Words in Color is a literacy approach created by Caleb Gattegno

Caleb Gattegno

Caleb Gattegno Alexandria, Egypt is best known for his innovative approaches to teaching and learning mathematics , foreign languages and reading...

, and originally released in 1962. This approach attempts to make the English language phonetic by assigning a unique color (or color combination) to every sound in the language. Color is intended to trigger the correct sounds and avoid having students repeat a sound someone else has said. Words in Color consists of teaching/learning materials, as well as an approach to teaching Gattegno called The Subordination of Teaching to Learning.

The Fidel

The Fidel is a chart that arranges the 59 sounds of spoken English (each with a different color) into columns, listing each spelling for each sound. For example, the blue column which is sounded e as in pet has 10 spellings: e as in pet, ea as in lead, a as in any, u as in bury, ai as in said, ay as in says, ie as in friend, eo as in leopard, ei as in heifer, ae as in aesthetic. The Fidel can be used to emphasize the sound-color relationship , to isolate individual sound-spellings, or to tap out words not found on the Word Charts, among other uses. Gattegno named this table the Fidel because, "This is an Ethiopian word used to describe such a table of signs and borrowed from that language because it was in Addis Ababa in 1957 when for the first time I did this type of analysis of the signs and sounds of the English language."

Word Charts

Color-coded word charts begin with Chart 0 (containing only five simple vowel sounds) and progress to Chart 20 (complex and "difficult" words).

Books

Gattegno created a series of Reading Primers, workbooks and storybooks for new readers. These books are in black-and-white type.

Pointer

A pointer is used to tap out a sequence of words on the Word Charts, or a sequence of signs on the Fidel. Rather than speaking the sound, word, or sentence, the teacher taps and the students read. This is also reversed – teacher says the word, and the students tap the sounds.

The Approach

The approach emphasizes mastery of the small challenges in the act of reading, then building on those challenges. For example, in Gattegno's book The Common Sense of Teaching Reading and Writing, he allocates about one hour, or even more, for students to read the sound "a" as in "pat." The challenges involved with reading this sound include becoming aware of basic writing conventions: 1) words are written on lines, 2) they are read from left to right, 3) pages are read top to bottom, 4) spaces are left between words, 5) signs are used to trigger sounds. The challenge of putting these basic reading conventions into practice must be mastered before moving on to the next bigger challenges, and each subsequent challenge must be mastered before increasing the challenge.

Allowing students to work on challenges, rather than being told answers, is key to Gattegno's teaching approach. This is why he called it The Subordination of Teaching to Learning. Gattegno didn't want teachers of his approach to "correct, mark, and report," but instead to be concerned with "epistemology, psychology, feedback of various kinds, diagnosis of difficulties, strategies, etc."

Other Languages

For first-language literacy, Gattegno developed LeoColor for Spanish, La Lecture en Couleurs for French, and Lekti an Koulé for Haitian Creole. He developed other languages under the name The Silent Way for foreign language acquisition.

External links

• Words in Color general info http://educationalsolutions.com/words-in-color/introduction?menuId=98&ms=1
• Words in Color view all charts http://educationalsolutions.com/words-in-color/view-charts?menuId=134&ms=1