I struggled for 2 years teaching Thumper spelling. We tried All About Spelling. We tried Evan Moore’s Building Spelling Skills. None of it worked.
I did learn a few things about teaching spelling and learning to spell though, which I outlined in my Tips for Teaching Spelling post.
So, since I decided to have Thumper learn to spell through writing, I started using Anki. Spelling words are reviewed on a timed schedule with Anki.
What is Anki? Anki is a spaced repetition program. Spaced repetition operates on the idea that you’re tested or quizzed on your knowledge of something right before your brain is set to forget it.
When is your brain going to forget something? There’s a ton of research on the subject. I did some digging once and learned that how fast children forget and how fast adult forget are two different things. So add that to your list of variables when you look at recommended Anki settings.
Really this method applies to anything you want the kids to remember. Thumper is using Anki to learn her musical notes, learn to spell in English, and remembering characters in Chinese.
How We’re Using Anki
For English, I don’t tell Thumper how to spell when she does her WWE exercises. Instead, I circle the words she gets wrong, and she has to input it into Anki. Well, I did that for a year or two. More recently, I’ve given her the correct spelling as she writes, but she still has to input it into Anki.
Chinese works the same way. She did narration exercises and also some composition writing. From the characters she writes in zhuyin, she picks 3 to input into Anki that day.
We recently started Astroboy on Anki along side All About All About Spelling. We circle any AAS that he spells wrong. When he does his Writing with Ease narration and dictation exercises, I tell him how to spell the words he doesn’t know, but he notes these. All of these get input into Anki.
Once the kids put in their spelling words, they do daily spelling by using Anki. All you need to do is to click on the deck and it lets you ‘study’ it. I’ve configured it so that the kids review 5-10 spelling words a day.
The best thing about using the Anki system is that it removes me away from their learning. The whole system is self learning and self correcting.
Setting up Anki
Before you follow the instructions verbatim, note that I already created a new note card type so to re-create my process, I recreated another one. You’ll see me sometimes using a “Chinese” spelling note type, sometimes English. It doesn’t really matter what you want to call it.
1. Create an account on Anki
First, go to Anki’s website (https://ankiweb.net/about) and create an account.
2. Download Anki app onto your iPad and onto your computer.
The download link is https://apps.ankiweb.net/#download
I liked having both because the computer version allows me to see my decks and their entries more easily than the app. You can Browse every card in your deck.
3. On your iPad, create a new deck and give it a name
4. Click on the Deck you created to get into it
5. Configure Study Options
You can read Anki’s help docs to figure out how to best set up your review schedule. You really have to play with it based on how you use it. I don’t know Anki configuration inside out. But here’s the little I do know.
Anki is like studying an index card electronically. There’s front and back side. For spelling, the front is an audio dictation. The child writes it, then hit the screen to see if their answer matches the back side.
You have 3 choices when you study a card, Again, Good, Easy. A 4th option, Hard, comes up once you’ve studied the card a few times. You have to train your child to hit the right button and depending on what you hit, the card comes up again for review, based on your configuration. For example, by default, when you hit Again, it comes up for review in 10 minutes.
This is something you have to play with, how often you want to review. I’m trying out the Fibonacci sequence of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 days.
Here’s what it looks like when I’m looking at the back side of the spelling word ‘broke’. You’ll see the “time for next review” doesn’t match the Fibonacci series, probably because we’ve worked on this word for a few days.
5. Sync your Anki Deck
You could bypass this step if you’re lazy by configuring the Study Options on your Desktop version of Anki. But this is a good step to learn the syncing process.
First make sure you’re logged into your Deck on the iPad.
Now sync it.
6. On the desktop, start Anki and add a new Note Type for this new deck
7. Define the Fields and Cards
Rename the Basic Card names of Front and Back to whatever you want. For me I used Audio 説 and Spelling 寫
8. Resync your decks to the internet
9. Resync your iPad now
This way your desktop configurations are now on your iPad as well.
10. Add new spelling cards as needed
I’ll leave you to figure this part out. Here’s a video of what it looks like when we study our English spelling deck.
What you cannot see is me hitting the center of the screen with my index finger after the audio plays to get the back of the deck. Then I hit Good to get to the next index card.
I told Astroboy that
- Again = you spelled it wrong
- Good = you had think about hard before you can write it down
- Easy = you knew how to spell off the bat
OMG, that was so many screen shots. I hope I got it all. If there are any missing instructions please let me know.
I really love Anki. It gives the children a very independent way to learn/remember anything. What I hope is that they can take this tool with them even to college to help them study.
