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User feedback
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 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."
Gets 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."
The notion of a "dumb child" disappears
"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."
Personal Best Spelling™ and our other learning systems are being
used all over the world. Here are some of the latest additions to
the many schools,
home schools and early learning centres where Old Way/New Way® Learning
is improving learning and performance in spelling.
Spelling program for home and school—Personal Best Spelling™
Learn spelling—your way
This children's spelling program:
- Transformed many poor spellers into proficient, confident spellers
when all other methods failed.
- Is a genuine learning tool for spelling, not just another computer
game dressed up as educational software.
- Does not insult the learner's intelligence.
- Knows how the brain learns, so it works with you, not against you
- Is being used by school teachers, students of all ages and home
schoolers to improve spelling.
- Identifies your child's bad spelling habits (habit pattern errors)
and quickly corrects them, once and for all.
- Helps your child learn and remember words from one day to the
next.
- Tests spelling and tracks progress.
- Uses proven learning methods endorsed by Australian education
departments.
- Is the only spelling tutor that uses Old Way/New Way®,
an effective research-based and user-friendly learning method.
- Uses an improved version of Look Say Cover Write Check, the old
standby method for learning spelling.
- Provides hundreds of word lists you can purchase, in both U.S. English
and U.K./Oz English, plus you can create and edit your own lists.
- Requires Windows XP or later operating systems.
- Is available as an affordable software program or as
a low-cost one-page, self contained, multiple-user, re-usable, printable spelling
tutor.
Features
Personal Best Spelling™ is three great programs in one: learn new
words, test your spelling and correct problem words that you keep
getting wrong or are unsure about.
Spelling program - Learn New Words
This helps your child learn new words quickly so that your child
remembers 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 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 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.
Spelling 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.
Spelling program - 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.
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
Old Way/New Way® Learning is a quality endorsed resource.
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.
The school teachers, parents, learning support tutors, and their
students in these spelling
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 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 case
notes should be read in conjunction with the spelling
program theoretical underpinning of and the long history of
successful spelling
method 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.
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
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.
Classroom. Issue 7, 2000, pages 12 - 13. Scholastic Australia
Pty Ltd.
This article describes how Old Way/New Way® is used to
improve children's and adults' spelling.
You can also read all the scientific publications on the Old Way/New Way® learning method in our annotated spelling method bibliography.
Preview
You candownload
and try the demo version for free, and then purchase
using our secure spelling
program order form.
Word lists
Personal Best Spelling™ comes complete with hundreds of word lists
you can purchase and use once the program is registered. Unregistered, the program contains
two word lists for demonstration purposes.
Word lists for children and schools contain words that pose problems for school age children. Words are graded/grouped for age level and by first letter of the word, for convenience. The word lists cover commonly misspelled words (demons); the most common words in children's reading; the most common nouns; a core of words that people should be able to spell on sight, without sounding; and the most common words that cover about three-quarters of children's reading.
These are the currently
available lists, contained in a single file you can purchase for AUD$10:
- Commonly misspelled words (demons).
- Most common words in children's reading.
- Most common nouns in children's reading.
- Core of words that children should be able to spell on sight, without sounding.
- Most common words that cover about three-quarters of children's reading.
- Grade 2 words.
- Grade 3 words.
- Grade 4 words.
- Grade 5 words.
- Grade 6 words.
All the above word lists, available in one file, in U.S.
English or U.K./Oz English.
The file containing the entire set of word lists is delivered as an attachment to an email we will send you after you place your order. To install the word lists, right-click on the email attachment named wordsallus.zip or wordsalluk.zip, select Save As and save it to your Downloads folder. Then, start the spelling program, click Import and navigate to the Downloads folder. Screen shots showing these steps in greater detail can be found here.
Versions
Software versions
Personal Best Spelling™, children's version, is available in US English or in UK/Oz English. Simply select your preferred version when you download the program. 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.
Before you buy, you can 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 Spellin™g is now available as a low
cost one-page, self-contained, individualised, printable, multiple
use spelling tutor for teachers, home schoolers, students and children. If you decide after having used the print version that you want the software version, you can upgrade and only pay the difference. Printable spelling tutor details.
Orders
Secure Order Form for child/school word lists.
Secure Order Form for Personal Best Spelling™ Child/School version.
Prices:
- Personal Best Spelling™ for Children/School AUD$29.
- Child/School Word List Package AUD$10
- Printable version including Old Way/New Way® spelling tutor AUD$10.
- Printable version containing Old Way/New Way® AND Look-Say-Cover-Write-Check AUD$15.
- Site licences are also available.
