Some people have asked why Wordchain for Web licences are for 6 months, rather than a year.
Students who struggle to read (or spell – or both!) have usually not yet learnt how to process words the way good readers and writers do.
Competency requires a particular way of thinking.
It requires building phonological awareness to an instinctive and proficient level.
It requires students to automatically think of letters as representing the sounds of spoken English, to think in those sounds rather than in letter names. It requires students to instantly make the match between letters or letter combinations and their pronunciation.
It requires students to consciously and eventually unconsciously make the link between the pronunciation and spelling pattern of words, to remember words by making this link.
This needs a considerable shift in a struggling student’s thinking about words. It is best achieved if the student is thoroughly immersed in this new way of thinking.
Wordchain is much more effective if it is used regularly.
This means preferably daily, for as much time as practical, rather than a dabble now and then. There will be some students who cannot leave it alone, who log in at home and whizz through the whole lot quite quickly. They will benefit more than the students who string it out.
It’s similar to learning times tables as foundational mathematics skills: they’re far more likely to become instinctual with regular, daily training – including printouts on the toilet wall!
We decided the licences should be valid for six months, and that students can jump up Wordchain numbers in that time, because we really do not want schools making one level last all year. We want to see students get maximum success out of Wordchain, and that means regular use and regular progress.
Note: If a licence is activated in mid-March, it will be valid until almost the end of Term 3. Hopefully, most students will complete a level before that.