Wordchain

We have just made this video explaining the new features of Wordchain, and the range of skills Wordchain builds. Bits need re-recording, but I hope it is clear enough. This is for Wordchain 1 only, but all levels have the same features, build the same skills to an increasingly sophisticated level.

Introduction to Wordchain

Wordchain explained

I have an op-ed published in Newsroom today, questioning the wisdom of mandating a narrow interpretation of structured literacy when there is so much we do not yet know. Please read it, and feel free to post a comment.
https://newsroom.co.nz/.../teach-kids-how-words-work.../

The new components of Wordchain are now live. The speed challenge: how far down a chain can you get in 60 seconds? Some students find this threatening, but others relish the challenge.

The fluent blending component, in all four levels of Wordchain, rounds off the skills in learning to read and spell words: pulling spoken words apart, correctly identifying those speech sounds, putting written words together, matching speech sounds to letters or letter clusters (the phonics), and developing the skills to do all this automatically, instinctively, unconsciously and virtually instantly. This is phonological awareness to a very high level, and a systematic progression of phonics knowledge. All in a kiwi accent.

There is now the option of six month or 12 month licences, as affordable as we dare.

The new features in Wordchain-for-Web are being added progressively. The speed challenge is now live for Wordchain 1, 2, 3 and 4. The timer icon takes users to this. Fluent blending is now live for Wordchain 1, and is coming for Wordchain 2, 3 and 4.

Wordchain has now gone from the Apple store. This is in part because the detectives at Apple are determined that all levels are the same game, and therefore against their rules. They have removed some, and would have eventually removed all but one. But more than that, we know that the blending feature adds hugely to the effectiveness of Wordchain, and cannot be added to an existing app.

Wordchain will be significantly expanded next year, with several new features.

1. The speed challenge: How far down a chain can you get in 60 seconds? Can you beat that score? This feature is now live, added in this week.

2. A digital version of the fluency sheets, developing rapid blending. Click on any part of the word and hear that part (suffix, blend etc) Analyse the words, and then test yourself to see how many you can read in a minute. We hope to add this within the next week or two, so it can be tested before next year, but this is up to the tech people's timetable, and out of our control. We cannot see much more work in it. This feature is not intended to replace the laminated fluency sheets, but it offers paperless practice in the classroom or at home. Teachers will be able to allow/ disallow this feature.

3. We hope to add in the big word challenge. (Divided into Big Words, Very Big Words, Huge Words and Colossal Words) The digital guys are working on this, and so far so good. It may or may not be in place for the beginning of the school year.

4. Wordchain 5 will be added, all about multi-syllable words, complex suffixes, Latin, French and Greek spelling patterns. This will test most students. This level has a much more sophisticated format. The blending activities relating to this level will eventually be added, but probably not until late next year.

5. Dictation sentences relevant to the different levels will be added into the teacher portal.

This will make Wordchain a complete, self-teaching, one-stop shop for all key decoding and spelling skills, from the simplest words to the most complex.

My very clever friend Lily Duval did the illustrations for Critters of Aotearoa, which has shot up the best seller charts since it was released last month. She has also produced the images of weird and wonderful deep sea creatures for Wordchain 5. A few of my books have illustrations, just a few, and mostly Lily's work. Congratualtions, Lily

Wordchain will be significantly expanded next year.

Wordchain 5 is still coming. This is a big step up and will challenge most students.

In addition, fluency and blending activities are being incorporated. Wordchain as it stands builds most underpinning skills but does not directly target blending at speed. This new feature will. This means that all decoding and spelling skills – phonological awareness, phonics, pulling words apart to spell and blending them together to read, at all levels – will be in one place.

We will be offering six-month or twelve-month licences. For schools that use Wordchain widely, meaning those that currently qualify for $5 licences, the pricing will stay much the same, at $6 including GST for 6 months, or $10 including GST for 12 months. Schools and individuals who want just a few licences will pay more.

At the end of last year, an RTLB cluster found themselves with a spare licence for Wordchain for Web. It was given to an 8 year-old student who had made almost no progress in Reading Recovery, who was struggling to make headway in this business of reading.
Over the summer holidays, he logged into Wordchain 319 times, multiple times a day, although some of those logins may have been very brief. He was hooked. And with no other intervention, he returned to school reading at an age-appropriate level.
This is one student’s experience. For this student, a concentrated burst of practice, developing the skills, was transformational.

