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Helping Teachers

Our Phonics Patent

Even as we rolled out SpellingCity, teachers and literacy coaches asked us to do more with helping students with sounds. They asked us to convert the games to focus not just on spelling practice but on practice activities for recognizing

John August 15, 2019 educational technology, Helping Teachers, New Games & Activities, Site Features, Teaching Literacy No Comments Read more

Succeed in School with Spooktacular Halloween Activities

Halloween isn’t only about candy, costumes, and cauldrons. Scare up some learning this spooky season with these Halloween activities! Literacy Fright Night – Host a Halloween-themed literacy night at your school and invite students’ families. Each teacher can showcase students’

John October 19, 2018 Broward Schools, Elementary STEM, Helping Teachers No Comments Read more

Google Classroom Convenience

A huge problem for teachers in 21st Century classrooms is the mechanics of rostering all the digital programs that students will use. Just getting students’ names into the system is a hassle. Even after setting up a class list, teachers

John August 3, 2018 educational technology, Helping Teachers, Site Features 8 Comments Read more

Providing Successful PD to your Teachers

Note that this post highlights one of VocabularySpellingCity’s sisters: Science4Us. It is an early elementary science program. Increasingly, principals and superintendents are  asking us  to help develop their teachers. We have always provided professional development to support our products but

John April 20, 2018 educational technology, Elementary STEM, Flipping the Classroom, Helping Teachers No Comments Read more

Improving Reading Comprehension through Vocabulary Retention

 Vocabulary is responsible for 70% of reading comprehension problems in elementary schools. And while the research is clear on what most students require to build vocabulary (12 spaced multimodal encounters with a word), many schools ignore the research and reading scores suffer.

John July 9, 2017 educational technology, Flipping the Classroom, Helping Teachers, Teaching Literacy No Comments Read more

Our Journey to VocabularySpellingCity

SpellingCity’s Journey to VocabularySpellingCity At VocabularySpellingCity, we went through a transition, moving from being a spelling program to one focused on vocabulary building and reading comprehension. Here’s our story from the beginning. I had a few goals in 2010 when I was starting SpellingCity, as I

John July 9, 2017 educational technology, Helping Teachers, New Games & Activities, Teaching Literacy 1 Comment Read more

Building Phonological, Phonics, and Early Reader Skills

January 2018 Update:  Five new reading foundation skills games just launched in addition to Sound It Out: Sort It Out Vowels Which Letter Team? Sound Counter Word Counter Vocabulary Memory Match These phonics games are all based on VocabularySpellingCity’s revolutionary

John April 15, 2017 educational technology, Helping Teachers, New Games & Activities, Site Features 1 Comment Read more

Elementary Students: Owning the Learning

One of the brightest trends that I see in education today is a broad nationwide move to have students own their learning and to adopt a growth mindset. I’m particularly encouraged to see that this is a distinct trend in elementary schools. In

John April 10, 2017 educational technology, Flipping the Classroom, Helping Teachers, Teaching Literacy No Comments Read more

Insights from Literacy Expert Tim Rasinski on Vocabulary and Comprehension

VocabularySpellingCity sponsored a webinar Dec. 1 with one of my favorite literacy heroes, Dr. Timothy Rasinski. His message on the importance of automaticity in word learning, and its connection to comprehension, is one that all educators can learn from. And

Barbara Kruger December 5, 2016 educational technology, Helping Teachers, Site Features, Teaching Literacy 1 Comment Read more

Cursive Instruction is Disappearing. Is There a Compelling Case to Save It?

This is a tough one to answer. While an overwhelming amount of evidence shows the benefits of writing by hand, few studies differentiate between print and cursive, and even fewer come to definite conclusions about which should be taught. But we

Samantha Ligeti December 1, 2016 educational technology, Helping Teachers, Teaching Literacy, Uncategorized 6 Comments Read more
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Most Popular Articles

  • A Key to Comprehension: Vocabulary Retention!
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  • Elementary Students Owning the Learning?
  • Helping ELL: English Language Learners
  • Learn Your Words though Writing Practice
  • NBC6: "Nerdiest, Techiest Field Trip Ever”
  • Our Journey to Vocabulary
  • Teaching Idioms and Figurative Language
  • Tools for Differentiated Learning
  • Vintage Educational Technology: Remember the Mimeograph!
  • Vocabulary: Shades of Meaning
  • WritingCity Efficacy Study
John Edelson

LearningCity Mayor

Recent Posts

  • Fluency on the Basics
  • WritingCity Fourth Graders Improved 11.2% ON PARCC Writing Scores
  • Our Phonics Patent
  • I’m Sorry
  • Explore Our Resources for Children with Special Needs
  • Words That Don’t Mean What They Say – Idioms!
  • Sing a Song to Reading

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