Essentially the Magic Words are sourced from newspapers, books and magazines and encompass the average reading of an average person in the population. Once a person has mastered these Magic 300 Words they can read, on average, 2/3rds of the words used in print.
There are many dubious lists that are promoted by publishers of children’s readers/books to support their own particular children’s reading scheme and some word lists sourced entirely from children’s writing. These lists are of limited value, and hold little appeal to most teachers, as they transfer poorly to other reading schemes and indeed to general reading.
Magic Words resources are designed to support the average reading of a person in a population so that they can confidently pick up any reading material, reading scheme, daily newspaper etc. and be a competent reader.
Magic Words International undertook an extensive worldwide literature search of wordlists and word frequency research to source the highest quality and most current data available.
A meta-analysis of this data was conducted involving extensive study, a robust selection criteria and high level academic rigour to determine and select the most statistically significant set of words possible. This study produced a unique compilation of words that Magic Words International was able to group into levels (colours), based upon the statistical analysis, to provide the greatest efficacy in teaching outcomes for those learning to read in English. The educational value of this unique compilation of words, in this order, and frequency, surpasses other lists published to date. This powerful list provides superior educational outcomes and is now used in over 80% of Australian Primary Schools and International Schools.
Children who learn their Magic Words increase their reading speed, reading accuracy, increase reading fluency and develop stronger comprehension.
Magic Words is currently involved in a Norming Research Study which will calculate the average number of Magic Words students can read at certain ages, year levels and text levels.
We also post tips, activities, information and strategies for teaching the Magic Words regularly on our blog. We also share this information on our Magic Words Teachers facebook page so teachers can share and discuss their Magic Words tips, tricks and results.
There are also various independant research studies that have been carried out in schools throughout Australia, however this data has not been collated, Here is a link to one of the studies.
Magic Words has recently completed our own research study.
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