Introduction

WordWork provides activities at word level for each week of the year. You can work from the word lists provided or you can make your own. Once you have chosen the words to work with, there are many different activities. All of them can be carried out as whole class activities directed by the teacher.

The major parts of WordWork were designed to be controlled by the teacher, so a whiteboard is an ideal medium for presentation.

Many of the activities, games or investigations we describe can also be used by individual children, pairs or small groups, but the list of ideas is by no means exhaustive.

Suggestions involving pairs of pupils can often be adapted to involve three or four children, as long as the instructions to them are clear and the 'ownership' of the mouse and keyboard is well established. It is good (not to say very helpful) classroom practice to establish simple computer etiquette early on.

Fundamentals

The basic operating procedure is simple: choose a list from one of the Groups or the User lists and then, using the Activities Page, decide what to do with the words in the selected list. There are also Other activities that play with words.

Getting Started – Setting the Configuration

Press ctrl + F2 from the startup screen (or hold down shift and right click on the title bar) to access Configuration.

Font

Click on the Font selector arrow to display the fonts available on your computer. To select the font you wish to use either scroll down the list or press a key on the keyboard corresponding to the initial letter of the font you are searching for.

Screen Mode

Select the way you wish your computer to display the program.

Speech – voice name

Speech can only be used if your computer has a suitable speech engine installed.

Choose your preferred speech option. Synthesised speech is produced from a combination of phonemes and so produces the sound of the word using the normal pronunciation rules. It does not take account of regional variations in pronunciation and is particularly useful in supporting pronunciation of nonsense words. Words that can have two different pronunciations depending on whether they are verbs or nouns (for example, read, object) can be used to provoke discussion on pronunciation. In most sections of the program, click on a word to hear it spoken.

Speech – speed

Adjust the slider to decrease or increase the speech speed. There is also a check box to turn synthesised speech off and on.

Effects

Animated effects are used in some activities in the program. If you are using a computer with a slow processor speed (less that 133MHz), turn this option off.

Quick Guide

On the Activity Screen (see page 5) there is an option to export a list. Hold the shift key down before clicking on the Export List button.

On some activities there is a Type button. Click on it to edit the word displayed. Click on it again to hide the edited word.

On some activities there is an Info button. Click on it to show information on the word. Click on it again to hide the information.

Teachers' Helpers

The dictionary used in WordWork contains over 20,000 words. All undesirable words have been removed. Where the computer generates nonsense words, it checks that the word is suitable before it is displayed.

In most activities the next word to be displayed is shown in light grey at the top right of the screen. Click on this prompt with the left mouse button if you want to skip that word and go on to the next one. Click on the prompt with the right mouse button to toggle it on and off.

In activities where an on screen keyboard is displayed, click on the ? on the right to show a prompt for suitable letters. Click once to show the prompt discreetly, click twice to show the prompt in red. Click again to remove the prompt. Where an on-screen keyboard is displayed, the normal QWERTY keyboard can also be used.

Using WordWork

WordWork includes ready-made lists of words in accordance with the English Literacy Strategy, but the lists will be applicable to most needs in any classroom. Suggested age ranges are as follows:

Group 1 4-5

Group 2 5-6

Group 3 6-7

Group 4 7-8

Word lists for children aged 8-11 are supported in WordWork 2. Press F1 (the Windows Help key) to see a reminder of this list. You may also use your own word lists (see page 13).

To use WordWork, you must first select the words with which to work.

Using the word lists with your class

In the descriptions which follow, we will assume that WordWork is being used with the whole class or a large group, although many activities can be used with small groups or individuals. Suggestions for use can be found in the text.

There are many activities with back and forward arrows. When these are being used by individuals or groups but especially by pairs, they can be encouraged to go both ways. In other words, on reaching the end of the list, use the < arrow to go back again with the other member of the pair answering the words which he or she did not tackle the first time through.

Let's look at the activities by choosing an example.

Select Group 2 and the screen shown here will appear. (You could also use your own list but we'll come to this later.)

