An educational device, such as a flipbook, is designed and utilized with an instructional methodology for teaching students about the structure of written words. The orthographic patterns found in English single-syllable words and syllables are shown using color-coded sets of pages, each imprinted with a letter or letter cluster comprising vowels, r--controlled vowels, vowel teams, initial and final consonants and consonant digraphs, initial and final consonant blends, or either of two silent es--"marvelous e" and "not so marvelous e." Sets of prefix and suffix pages are also used, along with a schwa page, to indicate the sound of an unaccented vowel. Like letters, or letter clusters, can be substituted for each other in flipbook fashion, consonants for consonants and vowels for vowels, so that by rotating various flipbook pages, hat can be changed to hot, or hop, or chop.