About Magic Words

Magic Words Wheel
Magic Words (1-100 Words) and More Magic Words (101-200 Words) have been designed and developed by Marcella Reiter, an experienced Classroom Teacher, School Advisor, Psychologist and Education Consultant. Magic 100 Words and More Magic Words feature the most frequently used words in reading and writing.
The Magic Words resources use a variety of exciting card games and activities to reinforce the 200 most frequently used words (the most important words) in literacy development.

Millions of children in thousands of schools and homes are playing Magic Words card games to master the most frequently used words.
Successful readers know the Magic Words and by playing these exciting card games, all children can :

* accelerate reading
* increase fluency
* develop comprehension
* boost self esteem
* build learning confidence

The 12 Golden Words make up one quarter of all words in reading and writing. Together with the Red Words, these make up, on average, one third of all words, based on frequency. The Golden Words and Red Words are followed by the Blue Words, Green Words, Orange Words, Indigo Words and Violet Words. These seven levels contain the 100 most frequently used words in English and are coloured according to the colours of the rainbow. See the Magic Words Wheel.  

Author
Marcella is an experienced classroom Teacher, Education Consultant and Psychologist who has taught in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary settings both in Australia and overseas.
For the past fifteen years she has worked as a School Advisor, in Melbourne and is the best selling author of the literacy resource M100W - Magic 100 Words.
These exciting activities and educational card games teach the 200 most frequently used words, which make up on average, two-thirds of all the words used in reading and writing.
The M100W - Magic 100 Words resources are used in 80% of Australian Primary Schools and are quickly being taken up by schools worldwide as more teachers and parents discover the enormous success that is achieved when teaching with the Magic Words!
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Research
In English, there are 100 frequently occurring words that make up, on average, half the words found in reading and writing (Davidson and Wicking, 1994).
The Magic Words literacy activities and games promote automatically (the rapid, instant recognition and processing of words), which significantly improves fluency and flexibility in reading. M100W® is the acronym for Magic 100 Words. Mastering half the words used in reading and writing makes the task of reading and writing "magically" easier.
"Every language has a group of common words which are in constant use. They make up the framework of the language - the essential structure which helps you to read other words.... These words are called basic sight words because they must be known by sight - instantly... They provide the framework from which other words in the sentence can be worked out, using context clues." (Andrew, 1997)
"Extensive and automatic word knowledge frees fluent readers to focus on the meaning of what they read rather than stopping to work out unfamiliar words." (Perfetti, 1995)
"Fluent readers read at a speed and ease that promotes intonation and expression. There appears to be a strong correlation between reading speed and reading accuracy.
An ever increasing core of automatic words helps children become fluent and flexible readers." (Pinnel and Fontas, 1998)

Professional Associations

• MacMillian - Professional Learning
• Harcourt - Leading Edge Professional Development Team
• Australian Distance Education Centres
• Austrailan Council for Educational Research - Professional Development Team
• Quality Schools Program - Carrum Downs