You will have over 40 lists to choose from. Lists highlighted in blue work well in the Reveal activity. Those highlighted in green are particularly suitable for the Sorting activity. (On the Group 1 page, click on the arrow to show additional sets 46-49.) You will see that word-level work is broken down into manageable chunks . . .

Choose Initial cluster pl-pr in the first column. This will select words of four letters starting with 'pl' or 'pr' and take you to the Activities Screen.

From here you can choose a number of options:

On the Activities screen, click on View list, then on Large. The words are displayed in a size big enough to be seen some distance away even without a computer projector or interactive whiteboard. The display gives an opportunity to view the whole set of words. You will probably want to do this before using the program with the class. When viewing the words with the class, you may wish to use this option to draw attention to less familiar or problem words. To give closer attention to individual words, see Browse the list below. Click on any word to hear it spoken.

Activities which use one word

To make use of any of the other activities, click on the back arrow. We are going to look at 1 word activities.

Browse the list

This activity will enable you to display the words one at a time in a large font size. You may wish to use this for word recognition or to point out other aspects of particular words, explain the meaning of unfamiliar words and so on. This is a good precursor to any of the other activities and might be used again in the plenary session at the end of the Literacy Hour.

If you press the Type button, the word will be displayed and you will be able to type additional letters or delete letters. In this way you can show that 'fine', say, can become 'fined' or 'fines' – or can be altered to 'finally' or 'finish' or 'refined' and so on.

Browse the list could be used in ways similar to those described in Onsets, Rimes and CVCs (page 16). There is less of a game element but there is the opportunity for covering more than nine words at a time.

It may be appropriate for some pupils to use Browse the list on their own to revise words already covered in whole class time.

Some pupils will gain from seeing the word, saying it to the best of their ability and then checking by clicking on it to hear it spoken. Others will need someone, such as a teachers' aide, to assist them.

It is also a useful activity for some children to use the typing facility to help develop accuracy of spelling. They can press Type, delete the letters and then retype the word, simply copying the correct version. Again, this may require the presence of an adult but not necessarily a teacher.

Delete a letter

Children can suggest which letter(s) can be removed and still leave a proper word.

For example, in 'frog', you can click on g or r to remove them. The new word is shown in red. If you click on f or o, the message I don't know that word is displayed. Click on a new word to hear it.

If working away from the computer, or keeping a record at the computer, a simple line or circle will show the letter to be removed. If more than one can be deleted, the word should be written twice.

Insert a letter

This works in a similar way, except the alphabet is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Children will discuss and suggest which letters it is possible to add to the word to make a different word. In the example 'plan', e, i, k or t can be added to make 'plane', 'plain', 'plank' or 'plant'.

Click on the ? on the right of the keyboard to show a prompt for suitable letters. Click once to show the prompt with a discreet green square, click twice to show the prompt letters in red. Click again to remove the prompt. Where an on-screen keyboard is displayed the normal QWERTY keyboard can also be used.

Both the original and the new word will be spoken if clicked on.

Pupils can write down the starter word, work through the highlighted letters and write out all the words which can be made with the addition of one letter. For example, using magic e words with medial vowel o, the starter word might be 'poke'. They can click on the highlighted r, s and d and write down 'poked', 'poker' and 'pokes'.

Insert a letter will work well with a co-operative pair guessing which letters can be added to make which words and then checking their answers. As with Words within words, they can be shown how to write out the starter word with room between the letters so that others can be inserted.

Change a letter

Change a letter works similarly. In the example 'plop', c, f or s can replace p to make 'clop', 'flop' or 'slop'.

Now click on the l. o or r can replace l to make 'poop' or 'prop'. Click on the o. There are no letters which will replace the o and still make a correct word. Click on the final p; d, t or y will make 'plod', 'plot' or 'ploy'. Click on a new word to hear it.

While Change a letter can be used in similar ways to Insert and Delete letters, there is greater depth to this activity because of the possibility of changing each of the letters in the word.

Away from the computer, pairs or individuals could work on a word like 'hall', which would be written out four times across the page. Under the first, they would write any words which resulted from changing the first letter. Under the next, words resulting from a change of second letter, and so on.

Later they can check their answers at the computer and add, in a different colour, ones that they had not thought of – like halo!

