Words in Color is an approach to teaching reading, spelling and writing that incorporates specific pedagogical tools.

It was the mathematician in Caleb Gattegno who, when confronted simultaneously with the problem of teaching reading in several different languages, noticed the relationship between the limited number of sounds in a given language and the virtually unlimited number of words that can be created from combining them according to algebraic rules.

Words in Color: Who is it for?

Teachers can use this approach with:

English-speaking children learning to read for the first time
older English-speaking children or adults who have had difficulty in learning to read
immigrants who have a basic knowledge of oral English, but who have never learned to read

(The approach is not intended for use with people who do not speak English or speak it very little. For them, the Silent Way is more appropriate.)

Students as the active authors of their own learning

Words in Color offers the students the structured means to:

use all their mental faculties,
use the skills they already have,
be aware of the work they need to do,
be creative - often joyfully so,
take responsibility for their own learning,
construct and retain criteria and strategies,
manipulate the language and act on it rapidly and easily,
explore the relationships between the spoken and written language.

They are also encouraged to ask themselves pertinent questions about the process of learning to read:

Is what I am saying exactly what is written?
Can I check it?
Have I taken the spelling into account?
How am I using my ears, my eyes?

Teachers who work precisely with each of their students

Using Words in Color the teachers can:

propose exercises that, from the beginning, develop the specific skills of reading, not just repetition and memorization,
observe their students in detail and in depth and identify their hesitations, their errors, their successes, their blocks, their frustration and .their satisfaction. It enables teachers to evaluate the progress of the students moment-by-moment and, by making the process of their learning more apparent, to respond more efficiently,
respect the students' own pace by proposing, minute-by-minute, activities constantly adjusted to their actual needs.

It is a tool which renders the work done by the students more visible and therefore the teacher can intervene more effectively.

Unique materials specifically adapted to the task

Created to implement this approach, to stimulate the insights necessary to the process of reading, and provide practice until mastery is achieved, the materials are composed of:

The Fidel - color-coded spelling wall charts
These present all the possible graphemes (spellings) of each phoneme in columns making the system visible as a whole and available for work on the algebra of spelling.
Word Wall Charts - selected color-coded words
They show the segmentation of the language into words and are used to create sentences for work on the syntax of the language.
A pointer
Used by the teacher and the students to link graphemes to make words, and words to make sentences. It serves as a link between the temporal order of speech (sounds following one another in time) and the linear order of writing.

The use of color renders visible the relationship between the oral and written language and enables work on developing phonemic awareness: one phoneme = one color. The use of color, by developing awareness of these different relationships, leads to the autonomy of the learner.