How the OG Wordlister writes the best Orton-Gillingham word lists ever

John Barnes
Nov 19, 2015

Reading specialists need a wordlist writer!

In Orton-Gillingham system, students learn phonics rules grouped into “levels”
Students acquire rules through frequent practice
Practice requires word lists that follow those rules
And ONLY those rules (no exceptions, fully decodable!)
Rule-following nonsense words ensure student is sounding out, not memorizing
Words also need to be nonoffensive, and not repeat within a list
10 minutes to hand-construct one word list to meet all criteria
Most reading specialists need 5-10 new wordlists daily
1-2 hours every day hand calculating and writing wordlists

How Do We Make This Happen?

Orton-Gillingham phonics rules specify subsets of the alphabet (plus blanks) and where they would occur within a word. These can become vectors from which random components can be selected and assembled.

Five rules combine to form 3 vectors
	Rule	Allowed for initial	Vowels	Allowed for final
1	Rule 1: Initial blank/f/l/m/n/r/s,middle a/i/o,final d/g/p/t	f l m n r s	a i o	d g p t
2	Rule 2: Initial b/sh/h/j,middle u,final b/sh	b sh h j	u	b sh
3	Rule 3: Final ck	-	-	ck
4	Rule 4: Middle short e	-	e	-
5	Rule 5: Initial and final th/ch/tch	th ch	-	th ch tch
6	COMBINATION OF RULES 1-5	f l m n r s b sh h j th ch	a i o u e	d g p t b sh ck th ch tch

Sampling initial,middle,and final vectors and combining gives us a long vector of candidate words

  [1] "red"    "fag"    "chog"   "nith"   "chosh"  "hech"   "back"  
  [8] "hap"    "mish"   "chash"  "reb"    "shoch"  "chip"   "rad"   
 [15] "fock"   "rod"    "nack"   "nub"    "nig"    "hed"    "futh"  
 [22] "bad"    "leth"   "futh"   "jop"    "hish"   "lig"    "nock"  
 [29] "lag"    "jud"    "cheth"  " id"    "lop"    "hut"    "sop"   
 [36] "sath"   "fich"   "hock"   "sig"    "chep"   "fop"    "jitch" 
 [43] "mub"    "thatch" " ed"    "fog"    "shuck"  "mog"    "lot"   
 [50] "chosh"  "shosh"  "thug"   "loch"   "rash"   "bup"    "nab"   
 [57] "feth"   "reb"    "mick"   "bid"    "sash"   "rep"    " atch" 
 [64] "nich"   "sheth"  "hesh"   "rut"    "chub"   "sech"   "reck"  
 [71] "rut"    "chep"   "jeg"    "chish"  "shup"   "leck"   "rep"   
 [78] "chip"   "jash"   "sot"    "jitch"  "reck"   "nush"   "chick" 
 [85] "chup"   "nib"    "hack"   "shag"   "litch"  "fach"   "jetch" 
 [92] "chath"  "bath"   "bech"   "soch"   "mush"   "shit"   "lush"  
 [99] "rid"    "jutch"

Then use lexicons to sort candidate words into Real and Nonsense, and discard banned and duplicate

Results of lexicon checks
	Candidate	Lexicon	Candidate	Lexicon	Candidate	Lexicon	Candidate	Lexicon
1	red	Real	hish	Nonsense	shosh	Nonsense	leck	Nonsense
2	fag	Banned	lig	Nonsense	thug	Real	rep	Real
3	chog	Nonsense	nock	Real	loch	Banned	chip	Real
4	nith	Nonsense	lag	Real	rash	Real	jash	Nonsense
5	chosh	Nonsense	jud		bup	Nonsense	sot	Banned
6	hech	Nonsense	cheth	Nonsense	nab	Nonsense	jitch	Nonsense
7	back	Real	id	Nonsense	feth	Nonsense	reck	Banned
8	hap	Nonsense	lop	Real	reb	Banned	nush	Nonsense
9	mish	Nonsense	hut	Real	mick	Banned	chick	Nonsense
10	chash	Nonsense	sop	Real	bid	Real	chup	Nonsense
11	reb	Banned	sath	Nonsense	sash	Real	nib	Real
12	shoch	Banned	fich	Banned	rep	Real	hack	Real
13	chip	Real	hock	Real	atch	Nonsense	shag	Banned
14	rad	Real	sig	Banned	nich	Nonsense	litch	Nonsense
15	fock	Banned	chep	Nonsense	sheth	Nonsense	fach	Banned
16	rod	Real	fop	Real	hesh	Nonsense	jetch	Nonsense
17	nack	Banned	jitch	Nonsense	rut	Real	chath	Nonsense
18	nub	Real	mub	Nonsense	chub	Banned	bath	Real
19	nig	Banned	thatch	Nonsense	sech	Banned	bech	Banned
20	hed	Banned	ed		reck	Banned	soch	Banned
21	futh	Nonsense	fog	Real	rut	Real	mush	Real
22	bad	Real	shuck	Real	chep	Nonsense	shit	Banned
23	leth	Nonsense	mog	Nonsense	jeg	Nonsense	lush	Real
24	futh	Nonsense	lot	Real	chish	Nonsense	rid	Real
25	jop	Nonsense	chosh	Nonsense	shup	Nonsense	jutch	Nonsense