Find words within

Most of the words in the 'pl/pr' list have one word within them. However, if you look at word list such as Group 3 'Irregular verb tenses' or 'Months' you will see words with up to three words within them. The words are always formed from consecutive letters. Once again, this can be a group activity with children suggesting the words they can see, or a team game, with teams taking it in turn to suggest a word. Click on the reveal button to show all words within. (There is an interactive game version of 'words within' in the Spelling program I Can Spell available from Resource Education.)

If children enjoy this activity, you can use Make new list to create lists which have certain words repeated. For example, make a list of words which contain the word 'ear'. Children do not necessarily need to be able to read the longer word. Indeed, it will help them decoding unfamiliar words if they have practised finding 'ear' in 'search' or 'rat' in 'scratch'.

This is a useful activity for pairs or individuals with children saying, or better, writing, words they think are within the displayed word before checking. They could also be shown how to write the displayed word and then circle subsequent words in different colours.

Alternatively, the words can be worked out on paper first and then the program used for children to check their answers. Bearing in mind that the aim of the activity is to encourage children to concentrate on the make up of words, the issue of whether individuals cheat by altering their answers can be overcome by telling them to correct them if an error has been made.

The screen

This activity initially displays a blank rectangle which screens the word behind it. Click on the top arrow. The screen shrinks slightly. Do this again. The top of the word becomes increasingly visible. Soon it is possible to guess which word it is.

Children will be surprised at how quickly it is possible to work out the word from the smallest visual clues. This activity is ideal for team games. You can click on the screen to hear the word at any stage. You can carry out the same activity by shrinking from the bottom edge, or a mixture of the two.

The screen can be easily used as a pair activity. One pupil operates the mouse and counts the number of clicks. The other guesses the word as soon as he or she is able. The pupils then swap over. A simple scoring system (if required) would be: one point for each click, five points for a wrong guess; the pupil with the lower total after an agreed number of goes, wins. The word will be completely visible in twelve clicks.

Alternatively, three pupils can play, with one controlling the mouse and the winner being the first to say the word correctly.

Activities which use two words

Browse the list

This displays words two at a time, giving the opportunity to bring out similarities and differences. One area where such a comparison would be useful is homophones where words with the same vowel sound but varying spellings are listed. However, any list where you are trying to differentiate between sounds, whether initial (pl/pr etc) or end (nd/ng etc) will be appropriate.

Word Shapes

This activity presents two words and a word shape. The aim is to match the shape to the appropriate word. In the example the shape is that of 'plod', not 'plan'. Click on the words or the shape to hear the word spoken, click on Reveal to show the word.

Reveal

One word is shown and the other hidden. Either will be spoken if clicked on. Click on Reveal to show the hidden word. The lists which work well with this activity are shown in blue on the preset selection screen; for instance, antonyms where the hidden word will be the opposite of the word displayed, or homophones, where the hidden word will sound the same as the displayed word.

The Reveal activity can be used by individuals or pairs, to great effect. A single user can simply view the displayed word, guess the hidden word and then check his or her answer.

Two pupils can take it in turns to guess the word. In the example, the answer is 'low'.

Alphabetical Order

Two words are shown. Which word comes first, alphabetically?

Children will suggest which one and you can click to see if the suggestion is correct. The difficulty of this activity will vary considerably according to the list selected. Some very simple lists, for example, words beginning with 'sl/sp' will be harder to order than more advanced lists which have greater initial letter differences.

Portmanteau Words

This activity is not suitable for all word lists. Portmanteau words are those made up from two other words, for example, brunch from breakfast and lunch or motel from motor and hotel. Such words are often humorous or nonsensical. Clearly, two very similar words will not create an interesting combination. Try out different word lists. Go to the startup screen and choose User lists. The 'portmanteau' list includes a number of words which, when combined, can form commonly used portmanteau words. Select this list and then click on 'Portmanteau'. Try out the combinations. You can use the Try Again button to see a variety of possibilities.

The first part of the portmanteau word can be set from either word. As an example, click on the n in lunch to show a portmanteau word beginning 'lun'. Click on Try Again to find other combinations. This may well produce 'lunfast'. Why did 'brunch' come into common use and not 'lunfast'?

