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What is Total Words?

Total Words is an efficiency-focused digital reading platform designed to rapidly increase reading skills.

 

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Who is it for?

​Teachers, students and parents can use Total Words for reading practice, 'catch-up reading', topic research, classroom guided reading, fast-progress individual interventions, assessing class reading behaviours and targeting reading resources to where they are needed and have an impact.

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I'm a Teacher

What does the Total Words Platform do for me?

  • Provides immediate data on student performance that can be used to plan individual and group programmes for progress

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  • Highlights words that students need to learn

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  • Lets you share evidence of student achievements with parents

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  • Lets you know where additional resources can be used most effectively and where they are not required

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  • Saves you valuable time by supplying learning worksheets that accompany each book for: comprehension, recall, finding details, expressing opinions, responding creatively to content.

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I'm a Parent

What does the Total Words Platform do for me?

  • Lets you know what words your child can read

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  • Lets you celebrate your child’s daily achievements

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  • Lets you share interesting topic details that your children are reading

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  • Helps you see what it takes for your child to convert unknown words into known ones

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  • Helps you to be confident that you are supporting your child's learning – (parents don’t need to ‘teach’ a specific way of learning to read)

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  • You will see the impact of regularly reading a high number of words each day

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Total Words is on a mission

to change the way we can do reading

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For students

What does the Total Words Platform do?

  • Tells students how many words they have read, how many words they know and how long it takes to read each book they select

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  • Let’s students describe exactly what progress they have achieved in reading sessions (eg. what they have been able to do today that they could not do yesterday)

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  • Builds confidence by showing what progress is being made, day-by-day, week-by-week

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  • Keeps a record of the total number of words read each week

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  • Shows what effect more practices have on the number of words read, the number of new words learnt, reading speed and accuracy

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  • Gives access to inclusive, factual reading material (that isn't patronising), no matter what age they are

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Why 'total words'?

  • The number of words read each day is the essential foundation for gaining skills

  • We measure progress in the number of words read and the number of new words learnt

  • Reading is meaning, not just saying words but reading and understanding the total word

How does it work?

  • Read a digital book with the Total Words App and double-click any unknown words

  • Get immediate feedback on word accuracy, unknown words and reading speed

  • Choose to read the book again today, tomorrow, read another book or do an activity

  • See progress by sharing the evidence calculated by the app

  • Plan the most effective learning pathway based on individual data

  • Retain skills by reading the book again 2 weeks or 3 weeks later and comparing the data

  • Support is at your side all the way – adults are encouraging, not allowing any errors, telling you how you’re doing, recording progress practice-by-practice, day-by-day

How to Make Rapid Reading Progress

How to Improve Reading Accuracy

Why it works...

  • Time is precious – students read as many words as possible in a session (no stumbling through sentences, students have immediate prompts for unknown words and practice correct reading).

  • Progress is visible – "today I read 425 words, this week I learnt 25 new words, I can read 680 words in a day…"

  • Design – our books are expertly designed to make learning effective – our texts are written specifically to give scope for reading progress.

  • No delays – immediate feedback, no waiting for the expert to ‘assess’. Total Words offers a simple pragmatic, fast response to maximise the impact of each session, maximising progress.

  • Learners own their progress – daily progress feeds motivation, learners set their goals and share their progress stories day-by-day.

  • Data records what progress can be made… not what progress has been made "this book lets you learn 30 new words, reading 250 words a day lets you learn 20 new words this week"

  • Learn to read by doing reading – data shows how many words a child needs to read each day, repeated over how many days in order to make progress.

  • Practices – repeated practices, skills stabilised means ability is the end product not the starting point.

  • Matching the process to the learner – data shows what works for each individual child. The impact of daily sessions is recorded and adjustments can be measured immediately "does it make a difference if this child reads two books a day, reads at school and reads the same book at home?"

  • Progress makes attainment – progress today + progress tomorrow = motivated achievement.

How can schools use Total Words?

  • Classroom subscriptions (a whole class has access to online reading and teachers have access to app progress data)

  • Parent-school subscriptions (students can practice digital reading both at home and at school)

  • SEN planning and implementing individual reading programmes

  • Secondary students can manage their reading progress independently

Two Friends with a Tablet

Designed
for  Learning

Through word-counts, repeated language and key-word prompts throughout, each Total Words book is purposefully written and designed by us, embedded with learning theory. 
 

Time
Efficient
and Cost
Effective

Our learning process eliminates learning delays. Data shows immediate effectiveness of teaching. Teachers have solid evidence to support creative options to address student needs.

Our data shows

  • Which children need a rapid progress boost

  • Where are extra resources required, for how long,

  • Is extra support making a difference?

  • What high achievers do that slow progressors do not

  • How to reduce the attainment gap in each classroom

  • Reading health of the school – how much reading are children doing, can children do, should children do for progress?

  • How our data compares with partner-schools

  • The impact of working in partnership with parents

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Before

Without Total Words

  • Reading is delivered in groups with others of similar skill level.

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  • Children making slower progress have more repeat phonic sessions.

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  • Children are assigned reading books selected for ‘their level’.

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  • Slow progress may be addressed through additional reading sessions with a TA, depending on availability.

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  • Children read every 3rd, 4th, 5th page of a book depending on the number of children in their group.

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  • Progress is assessed by formal assessments e.g. word lists, phonic assessments.

With Total Words

  • Teachers and students have immediate feedback on reading accuracy, words learnt each day, each week

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  • Progress is based on positive practices - reading more words, reading words correctly, reading for meaning, repeated reading of whole books

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  • Reading programmes are  geared for maximum individual progress based on precise information – what progress each child can achieve not what they have achieved so far

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  • Data shows what impact each reading session is having

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  • Teaching assistants have specific outcomes based on robust data e.g. Alice will read a minimum of 250 words a day this week

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