Build A Word - Easy Spelling - Learn to Spell Sight Words, Long Vowel and Short Vowel Words

Bottom Line: Fun for spelling practice over the summer but lacks a few of the spelling development basics.

With school out most everywhere for summer, I’ve been hearing a lot about brain drain. Build A Word - Easy Spelling – Learn to Spell Sight Words, Long Vowel and Short Vowel Words is one of three spelling apps from prolific developer @Reks that might help stop summer break skill erosion that can occur when learning to spell takes a back seat to learning to swim. Build A Word covers K-2 spelling with over 700 words included. Word lists are divided into short vowels (big, pig sat, rat), long vowels (open, cake, fly) sight words and calendar words. A recent update added the option to create custom lists which is a welcome addition.

The app features three modes of play. "Learn" is for the very youngest spellers and introduces putting letters together to make words. The word is repeated and spelled out. The child just has to copy the word by sliding the correct letters into place. "Practice" involves actually spelling the word from a bank of letter cards after it’s said. The number of random letters presented can be adjusted in settings. The number of letters in each word is shown and the app won’t let an incorrect letter be placed. Quiz mode is timed and it too relies on a bank of letters from which to choose. This method may be fine for kindergarten, but first graders can’t depend on being given the numbers of letters in the word and the letters from which to choose. The developer should consider incorporating difficulty levels that can be selected in Settings so children can practice without these supports.

The mechanics of this app are sound. Settings has a press and hold feature to keep out, or at least delay, curious kids (provided they can’t yet read). Within settings there are choices for selecting a word list, selecting an adult or child narrator and color coding vowels and consonants. There is an option for a high contrast background display that helps those with visual impairment. Also, letter selection can be set for drag and drop, drag and hover or just tap to assist those with fine motor difficulties. As a special needs parent, I appreciate these steps to improve accessibility. There is a mini game reward involving popping dinosaur filled bubbles which can be turned on or off. Data is recorded in quiz mode, and Build A Word is COPPA complaint. There is a lot to like.

My concern with the app is that it offers no spelling strategies. While rote memorization is fine for Sight Words which don't follow any rules and must be learned by "sight," many of the other words included follow set patterns. Long vowels present themselves in a variety of ways. The word lists in the app do not allow for grouping of just vce words (vowel consonant final e) or just long i or long e. My children have had 5 first grade teachers in three schools, public and private, in two states, and they all send spelling lists one sound at a time. That is how children customarily get spelling instruction so I wish the app followed suit.

Final e words are relatively easy but double vowels need rules to help young learners keep their sounds straight. Four years later and I still remind my son of the fab Mrs. Intro’s saying, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” So boat is a long o sound and rain is a long a. English is really screwy this way. Maybe a list of all long vowel variations could be shown in a chart or the babyish bubble popping game uncovered a spelling rule instead of a dinosaur. Children need to learn that a word without an a, like eight, makes a long "a" sound. Learning to spell means learning the rules and not just memorizing list after list of words.

The Sight Word list is a bit of a mystery as it contains words not found on any sight word list with which I am familiar. How did "magenta" and "broccoli" make the list? I don’t think I’ve uttered or seen magenta in print for five years. The Sight Words list also has irregular plurals thrown in the mix. "Cherries" and "ourselves" belong on a separate spelling list of plurals and are more likely to be on a third grade spelling list.

Build A Word needs to let kids put a wrong letter in the spelling window during practice and self correct. Some words I don’t know if I have spelled right until I see them written out. I also noted that clapping for correct spellings often drowned out hearing the next word. My biggest pet peeve with this app, and one of the many reasons I can’t do more than give it a luke-warm recommendation, is that calendar words are displayed as all lower case or all upper case. If a child is learning to spell September, he above all needs to know it starts with a capital letter.

The app does include the ability to create custom word lists but why have 700 words included if there are no rules included? I would like to see word lists more in keeping with K-2 weekly spelling assignments or a way to create a list by choosing from included words. This option would be much quicker than typing in and recording one’s own words. Plurals are a whole other ballgame and should not be in the mix. This app does a good job introducing the concept that letters make words, but in trying to teach years of spelling weekly spelling lists, it fails.