Overview
The English alphabet has 26 letters, yet we use more than 26 sounds in our speech. In fact, American-English speakers use 59 sounds, and there are often many ways to spell the same sound – sometimes dozens of ways. This is very confusing for beginning readers because letters only show how a word is spelled, not how it is spoken. We have identified all 400+ sound-spellings in American English and organized them into 59 distinctly colored groups. With color, students can see how a word is spoken, and more quickly become aware of the nature of the written language.
Color provides students with a logical, phonetic basis for decoding and reading specific words. One by one each sound-spelling is introduced and put into circulation with various teaching techniques. Once initial connections have been made between the letter's shape, color, and sound, we engage the student in games that further explore the words, sounds, and spellings. The challenge of the games increases, and additional exercises and activities are provided to help apply the students' knowledge. When done correctly, the process ends with mastery of the skill of reading, writing, and spelling.
