How the Program Works

This Orton-Gillingham-based program is for students of all learning abilities and helps teachers, homeschooling parents, and tutors teach phonics and spelling effectively!

The English language has been influenced by many cultures, which explains why it is so interesting and varied. The variations in how words are spelled can make learning to spell and teaching spelling a challenge. However, many, many words can be spelled phonetically and do follow specific rules and generalizations that teachers can highlight to help their students overcome these spelling challenges.

The goal of this multisensory program is to help students see the connections between patterns of letters and sounds (phonemic awareness) by focusing on syllable types. Improving phonemic awareness and learning to recognize syllable types will lead to spelling multisyllabic words with the same patterns. Students will not simply be memorizing lists of words but will be internalizing patterns that they can apply over and over again as they make choices for how to spell words.

Working with Words can be used with emerging spellers and students who have already had an introduction to spelling but may need a stronger foundation for making good spelling choices. The lessons have been carefully sequenced to provide weaving of skills from lesson to lesson and level to level. Multisyllabic words are introduced early in the program so students begin to make connections of syllable types to these words successfully while simultaneously building confidence. Along the way, students will not only be improving their ability to decode and encode words but will also be developing their vocabulary, comprehension, writing, grammar, and editing skills AND becoming independent learners.

Materials

Student Workbooks

There are currently three levels in the Working with Words (WwW) program.

Level 1 workbook includes two “Lessons to Get Ready” and 29 skills lessons, enough for the span of a school year.

Level 1 introduces the closed, open, and vowel-consonant-e (vce) syllable types. Emphasis is on consonant sounds, short and long vowel sounds, initial and final consonant blends, consonant digraphs, glued chunks (-am, -an, -all, -ng, -nk), and suffixes (-s, -es, -ed). Compound words and multi-syllable words are also introduced.

Level 2 workbook includes a “Lesson to Get Ready” and 30 skills lessons, enough for the span of a school year.

Level 2 continues with closed, open, and vce syllable words, with emphasis on specific rules within the syllable types and syllable exceptions. It introduces additional suffixes (-ing, -ful, -ly) and vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant-le syllable words.

Level 3 workbook includes a “Lesson to Get Ready” and 30 skills lessons, enough for the span of a school year.

Level 3 continues with the six syllable types, introducing new rules and generalizations within all the syllable types.

Each lesson is divided into five days of consistent and varied activities. This gives the student the opportunity to do the work independently and to internalize patterns.

Day 1 of a new lesson is led by a teacher; Days 2-5 can be completed independently with teacher support if needed. Corresponding word cards are an essential kinesthetic material for each lesson.

Word Lists

Corresponding word lists are cut up and used as word cards for kinesthetically sorting the words by patterns, alphabetizing, and for writing and saying the words aloud.

The word lists can be printed black and white if a teacher wants each student to have his/her own set of word cards. The word lists can also be printed on colored card stock for making multiple sets of more durable word cards for full classroom use.

The different methods for using the word cards are explained in the Instructor Guide.

Instructor Guides

This tool for the teacher, available at each level, is meant to be used to understand how to help create the “language” used in Working with Words and to guide the teacher in the organization of the lessons for each unit or level. Each guide includes an explanation of Program Components, an Overview of Activities, specific Lesson Notes, and an Answer Key.

Syllable Types Posters

This supplemental material provides a quick reference to the six syllable types plus examples of those syllable types. These (2) 11x17 posters coordinate with the student lessons and should be displayed where students can easily refer to them as needed. They are colorful and bright and are a great addition to any classroom.

Vowel Sounds by Syllable Types Posters

This supplemental material provides a quick reference to the vowel sounds found in the six syllable types with a picture clue for remembering those vowel sounds by syllable type. Vowel Sounds in Vowel Teams 3 poster shows the various vowel sounds found in specific vowel digraphs and diphthongs introduced in Levels 2 and 3.

These (3) 11x17 posters coordinate with the student lessons and should be displayed where students can easily refer to them as needed. They are colorful and bright and are a great addition to any classroom.

Benefits

Working with Words provides the foundation for a year of learning spelling in a systematic and user-friendly manner with lesson activities that are engaging and motivating! 

Each lesson in the Working with Words workbooks or units provides consistent repetition and includes important questions about sounds, rules, and patterns that students of all learning abilities can answer. Students are required to think about WHAT they have learned to deepen their understanding of the rules and generalizations that are common in the English language. This leads to the knowledge of HOW to spell words and WHY they are spelled the way they are. 

Working with Words was originally created as individual lessons to fill a gap in programming at a specific school. It was evident that rote memorization of randomly sequenced word lists did not lead to retention of those words. Teachers quickly discovered that the new skill-based multisensory lessons, which focused on the six main syllable types, made a tremendous difference in how their students progressed and applied learned skills to their writing. The program was also developed to work with students with learning challenges, leading to multiple lessons being created for each skill set. This led to a level of understanding that worked for the students, which in turn led to continued growth and success.

Since then, Working with Words has developed into a multi-level spelling program and has been used successfully and enthusiastically by teachers and students in public, private, homeschool, and tutorial settings for over 15 years. Existing lessons have been revised, edited, and updated to their current format and new lessons have been created for the 4th Edition. The work has been done for YOU — teachers, homeschooling parents, and tutors.

This multi-sensory Orton-Gillingham-based spelling program encompasses enough lessons for the span of a school year — what could be better than that?