Wordchain for Web offers so much more than the versions from the Apple store or Google Play. Students can log in on any device, on a PC at home, an iPad at Gran's, and a Chromebook at school. They will also have access to all levels of Wordchain within the licence, so they may start part way through Wordchain 1, and then move to Wordchain 2. Wherever they start, they need to be kept challenged! There is no significant learning going on if it is too easy.

We will eventually be removing Wordchain from the app stores. We have left it there for now so users can reload the apps if necessary, but that will come to an end.

Wordchain for Web has just gone live, all four existing levels. Any minute now, the link to play.wordchain will be on the website, www.wordchain.co.nz It has been a huge project, much more involved than any of us imagined in the beginning. Thank you to the team at Little Monkey for the creation of this web based version.

Wordchain Reading Apps | Web Android iOS - Agility With Sound Wordchain Apps for Web, Android Google Play + iOS Apple Store - Betsy Sewell’s Agility With Sound programme for building capable confident Kiwi readers.

I have been able to give my full attention to writing Wordchain 5 this week, after the best part of a year dipping into it when time permits. Many chains are now written, others mapped out.

Wordchain 5 covers common but tricky spelling patterns, with words like treasure, among, accident, receive, delicious - patterns that trip up many older kids. The release of the browser version of Wordchain 1 is imminent, Wordchain 2, 3 and 4 not far behind. I expect Wordchain 5 to be a very useful adjunct.

There is a long way to go, but I am hopeful that WC 5 will be available in the first half of next year. It depends a little on how long lockdown continues...

A big day today. For some time now, we have been working on producing a web-based subscription version of the Wordchain apps, and Wordchain 1 is a whisker away from release. We expect Wordchain 2, 3 and 4 to follow quite quickly now that the groundwork is complete.
This will mean that Wordchain is accessible from any device - Chromebooks, PCs, MacBooks, at school or at home, or at more than one home.
I will be sending the new pricing structure to schools and other interested groups today and over the next few days. We have chosen to make it as affordable as we can possibly justify, in the expectation that it will help as many children as possible develop the skills for successful reading and spelling.
I am writing Wordchain 5, which may morph into Wordchain 5 and 6, all about multi-syllable words and less usual spelling patterns. It is difficult to write, it is hard to find time to dedicate to it, so that is a while away yet.

Penny and Oliver - my kids - struggled to learn to read, until I took them out of school, studied the science... Look where they are today. They are the inspiration behind Wordchain

Canterbury farmers to reveal their vegetable growing secrets at open day Jump on a tractor and grab some freshly picked produce at this Canterbury organic veggie farm's open day.

Today a public library purchased the entire collection of my decodable readers, 134 titles. I'm so pleased that families in this town will now be able to follow up skills developed in the Wordchain apps with appropriate reading material.

Structured literacy for older struggling students

Free webinars

This series of three webinars has been very popular, so I will continue running them, mostly on a weekly basis, while there is interest.
This week is full, but there are still a few spaces for the last week of February, 23rd, 24th, and 25th. I am now taking bookings for the first week of March, 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Please email me [email protected] if you are interested. I need your email address to invite you!

Webinar 1: What the latest research and evidence tells us about how good readers process words to read and spell. Beginner readers need to develop a basic skill set, but what are the advanced skills that must develop for students to navigate their way through the complexities of English orthography? And how do students who have not developed these skills compensate to cope?
1 hour Tuesday evenings, 7.30 p.m

Webinar 2: How to make a difference. What does structured literacy look like for older struggling readers, who may have lost confidence, who may have imbedded bad habits, who may resent resources and activities that seem babyish, who sometimes have complex needs? The ministry is now recommending three strands to an effective intervention, including decodable books. Agility with Sound follows this process exactly, including a large range of decodable books and other resources for older students, some for Yrs 4 – 6, some for Yrs 7 -10. The books are now listed by the prestigious Reading League in New York, one of a very small handful of collections listed for these age groups.
1 hour, Wednesday evenings, 7.30 p.m

Webinar 3: How to use this resource in the classroom, with the classroom teacher, with or without teacher aide support; and how to establish a starting point and measure progress. I will be demonstrating the New Zealand accent Wordchain apps immediately after this final webinar.
45 minutes, Thursday evenings, 7.30 p.m