'First antonyms' from the Group 3 set can make an interesting series of portmanteau words. 'Dallow' from 'deep' and 'shallow', 'clirty' from 'clean' and 'dirty', 'hoft' from 'hard' and 'soft', 'tottom' from 'top' and 'bottom'. What meanings do these words suggest? Does hoft describe something neither hard nor soft? What is clirty and does it differ from dean? Is tottom half way between top and bottom – or is it at the top of the bottom? Suggesting or deducing meanings from made up words is good practice for working out the possible meaning of real unfamiliar words.

Back Words

This activity presents a word written backwards above a blank rectangle which screens the word written in the normal fashion.

You can hear the word by clicking on the rectangle or show it by clicking on the reveal button. This can be used as a whole class game where each child guesses a word in turn. In some cases, where there are only a few words in the list, some will come around two or three times. This gives less confident children (if their turn comes later rather than sooner) a better chance of guessing the correct answer.

Use the Sorter

Before starting this activity, you will need to decide what categories are useful. You can sort words into two or three categories. These might be noun, verb, adjective (or noun, verb, both or noun, verb, either – or indeed noun, verb, neither) or two onsets, for example, 'pl' and 'pr'. (Remember, however, that the computer does not know the correct answers!)

Lists which are particularly appropriate for sorting are shown in green. When you select Use the sorter, you will be prompted to type in your categories. Type PL enter, 'pr' enter and then enter again. You are now ready to use the sorter with the group.

A word is displayed. Is it a PL or a 'pr' word? Click on the appropriate button at the bottom of the screen. Continue doing this until you or the list is exhausted. To display the lists of sorted words, click the right mouse button on a sort category.

To go back to the sorting activity click the left mouse button anywhere on the screen.

The Sorter is extremely dependent on one of the users knowing which category is correct for a given word. However, it could be used by a small group or an individual if the teacher has already set up the sort categories. The users could then work through the activity, making decisions about the words on their own, as long as there was someone to check their lists when they finish and give feedback when they finish. It might be helpful to set up two specific categories and a 'Don't Know', which will minimise constant reference to the teacher or random sorting.

A yes/no sort like the one above is useful to concentrate attention on a specific feature, such as verbs. Bear in mind, of course, that context/position alters a word's function; in this kind of sorting, however, we are merely interested in whether the word displayed can be a verb.

Shannon's Game

Shannon's Game is a variant of Hangman. The computer selects a word from the list with which you are currently working. It shows the length of the word and the first letter.

The task is to discover the whole word, a letter at a time, working from the left. In the example, 'p' can be followed by a number of letters, though if the children have been paying attention they will know that the next letter will be 'l' or 'r'. If you guess the second letter correctly, the game moves on to the third letter. If you choose an impossible combination, for example, 'pz' or 'pg', the letter chosen will appear under the heading Not in my list. A letter which combines to make a possible combination, for example, 'pa', 'po', 'pi' etc will be listed under the Possible heading. You will also notice that a Not in my list choice also displays a pair of shorts! (Continue to click on an impossible series of letters to see what happens.)

When you have solved the puzzle, the zero at the bottom right of the screen will change to a 1 and you can continue with the game and guess a new word. The game can be played simply against the computer or a team element can be introduced. Teams could choose in turn or take alternate words, seeing how many letters are accumulated in the Possible and Not in my list columns before the word is guessed. (You might score 1 for a Possible, 3 for a Not in my list and 10 for a failure to solve the word; the team with the fewest points winning, of course.)

Shannon's Game can be played by a group of any size. It can also be used by a single player. There are many ways to organise the playing. In some cases, a free for all actually works well, as long as the mouse operator is reliable! Otherwise, strict turns on choosing a letter is probably the best system.

When the teacher is working with a group, the children will suggest the next letter in the word. If a pupil suggests a letter which is possible, the question can be posed, 'What word were you thinking of?' If the pupil is unable to think of a word, then the Make New List section should be used as an extension activity.

In the example here, ask the pupil to write down the letters already found – in this case 'pl' – then the possible letter, then the number of letters in the word. In the Make new list section, type in 'pla=4' to find possible words.

