This applet is the most useful program I've written and has been well tested by my kids. It let's you practice spelling lists. You can build your own list or use lists that have already been defined and posted to the server. A teacher could fairly easily post spelling lists for his or her students. This program has quite a few features. For more detailed instrucetions, see below.
The "Choose Quiz" menu lets you enter your own words or choose a list of words already defined. The "My Words" choice is where you enter your own words. The words you enter will be remembered as long as this window remains open. You can choose another list, such as the "Capitals", to practice. You can make changes (add or delete) to theses lists as well. They will revert to their original form when they are chosen again from this menu.
Enter a new word into the "Enter New Word" field. You may want to Enter a short description into the "Enter Description" field. Click the "Add New Word" button. This will add the word to the "Word List" below. You can keep adding words till you have them all entered.
If you want to remove a word, click on it in the "Word List",
then click the "Delete Selected Word" button.
If you want to change a word, double click it in the "Word List".
This will enter the word and its description into the "Enter New Word'
and 'Enter Description" fields. Make any changes, then click the "Replace
Selected Word" button.
The quiz is ready to start! Click the "Start Quiz" button. Notice that the button changes it's name to "Stop Quiz" so that you can
stop the quiz at any time.
The description of one of your words will appear in the lower quiz area.
If you did not enter a description, the word will be flashed for two seconds.
Type the word into the "Spell It!" field. If you need help, you can
flash the word or click the "Hint" button. The hint button will give
you one letter of the word each time you click it. The word must match exactly,
including capitals and spaces.
Click the "This is it!" button. A big green message will appear
to tell you if you were right (or spell it if you were wrong) and the word
(as you spelled it) will appear in the "Word List".
When taking a quiz:
This applet presents spelling words in a random order.
The "Flash Word!" button will show the word for about two seconds, then hide it again.
The "Show A Letter" button will show the word one letter at a time. No penalty is given, even if it's used to spell the whole word. Try to spell the word without using it.
For speed, just hit the "return" or "enter" key after spelling your word. This acts the same as clicking the "This is it!" and "Next Word" buttons.
Checking the "Quiz on Descriptions" at the button at the bottom of the page will reverse what you are being quizzed on. For example, when this button is unchecked and you take the "Capitals" quiz, it gives you the capital and expects you to type in the state. When this button is checked, it will give you the state and expect you to type in the capital. If the quiz encounters a word with no description, it will revert to the standard quiz.
This applet could be used for anything where you need to memorize matches.
This applet needs a network connection any time you choose a quiz other than "My Words".Retaking a quiz:
You can retake the quiz after you have finished or after you've clicke the "Stop
Quiz" button.
One or more of the three buttons below the "Stop Quiz" button
will become clickable after you've finished a quiz.
"Retake All Words" button restarts the quiz usinig all the words you
last selected.
"Retake:Words Missed this Time" button will activate if you missed
one or more words. It will quiz you only on those words.
"Retake: Same as Last Quiz" button will activate if the last quiz you
took is different than the original words you selected.
Here is how you might use these buttons:
You take a quiz. Let's say you miss five of twenty words. You would like to practice just those words you missed so:
You study the words in the "Missed" list. Now you click the "Retake:Words Missed this Time" button.
You do much better but you'd still like to practice the five words you missed the first time. You click the "Retake: Same as Last Quiz" button. Now you can retake those five words till you are confident about spelling them.
Just to be sure you know them all, you retake all the words by clicking the "Retake All Words" button.