The Literacy Connection: A Word Jungle covers the one-thousand most commonly used words in literature. The software is all screen-driven and progresses the student at their own pace.

These words are grouped into what is often called word families. First, it introduces the set of vocabulary words for the student to practice with the computer. The student hears each of the words pronounced clearly for them. The author, a Nationally Certified Reading Specialist, personally recorded each syllable, each word and each sentence. (The Reading Specialist is also a classically trained musician who used the skills learned while studying voice using the Julliard method together with the Alexander method of sound production.)

There are seventy-five lessons in The Literacy Connection and seventy-five games.

The student hears the words pronounced a minimum of three times. By clicking on the word they can practice the word as many times in excess of three times as they need.

Since these thousand words are very common in the speaking vocabulary of the average person the students are urged to ask the meaning of any word they do not know the meaning of. Eventually they are urged to begin using an elementary dictionary to look up words new to them. The elementary dictionary is the one with large print. There are only a few words on each page of such a dictionary. This makes it easier for the student to spot the word they need.

After practicing the pronunciation of each word they move on to checking comprehension using a modified Clozure technique. The word "Clozure" is a variant of the word closure that means to complete an idea. Years ago Dr. Taylor invented this technique to delete every tenth word of a sentence to see if the student could fill in what was missing. The student could only do this when he/she understood what was written. We modified the technique so that the student is asked to respond regarding the vocabulary word they have just studied.

The student cannot just click on the correct answer; he must type the letters in their correct sequence. In the early lessons the student is given some of the letters in the word. In later lessons the whole word must be typed in correctly.

The Clozure stories are only one screen long so the focus is limited. The default accuracy level for the Software Program is 70%. If the student reaches at least 70% accuracy they go on to the Word Jungle game. If not, they nevertheless end with success. The student who reaches less than the set accuracy (adjustable) is shown all of those words they did correctly. This is based upon Dr. Erwin Guthrie’s theory of ending with success. (See Relevant Research for more on this.) This specially designed game reinforces all of the vocabulary words studied in that lesson,

The lessons are scored separately from the Word Jungle game. If the student fails to reach the set level of comprehension in the Closure he/she does not do the Word Jungle game.  Instead they do the study section including the closure again.  It is important for the student to reach a comfortable level of competency.

The Word Jungle Game is non-violent. They take Leo, the Literacy Lion, through a game that reinforces all of the vocabulary words studied in that lesson. They earn points for each correct response in the game. They have three chances to earn each point. As they earn points they climb the ladder of Lion creatures. These are titles reflecting the word for lions or cubs in 17 different languages including Swahili, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew to name a few. Eventually the student can earn the right to call themselves A Literacy Lion!

The Program uses a copyrighted technique for blending. Plus, it has a technique developed by the creator called Uncover and Discover. There are a couple of little movies illustrating this technique. It has been a boon to those students who adopted it for their use.

Once a student has a few lessons under his belt he can become a Junior Tutor to start someone else on using the software. This has been done successfully in both schools and home settings.