Words in Color

Frequently Asked Questions

2. What is different about Words in Color?

4. Why does Words in Color Work?

6. Why is learning to read a challenge?

7. How was Words in Color developed?

8. Does learning to read in color make it difficult for students to read black-and-white words?

9. Is this curriculum helpful for dyslexic children?

Q: What is Words in Color?

Words in Color is a common sense approach to teaching reading, writing, and spelling. It includes materials for teachers and students, as well as teaching techniques, games and exercises. Words in Color refers to the English language version. The French version is called La Lecture en Couleurs and the Spanish version is called Leo Color.

Q: What is different about Words in Color?

Words in Color is an approach which employs materials, and teaching techniques that mobilize the natural human capacities which enable learning. It focuses on leading students through the process of learning to read by emphasizing the presentation of challenges, not facts. Challenges are one of the techniques used in Words in Color to ensure students mobilize their natural human capacities, which enable learning, such as awareness, direct perceptions, abstraction, analysis, synthesis. Words in Color, is designed for a style of teaching which adjusts at every moment to keep pace with the learner and the specific learning that is unfolding in real time.

Q: Who uses Words in Color?

Words in Color is used around the world in public, private, and home schools, as well as an after school supplement.

It is used with students of all ages – from preschool children as young as two, up to adults in their 70’s who are learning to read.

It is suited for use with students of all abilities, including: advanced students, those requiring remedial attention, students with disabilities, and those with behavioral challenges.

Q: Why does Words in Color work?

Words in Color is an approach based on the natural capacities and powers of learners. When learners rely on, and utilize their awareness, imagination, intuition, ability to analyze, or synthesize or any other of their mental capacities, effective and efficient learning are permitted to unfold.

English is non-phonetic and full of ambiguities in spelling. This makes learning to read a challenge. Words in Color uses color to reduce the ambiguities and transform the language into one, that from an educational perspective can be seen as behaving phonetically. With color, we provide explicit criteria to give beginners an entry into decoding words. This simplifies the challenge and gives learners

Written English is algebraic. Teaching techniques, games, and exercises in Words in Color provide rich and diverse entry points for exploring and practicing with the algebra of the language. By doing this we provide a credible foundation for economizing on the students time and effort.

Words in Color is thorough and comprehensive in presenting challenges to students across 4 levels, 59 sounds and the corresponding 400+ spellings in English. It is designed to allow students to explore and practice using these sounds and spellings. The result is advanced reading, writing and spelling skills acquired in a comparatively short period of time.

Words in Color is a visually stunning product that generates increased student curiosity and an appetite to learn.

Words in Color requires that learners develop a stronger understanding of their own capabilities and powers. It propels students to read and write well, and leads to increased confidence and improvement in other subjects.

Teachers find that Words in Color is very flexible and can accommodate classrooms with:

Students at different levels

Students of different ages

Students with different learning styles Small to large class sizes

Parents find it highly adaptable and convenient for use in home based environments

Q: Why use color?

Color serves a multiple purposes:

In non-phonetic languages such as English, Words in Color uses color to simplify the ambiguities of spelling and reading. This transforms, the language into one, which from a educational perspective, is phonetic.

With color students are able to directly perceive the signs (letters, or groups of letters) which make up a word. With direct perception they can build their own criteria, independently of the instructor as to what is "correct"

Lastly, color is used by students to create mental imagery, which helps in retention.

Q: Why is learning to read a challenge?

Those who learn to read and write English meet a special problem because the written form of English presents two types of ambiguities.

the same sound may be represented by a number of different signs (letters or groups of letters). For example:

Did the sleuth discover whose gruesome lieutenant threw two shoes, a suit, a flute and some soup through the zookeeper's window?

the same sign (letter, or group of letters) may stand for number of different sounds, as does a, for example in the sentence:

All was dark as many hares raced around the village swamp.

Neither rote memorization, nor learning the "rules" is sufficient to meet these complexities. Learn more about the ambiguities of the written language.

Why is learning to read a challenge?

Q: How was Words in Color developed?

