FAQ

GWH™ has a comprehensive Scope and Sequence that incorporates and extends the principles of the Orton-Gillingham Approach.

Yes, all our lesson plans and scope and sequence are based on the principles of Structured Literacy which is a systematic and explicit pedagogy encompassing the Orton-Gillingham Approach.

GWH™ is a grapheme, vocabulary, and text database, which provides hundreds of customized lesson plans for all students of English whether they are in Kindergarten or preparing for college. Lessons promote reading fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, spelling, writing fluency, auditory memory, visual discrimination. Motivating games and supplementary materials provide a broad range of support for all students. 

The Scope and Sequence (S & S) proceeds along the Orton-Gillingham principle of teaching from simple to complex.  It is systematic and structured with each Level teaching skills and concepts that lay the foundation for the next Level. The S & S is cumulative with each Level including review of previously taught material.

Levels 1 – 12 teach all the 149 grapheme-phoneme associations and all Syllable Types and exceptions.  Syllable Types, Spelling rules, vocabulary and affixes are included.

Levels 13 – 15 focus on advanced vocabulary.

A lesson plan has an objective based on a linguistic element: Phonograms, Syllable Type and/or Affixes. A lesson plan consists of an Alphabet Card Drill, Word List, Sight Words, Sentences, Passages and/or Affixes.

2-syllable lessons combine syllable types taught.  For example, once you have taught Closed Syllables you could choose a Closed.Closed lesson plan. Both syllables will be Closed.

Each group of 2-syllable lesson plans is organized by first syllable: 

• Closed (CL) group has all the combinations of syllables, with the first syllable Closed, e.g. Closed. Closed (CL.CL.); Closed. Magic e (CL.VCe)
• Magic e (VCe) group has all the combinations of syllables, with VCe first syllable, e.g. VCe.VCe; VCe.CL
• Vowel Team (VV) group has all the combinations of syllables, with VV first syllable, e.g. VV.CL; VV.VCe; VV.VV
• R-controlled (Vr) group has all the combinations of syllables, with Vr first syllable, e.g. Vr.Vr; Vr.VCe, Vr.CL
• Open (O) Syllable group has all the combination of syllables, with Open as the first syllable, e.g. O. CL; O.VCe and O.O

The Consonant-l-e (Cle) syllable type is an exception and is always in the second position, e.g. Open.Cle, Closed.Cle

Teaching 2-syllable lesson plans will require the student to know syllable division rules.

The GWH™ has hundreds of lesson plans based on syllable type, spelling patterns and morphemes. It also has videos explaining key concepts and demonstrating methodology for students and teachers. There is an extensive library of resources for the classroom and tutor, such as, letter formation activities, drill packs, student booklets, word wheels, games and tracking tools.

Quick lessons is a lesson planning short cut.  To create a lesson plan you choose Level and syllable pattern that is the focus. You can add suffixes as well.

Using the Syllables & Graphemes option, you choose the graphemes as well as syllable pattern that is the focus. You can add suffixes as well. This option can be used if you want to be more specific in your choice of graphemes.

This means the combination of syllable types and graphemes does not yield enough words to produce a lesson plan, and you should change your grapheme selection or your syllable selection. 

Choose “Clear All” and begin again: Syllable Type → Graphemes → Download

It can also mean that these words do not combine with suffixes chosen. For Levels 1-4 try choosing more suffixes in a Set.

Remember after each selection to press apply to lesson plan.

Graphemes with a purple dot have very few words and need to be selected with other graphemes in the level.

Selections are indicated by a check mark.

You can add graphemes or delete graphemes from your selection.

Clicking on grapheme will select it for your lesson plan and a check mark will appear.

Clicking on a grapheme that has a check mark will “deselect” your choice. 

To start over press “Clear All”.

Consult the Scope and Sequence – every level includes previous phonograms and concepts taught in lower levels.

In addition, each level is divided into sections, which are taught in sequence. If there is more than one phonogram in one section, they are to be taught together.

A vowel is a ‘noisy’ stream of uninterrupted air produced by the vocal cords. The vocal cords vibrate to produce a vowel sound, which is not obstructed or blocked by any part of the vocal tract (lips, teeth, tongue, mouth). The vowel letters are a, e, i, o,and u. Also, “y” is considered a vowel in the medial or final position of a syllable when it “borrows” the sound from vowels “E” and “I”. Vowels can combine with other vowels, e.g. ea, ou, ay and with “w” and “gh” e.g. ow, aw, igh, eigh to make a “Vowel Team”.

Consonants are made with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract (lips, teeth, tongue, mouth). Some consonants involve vibration of the vocal cords (noisy/voiced) and some do not (voiceless/quiet). When teaching consonants, it is helpful to describe them by their points of articulation (lips, teeth, tongue, mouth) and manner of articulation (stream, puff, nasal flow of air).

A grapheme is a letter or combination of letters representing one sound (phoneme).

A phoneme is the smallest distinct unit of sound that forms a syllable. A phoneme is represented by / / marks. The phoneme of the short vowel “a” is /ă/.

A phonogram refers to both the grapheme and phoneme in a particular association.

A syllable is a word or part of a word with one vowel sound and one vowel letter.

A digraph is 2 letters that represent or spell one sound (one phoneme).  A vowel digraph consists of two vowels, or a vowel and consonant combination that produce a vowel sound. A consonant digraph consists of two consonants that represent or spell one consonant sound. The word is derived from Greek “di” meaning “two” or “twice”  and “graph” meaning “writing”.

A consonant cluster is also called a “blend”. These are letters that commonly occur or cluster together.  A cluster combination consists of more than one grapheme.

For example, br, cr, pr  are initial clusters with “r” occurring at the beginning of a syllable; nd, st, ct are final cluster occurring at the end of the syllable.  Clusters can also include digraphs, e.g. shr and nch.

A diphthong is a sliding or gliding vowel sound where the mouth begins in one position and glides to another. A diphthong produces the vowel sound in a single syllable.

For example, ou (cloud), ue (cue), oi (boil).

A diphthong refers to a vowel sound that is produced by a glide from one vowel sound to another (two sounds).  A digraph refers to the spelling of one sound with two letters (two letters). The words is derived from the Greek “di” meaning “two or “twice” and “phthongos” meaning “sound”.

A digraph is ONE grapheme spelling ONE phoneme.

A cluster is TWO+ graphemes spelling TWO+ phonemes. 

For example, 

The word   “lock” has one digraph, ONE grapheme “ck” and ONE phoneme /k/.

The word “frog” has an initial cluster with TWO graphemes “fr-” and each one is pronounced as TWO phonemes /f/+/r/.

The word “land” has a final cluster with TWO graphemes “-nd” and each one is pronounced as TWO phonemes /n/+/d/.

Multi-sensory learning is the theory that individuals learn better if they are taught using more than one sense (modality). The senses usually employed in multisensory learning are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile – VAKT (i.e. seeing, hearing, doing, and touching).

Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual phonemes within a spoken word and is crucial for learning the letter-sound relationships in our language.

In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language.

Latin and Greek lesson plans focus on morphological analysis of words, and teach vocabulary based on a single root, prefix, suffix or Greek Combining Form. Extensive comprehension activities are included in each lesson plan.