How to Set the First-Letter Case for a Word

The first-letter case setting controls how students must type the first letter of a word during Spelling and Typing activities. You can require an uppercase or lowercase first letter — or accept both — on a word-by-word basis.

Step 1: Go to Custom Word Lists

• From your Teacher Dashboard, click Word Lists in the left sidebar.
• At the top of the page, select the Custom Word Lists tab.

Step 2: Open a list group and select a word list

• Click on a group card to open it.
• In the left sidebar, click the word list you want to edit. The list will open in the editor on the right.

Step 3: Click on a word to open the case options

• In the word table, click directly on any word. A floating action bar will appear with the case options for that word.

Step 4: Choose the case rule for that word

• Select one of the four options:
  • Uppercase — The student's answer must begin with an uppercase letter (e.g., "Apple").
  • Lowercase — The student's answer must begin with a lowercase letter (e.g., "apple").
  • Both — Either uppercase or lowercase first letter is accepted as correct.
  • Do not change — No case rule is applied. The word is matched exactly as entered in the dictionary spelling.
• After selecting, the word updates immediately with a badge showing the active rule — Aa for Uppercase, aa for Lowercase, or Aa/aa for Both — and the change is saved automatically.

Pro Tip: Use Both for proper nouns that students might type with either case — it prevents a correct answer from being marked wrong just because of capitalization.

Q: Does this setting affect all activities? 
A: No. The first-letter case rule only applies to Spelling and Typing activities. Vocabulary activities are not affected.

Q: Can each word in the same list have a different case rule? 
A: Yes. The setting is applied per word, so you can mix rules within the same list — for example, requiring uppercase for proper nouns and lowercase for common nouns.

Q: What happens if I don't set a case rule? 
A: The word is treated as "Do not change" by default — no first-letter case is enforced, and the student's answer is matched against the dictionary spelling as entered.