling."
Mediational Learning: Old Habits No Longer Die Hard
By Dr Paul Baxter. Write On: Queensland Council For Adult Literacy
Newsletter. Volume 18, No. 1, September 2000, pages 10 - 15.
Discusses the theoretical background to Mediational Learning (a
derivative of Old Way/New Way®) and its application
to literacy teaching. Contains 32 references to research journal
articles and links to other Old Way/New Way® web
sites.
You can also read all the scientific publications on the Old Way/New Way® learning method in our annotated spelling method bibliography.
Preview
Before you buy, please check out the many spelling
program features. You can preview
this spelling program, download
and try the demo version for free, and then purchase
the download using our secure spelling
program order form.
Word lists
Personal Best Spelling comes complete with hundreds of word lists
when the program is registered. Unregistered, the program contains
two word lists for demonstration purposes.
Registered users with earlier versions can download and use one
or more of the following word lists, as well as create their own
word lists. Please note the following details about these lists:
- Lists are zipped text files (ASCII DOS TEXT), take up very little
disk space on your computer, will download quickly and are accompanied
by a brief description.
- Unzip the word list files to the same directory as the one in
which you install the spelling program (usually c:\windows\pbs16adu),
so that the program can automatically find and use the word lists.
- Words are available in both US English and UK/Oz English.
- New lists are added from time to time. These are the currently
available lists:
Download lists of commonly
misspelled words (demons).
Download lists of the most
common words.
Download lists of the most
common nouns.
Download lists of a core
of words that students should be able to spell on sight,
without sounding.
Download lists of the most common words that cover about three-quarters
of reading material.
Download all the above word lists in one file US English and UK/Oz English.
Go to the word list page for more information.
Versions
Personal Best Spelling is the only spelling program licensed to use the Old Way/New Way® learning method. Extensive research and trials in schools and workplaces shows that Old Way/New Way® works equally well with adult learners and children. Personal Best Spelling therefore comes in two versions - one for adults and one for children.
Not just another educational computer game, the adult version of Personal Best Spelling employs research-based learning methods yet it is very user friendly and, unlike most so-called adult spelling programs, it does not insult your intelligence.
The children's version contains some animated characters but this is kept to a minimum so as not to distract the child from the learning task.
Read more about the adult spelling version of Personal Best Spelling.
Read more about the children's spelling version of Personal Best Spelling.
Before you buy, please check out the many spelling
program features. You can preview
this spelling program, download
and try the demo version for free, and then purchase
the download using our secure spelling
program order form.
Printable Version—one page printable, multiple use spelling
lesson
For those who don't want to use a computer but still want to benefit
from the Old Way/New Way® learning method and improve
their spelling, Personal Best Spelling is now available as a low
cost one-page, self-contained, individualised, printable, multiple
use spelling tutor for adult learners, children, teachers and parents
for only AU$9.95. If you decide after having used the print version that you want the software version, you can upgrade and only pay the difference. Spelling program printable version details.