Making your own lists

As well as the predefined lists for each year, there is a section to create your own list of words. You can create lists of words found in the WordWork dictionary using a Simple search, a Complex search, or type in your own list.

Make a list using Simple search

Go to the startup screen and select Make new list. You can search for words that begin with, contain or end with any combination of letters. You can also use more than (>), less than(<) and equals(=) to define the length of words in your list.

For example, click on contain and type 'bbl' ENTER. The program will find 59 words which contain bbl. If you wish, you can use this list in any of the activities described already. Experiment with begin with and end with and you will see how powerful this search tool can be.

Another example, showing the use of less than would be to click on end with, type 'ate<5' and press enter in order to find words ending with ate of less than five letters. Ten words will be found.

You can use the Search facility to investigate word rules and exceptions. Take the old favourite, I before E except after C when the sound is EE. Try a search using Contain for ei<8; you will be surprised how few exceptions there are to the rule (if you know it in full).

Make a list using Advanced search

Go to the startup screen, hold down the shift key and select Make new list. A number of wildcards are available to you to make an initial search – the Help button will show you a complete list of options.

The illustration shows the results of a search for words that start with 's', followed by a single consonant, double-e and then any number of characters (s@ee*). If you click on add results to word list, you switch the attention to the new list of found words and can enter different search criteria to remove words from it. In the example below, the list of 44 words has been reduced to 15 by removing all words of more than five letters (*>5).

Click in the Word list area to edit the word list .

To create a list of your own selection of words

Go to the startup screen, hold down the shift key and select Make a new list. Click in the Word list panel and type or paste your words.

Additional categories might include place names, pupil names or your weekly spelling list.

You can also create a text file of words in any word processor. Save the list as a .TXT file and use Import to bring in to WordWork.

Saving your list

User lists

Lists that you have added to WordWork can be found by clicking User list on the Startup screen. A number of user lists are included with the program and you can create your own lists as described above. Choose a list. The Activities screen is now shown, where you will find that the View list button now reads View/Edit list. Click on the button. To add or edit words, hold down Shift and right-click. You will see that you can edit or delete the word on which you clicked. You also have the option of adding a new word.

Search for lists

Rather than search each Group for a list, clicking this button will allow you to search for words or groups of letters in every list in WordWork 1. The same wildcards as Simple search (see above) can be used and the results show the titles of lists that contain the search letters.

Other activities: Onsets, rimes, CVCs: a word recognition activity

An onset is the start of a word: the initial consonant or consonant cluster. Some words do not have onsets, for example, ate, out or ill. The rime (confusingly similar to rhyme) is that part of the syllable which contains the vowel and final consonant/consonant cluster, if there is one. For example, in 'bright', 'br' is the onset and 'ight' is the rime. This activity also covers CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

There is a choice of the five CVC patterns, 30 onsets and 35 rimes. To use the activity, select any one of these.

The playing area shows a 3 x 3 grid. This is an activity for two teams under the direction of the teacher or teacher's assistant. Team 1 chooses a number. Click on that number to display a word. A member of that team says the word. If it is said correctly, click on Team 1 and that square will be coloured in appropriately. If incorrect, Team 2 can be asked. If neither can say it correctly, click on Unknown. The winner is the team colouring the most squares. All the words will be displayed when all the squares are coloured in.

A variant is to play noughts and crosses. To do this, select O/X on the choice screen before choosing the onset, rime or CVC. Now it will be the first team to make a line that is the winner. This is a good activity to reinforce and round off a session where a new phoneme or letter cluster has been introduced.

Individuals or pairs can play the Wholeboard or Noughts and Crosses game. In addition, they can be supplied with a full word list, from which the game words will be drawn. Pupils can then tick off the ones which are shown, either as they go along or at the end of each game.

This is how to prepare such a list. If your focus is, say, words ending in 'ack', go to Make new list from the main menu, click on Ends with and type 'ack<6' enter. From the next screen that comes up, hold down shift, click on Export list and enter a name (yours, or a file name like ackwords). This list will be stored for you to print out.

