Customer Reviews

Franklin Spelling Ace with Thesaurus

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased four of these spellers for my fifth grade classroom, I had two older models of the Franklin spelling ace and thought I would give this new version a whirl.

Good Points:
They are small and fit on the top of a student's desk without interfering with the writing space.
The batteries are behind a cover that screws shut - read: no flying batteries during our writing sessions.
The thesaurus is terrific.

Bad Points:
The cover is hard to open and is another step in getting to the tool.
The Spelling Ace is not intuitive - you must read the directions closely in order to have the speller work properly. Reading directions, remembering directions and following directions are not skills that most adults have mastered let alone fifth graders.
This last bad point is my fault and one that I had not thought about before purchasing...I wish that I had purchased one with audio - my students who use these need that sound/letter correlation in order to remember how to spell the word they are looking up (and recognize the word when they see it).

This is the first spell checker I've owned. It's a bit on
the large side, and the power button gets stuck alot. I'll
put in a word the way it sounds, and alot of the time it
spells out a different word, but I guess most of them probably
do this. This one does the job, but I'm not overwhelmed with it.
It needs 4AAA batterys to operate, which I think is a bit on
the ridiculous side also!

This is an excellent tool for a higher-grade student who needs help with spelling because Spelling Ace doesn't offer any extra information that might be used for cheating. It fits inside the adult hand and is light (it isn't going to weigh down a briefcase, purse or knapsack). The lid is not very secure and I snapped it off while taking it out of the shipping container but I was able to snap it back together. The spelling software is decent and is more phonetic than the spell checkers found in traditional PC software. The price is right! The only caveat I have is that wouldn't recommend it for anyone with visional perception issues because the digital lower case letters are difficult to differentiate.

I've had one of these for over 14 years now, when they first started coming out. My brother has the original one I got freshman year in high school, and I have one I got junior year. This item is still very much the same as it was 14 years ago, just a little sleaker and smaller. Very easy to use, turn on, type the word, and search. It still has thesaurus and games, and as reviews below mention, occasionally still brings up entertaining words if you are as bad of phonetic speller as I am. This item is excellent to save you from digging through pages of a dictionary in search of just a spelling, and not the definition. A must if you can't even get the first 3 letters square like I do looking up words.
The spelling ace my brother still has actually contained many definitions. These little machines are worth their weight in gold for highschoolers and college folks writing papers.

I purchased this for my husband to use at work. He loves it! Best of all, my husband spells phoneticly and this speller finds the word he needs. He now carries his speller with him at all times. Another great feature is the keyboard and readout are large enough for him to see without his glasses. I would recommend this speller to anyone who could use a great speller.

We bought this spell checker for my daughter. She was able to more easily and quickly check her spelling without using a computer. But the cover doesn't protect the screen very well, and the screen cracked after my daughter accidentally put her bookbag down so that the spell checker was underneath the books.

I use these with my third graders in the classroom and have recommended them to parents whose kids' just flounder when it comes to spelling.

SHE LOVES THIS ITEM AND CAN'T BE WITHOUT IT, ALWAYS AT HER DESK

I have priced this in stores and the price here can not compare. This is a great tool for office and home, also great for use when playing word games!

Nice product. One complaint ... the hinges are so small/tiny that the cover falls off. Now the dumb thing won't even turn on!!! Not such a nice product anymore.