Me, my daughter, and the Fry Words app

“Whatcha doing?” my 8-year old daughter asked me the other day.

“I’m checking out this spelling app,” I replied as she looked over my shoulder. “Would you like to try it?”

“Sure,” she said, snatching the iPhone out of my hand.

I began to explain how to use the app but was quickly silenced. “I can figure it out,” she said. And she did.

We were looking at an app called "Fry Words," which is one of the apps mentioned in last week’s article (A Framework for Using iPads to Build Early Literacy Skills) about integrating technology into the classroom. It has lists of the most frequently used words in writing and reading English.  The app I downloaded has 100 lists of 10 words each. The lists increase in difficulty from “a,” “and,” “in,” “is,” “it,” “that,” “the,” “to,” and “you” in the first list to “book,” “chalk,” “computer,” “crayon,” “letter,” “magazine,” “newspaper,” “pen, “pencil, and “sign” in the last list. For each list, the voice on app says the word and the student taps on the correct word from 6 choices provided.

As a third grader, my daughter knew all of the words she encountered, so we explored the “custom” function on the app. To test out this part of the app, I reached for my daughter’s spelling book to look up the list of words she is currently working with. Before I could get very far, though, she commandeered the iPhone and the spelling book and disappeared into the basement. About 15 minutes later she re-emerged with her list of spelling words entered into the application; she had typed the words into the app and recorded herself saying each of the words. (Her list focused on the long u sound: clue, cool, grew, lose, mood, move, noon, rule, scoop, true.)

What struck me about this experience was my daughter’s eagerness to explore the app. It is not like doing spelling homework is her favorite activity, but she was eager to see what she could do with the app. Secondly, she had absolutely no problem figuring out what the app could do. To create a custom list, you simply give the list a name (my daughter titled hers “words are awesome”), and the next screen prompts you to “click to add text” and add your voice by tapping the “record” button (next to the picture of the microphone). That’s it. How simple is that?

I could envision a center in my daughter’s spelling class containing a couple of iPads, where students would be asked to enter in the spelling list they are currently working with. For this particular app at my daughter’s grade level, the benefit seems to be in creating the list rather than actually playing the game.  But, it would also probably be fun for the students to play the game hearing each other’s voices (which would probably just take a minute or two).

Relating this brief experience back to the article we read, I would agree with the article that the teacher would need to introduce the key concept of the lesson (different ways letters make the long u sound) before the students use the app. This key concept would most likely be lost just by using the app. Moreover, I also agree with the authors when they note that, “Apps offer a fun and motivational way for students to practice early literacy concepts.”  I think my daughter would agree too.

Reference:
Northrop, L., & Killeen, E. (2013). A framework for using iPads to build early literacy skills. The Reading Teacher, 66(7), 531. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1322108843? accountid=11752