If there are significantly more than nine words in the list, children can try the game a few times and see which words they spot each time – some will be repeated and some may not be shown. This is also an introduction to the notion of randomness and probability.

In terms of the usual mode of using the activity, i.e. word recognition, you may not be able to insist on the word being spoken correctly by the pupil if there is no one present to arbitrate. You might simply say, 'Listen to the word and repeat it'. In other words, this becomes a co-operative game rather than one with a winner.

Click on the <r> at the bottom right of the screen to reset the board with a new arrangement of words. At the end of the game (assuming none have been left 'unknown') all the words will be displayed and there is an opportunity to check again which words have been used and which omitted. If pupils are not making use of their own check list, you might ask them to think of and write down any words of the same pattern which the game has not shown.

The Blender

The Blender puts word parts together, sometimes forming words, sometimes not. If Always is selected, the combination will always make a proper word. You can also choose Sometimes and Never. (Never is useful when discussing nonsense words and investigating sounds without the prejudice of knowing what words mean and how they are supposed to sound.)

Select Always and then list 1: c-a-t d-o-g. On this setting you have a word recognition activity not unlike Onsets, Rimes and CVCs. You can use it with teams in a similar way, recording points to each team by clicking on either the boy or girl at the bottom of the screen. Click on the green bar to get a new word.

Select Sometimes and the same list. The task is now to say if it is a word or not. You can then change all of the letters at once (the long bar) or one at a time (the short bars). A correct decision earns a sandcastle. The sandcastle disappears if an incorrect answer is given.

Finally, select Never and try the same word list.

This game can be played with any of the lists but separate spinning of the letters is only available in lists 1 to 4 on the letter blender selection screen.

Other lists focus on common vowel phonemes or a mixture of phonemes.

Click on a displayed word to hear it spoken. The program will speak nonsense words to the best of its ability.

The Blender can be used by pairs or individuals most effectively if Sometimes is selected. You can then decide the appropriate focus and leave children to decide if the combinations generated are indeed words. Some lists generate more real words than others: the first four lists are more likely to generate correct words, partly because individual parts can be altered. Pupils might be asked to write down words which they think are correct – including any about which they are unsure, for example, a word like 'speach' which they may feel is a word, not recognising the misspelling. They can then check these with the teacher or a word book, as appropriate.

Children will enjoy speaking non-words, such as 'grond', 'glack' and 'plink' and then hearing the computer speak them. This will give them practice in tackling unfamiliar words and in recognising letter clusters etc even when they are not part of recognised words.

Scores shown at the bottom right and left can be adjusted by clicking right or left mouse button on them.

Starts and ends

These activities will allow you to reinforce some of the work you have covered, with particular attention to beginnings and endings.

Group 1 word list and CVC words

Click on this option. Type in a word of three to eleven letters and press enter.

The computer will use the letters of your word as the initial letters of further words. These words will be drawn from a limited list: the Group 1 word list plus CVC words. This is good practice for children to type in their own names and see what words come up – and whether they know them and can say them. Click on any of the words to hear them. To save a list of words shown, press the shift key and click on the folder icon.

Children can type in words of their choice and see what the program generates as 'acrostics'. They can make copies of these by hand. Away from the computer they can make up their own, with the help of an alphabetically arranged word list or their own personal list.

Words of up to four letters

This works in the same way except that the words drawn upon will be from a more extensive list: words of up to four letters.

Alternate up to two first letters

This activity is useful to round off work on initial sounds. In the example, words with the initial cluster 'pl' and 'pr' have been the focus.

Children can read down the list, which comprises words which they have already come across a number of times in previous activities, differentiating between the two sounds. This can be fun as a 'choral' activity, and gives support to those who may still lack confidence.

Alternate up to two end letters

This is a similar activity, focusing on endings rather than beginnings.

Type in 'ld/nd' then enter. This is an example of the list which may be displayed.

With a list such as 'bran', 'blow', 'brow', 'blob', 'bray', 'blur', two pupils can take turns to read the words, and click on the words, if they wish, to hear the computer-spoken version. They might then write the list down in two columns so that the concept of categorisation is reinforced.