The Scientist, Caleb Gattegno, went to Ethiopia on behalf of the United Nations (UNESCO) in 1957. (At the time Gattegno, was based out of England) The city of Addis Ababa was shut down for Christmas when he arrived, giving him time to himself. During this 48 hour period, he learned how to read the local language. When he discovered that it is supposed to take 18 months to teach Amarinya, he decided to test his method on others. By associating sounds with colour, Gattegno had illiterate ministry employees in their 50s and 60s reading newspapers within six hours. This initial experience, provided Gattegno with the beginning insights for further investigation into the challenge of literacy. Subsequent scientific work was ongoing over multiple decades, in multiple languages, and in different parts of the world. The development of the core insights was non-linear in nature, however the following is a general overview of how events unfolded.

Work with very young children

Work with children with reading problems

Work with adolescents and adults of differing backgrounds and severe reading difficulties

Contact sessions with students and teaching was observed and discussed.

Certain elements were identified for further emphasis and focus

This gave rise to the development of techniques and materials which were used and refined over a period of years.

The research evolved from a “study of reading” into a “study of people,” that were engaged in specific activities, that resulted in reading.

The research was later refined even further as an examination of reading as a separate activity vs. reading as an extension of the learners intellectual and linguistic powers

It eventually reached the point where the research came to see that the skill of reading was indeed a by-product of having spent time in specific way. The product was and education of awareness and a deeper connection with one's powers which enable learning.

The first commercial version of Words in Color was made available to the public in 1962.

Q: Does learning to read in color make it difficult for students to read black-and-white words?

No it does not.

Only selected materials are in color: the Fidel Phonetic Code and the 21 color-coded wall charts. These are used for introduction of new sounds, new spellings, detailed examination of words, and for initial practice. However, as soon as underlying awarenesses are in place, students are asked to read in black and white.

All books - the Reading Primers, The Student Workbooks, and the Book of Stories are in black and white. This enables many relevant and diverse opportunities to enhance reading skills using black and white.

Color should be viewed as the most disposable element of the overall program. Color is used to give students a visual clue as to how to decode a work, sound them out, to help with visualization and retention, among other things.

When problems are encountered with specific words written in black and white, the Fidel Phonetic Code and color-coded word charts are particularly useful as an instrument for helping students work through these challenges. When they challenges have been overcome in color, the students can continue in black and white.

Q: Is this curriculum helpful for dyslexic children?

Words in Color materials and techniques are designed to help students meet and tackle the ambiguities and challenges inherent in a non-phonetic language like English head on. Beginning readers sometimes:

Read slowly or inaccurately.

Confuse letters and sounds, such as ‘b’ and ‘d’ which are close in shape and sound.

Experience confusion or even difficulty making the proper association between sounds and the signs that represent them.

Experience confusion or difficulty breaking words down into component sounds or combining or blending sounds to make words.

While, most beginning readers exhibit a measure of these behaviors, in some learners, and particularly the so-called dyslexic, these problems are more persistent. In those cases, Words in Color has proven effective as an instrument for framing the right challenges to provoke the correct awarenesses and provide the right exercises for practice.

With Words in Color, students can directly perceive the differences and similarities in specific sounds and spellings. These differences and similarities can be examined from many points of view, for example: the number of sounds or the number of beats in a word, contrasts with similar words, writing the consonant sounds in the words and replacing the vowels with an underline, or vice versa, writing the vowels sounds and replacing the consonant sounds with an underline, etc. When students are permitted to examine words from many points of view, they are in a position to generate many awarenesses, practice in a variety of ways and eventually “own” the words through their learning. This is true for the gifted, learning disabled, or dyslexic alike.

Our experience is that Words in Color is well suited for framing the right types of activities to enable so-called dyslexic students to meet the challenges of learning to read head-on. Here are some examples:

The arrangement of sounds and spellings on the Fidel Phonetic Code makes it straight forward for the learner to compare and contrast sounds and spellings which may be confusing (e.g. ‘b’ and ‘d’).

The confusion in associating sounds with spellings is also easily dealt with since all of them are visible and distinguishable in columns and color-coded.

Exercises and activities for breaking words down into component sounds/spellings and putting them back together in the same or a different order are also easily achieved with the Fidel Phonetic Code and the color-coded word charts.

Activities such as Visual Dictation and Oral Dictation (both outlined in the Beginners Guide to Teaching With Words in Color) make it easy to practice reading words and sentences in a variety of different ways (for example: read like you are surprised, like you are happy, like you are angry, like you are saying it to your friend, etc.) This helps beginning readers to read accurately and with the fluency of natural speech.

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