• Excerpt from the Wilson Website;

    The Just Words class is not just teaching reading and spelling basics, it is providing the foundational skills that are necessary in today’s economy. Just Words provides a curriculum for the accelerated study of word structure through the six syllable types in English and the most common Latin roots. It is a highly explicit, multi-sensory decoding and spelling program for students in grades 4 – 12 and adults who do not require intensive intervention but do require explicit decoding and spelling instruction due to word-level deficits.

    The Just Words phonics and spelling instruction includes:

    • Study of English sound system
    • Phoneme segmentation skills for up to six sounds in a syllable with application for decoding and spelling
    • Syllable structure including six basic syllable types in English and syllable division patterns used for decoding
    • Spelling of common Latin suffix endings when added to unchanging basewords
    • Process for vocabulary study as well as meaning of common Latin roots
    • Decoding application with phrasing for meaning
    • Automatic reading and spelling of the first 250 most frequently used words from Edward Fry’s List of High Frequency Words as well as additional high frequency words
    • Directed, accelerated pacing of Wilson phonics and spelling instruction
    The following is a list of topics covered in each Unit. A unit is intended to take two weeks. There are 14 two week units plus two weeks of review at the midterm and final assessments and two bonus units that teach Latin roots and affixes. 

     Unit 1 

    Includes a brief study of written English; Letter-Keyword-Sounds for short vowels, consonants, and digraphs; sound recognition for short vowels, consonants, and digraphs, phoneme segmentation (3 sounds in a word) for reading and spelling; blending sounds for decoding; and spelling ck at the end of words.

    Unit 2  

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • Consonant blends (for example: st, sk, fl, sw, str, )
    • Digraph blends (for example: shr-, thr-, -nch)
    • Closed syllables
    • Closed syllable exceptions (ind, ost, old, olt, ild)
    • Blending and segmenting syllables with up to 6 sounds.

    Unit 3  

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • Bonus letter spelling rule, ff, ll, ss, and sometimes zz
    • Segmenting and spelling words with bonus letters
    • Welded sounds: all, am, an, ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, unk
    • Blending and reading words with welded sounds
    • Segmenting and spelling words with welded sounds

    Unit 4

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • Base words with the suffixes -s, -es, ing, and -ed (pronounced as /ed/, /t/, and /d/ )
    • Homophones to, too, two

    Unit 5
    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • Reading and spelling words with two and three closed syllables
    • Reading and spelling compound words
    • Correctly applying the rules of syllable division to words with two, three and 4 consonants between vowels
    • Correctly spelling ic at the end of multi-syllabic words

    Unit 6

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • instructs students on the following suffixes:  -er, -er/-est, -ful, -less, -ment, -ness, -ish, -en.  
    • It also provides specific instruction and practice on how to add these suffixes to a base word (when to double a final consonant, etc)

    Unit 7

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • introduces the concept of vowel-consonant-e syllables
    • two sounds of s (/s/ and /z/)
    • how to use the spelling option procedure
    • compound words
    • vowel consonant e exception syllable (ive)
    • suffix -ive
    • silent e spelling rule

    Unit 8

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • reading and spelling words with open syllables
    • y says long i when at the end of a one syllable word
    • Y says long e when at the end of a multi-syllabic word
    • suffixes -y, -ly, -ty

    Unit 9

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • 'r' controlled syllables
    • spelling options for /er/
    • adding suffixes to r-controlled syllables
    • 1-1-1 spelling with r-controlled words

    Unit 10

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • multi-syllabic r-controlled words
    • adding suffixes to multi-syllablic words
    • 1-1-1 doubling rule, part 2, multisyllabic words
    • i.e. partnership, formulate, observing, permitting

    Unit 11

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • vowel teams: ai, ay
    • vowel teams: ee, ea, ey
    • vowel teams: oi, oy
    • forming plurals-words ending in y
    • y spelling rule
    • i.e. obtain, indeed, employment, galaxies

    Unit 12

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • vowel teams: oa, oe, ow
    • vowel teams: ou, ow
    • vowel teams: ue, ew, ou, oo
    • vowel teams: au, aw
    • i.e. bound, cue, fraud, flawless

    Unit 13

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • consonant -le syllable
    • -le with a suffix
    • -tion, -sion
    • i.e. staple, baffle, buckle, option, mission

    Unit 14

    • continues to review all previously taught concepts and adds the following:
    • syllable review
    • schwa sound
    • roots and prefix review
    • base word and suffix review
    • vowel suffix -able
    • spelling rules review.