CRACK THE CODE Teaching Manual

Crack the Code (CTC) is a reading and spelling program that can be used to teach any child but especially children with “phonological core deficits” how to read and spell. It has been especially written for professionals working in the field of developing struggling students’ word reading and spelling skills but can also be used by parents and has also been successfully adapted for use in classrooms. The program is essentially a phonemic awareness and systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) program applied to reading and spelling but what makes it different to other phonemic awareness/phonics programs is that it also focuses on effectively teaching a student to competently hear, say, read and write vowel sounds using visual signs within whole words because these are the most common and yet most difficult sounds to hear, read and spell – especially within words (Ehri, 2005). The hypothesis is that using a visual vowel hand sign helps the learner not only segment the vowels but also consolidate the vowels by using the additional visual modality to act as a memory trigger to help students remember both the phoneme/sounds of the vowels for reading and the grapheme(s)/letter(s) of the vowels for spelling. As such the visual vowel hand signs help anchor vowel letter-sound correspondences into memory. Crack the Code therefore uses the visual and auditory systems for improving word reading and spelling. The motor system is also used in the program when students are required to “block track” or “arm track” oral words into their component sounds using the visual vowel hand sign (see Lesson descriptions below). Crack the Code is explicit, systematic and cumulative in nature – each lesson builds on previous skills and knowledge acquired in the previous lesson(s). There are 64 lessons in the program. A brief outline of each of the first 11 lessons is given below: Lesson 1 Student taught to segment __at words with a limited number of consonant letters/sounds – m, p, t, c, l, h, n (e.g. mat, pat, cat, hat, sat) using a visual vowel sign to 90% accuracy. The Student has three blocks in front of him/her. Student points to a block each time he/she says a consonant sound but makes the visual vowel apple sign “a” for the middle block. (e.g. Researcher: “mat”. Student: “m” (points to first block) …..”a” (makes apple “a” sign)….”t” points to third block). Lesson 2 As above but using __a__ words (e.g. mat, map cat, cap, pack, hat etc). Lesson 3 As above but using __a/o__ words (e.g. mat, mop cat, sock, pack, top, etc). Student now makes the visual vowel apple sign for “a” or the visual vowel orange sign for “o” depending on the word. Lesson 4 As above but using __a/o/i__ words (e.g. mat, mop cat, sick, pack, top, lip, etc). Student now makes the visual vowel apple sign for “a” or the visual vowel orange sign for “o” or the visual vowel monkey sign for “i” depending on the word. Lesson 5 As above but using __a/o/i/u__ words (e.g. mat, hit, cup, sick, pack, top, nut, lock, etc). Student now makes the visual vowel apple sign for “a” or the visual vowel orange sign for “o” or the visual vowel monkey sign for “i” or the visual vowel up sign for “u” depending on the word. Lesson 6 As above but using __a/o/i/u/e__ words (e.g. pet, hit, cup, sick, met, pack, top, nut, lock, let, etc). Student now makes the visual vowel apple sign for “a” or the visual vowel orange sign for “o” or the visual vowel monkey sign for “i” or the visual vowel up sign for “u” or the visual vowel egg sign for “e” depending on the word. Lesson 7 Student reads and and writes __a/o/i/u/e__ words (e.g. pet, hit, cup, sick, met, pack, top, nut, lock, let, etc.) using the consonants m, p, c, h, l, n on a whiteboard to 90% accuracy. Lesson 8 Do five to ten words for each activity below. Students do NOT attempt reading and writing until segmenting of these words has been mastered. a) Student segments any 3 sound CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) word with a short vowel (e.g. bag, jet, rip, rock, hug etc.) using three blocks and making the appropriate visual vowel sign to 90 % accuracy. b) Student reads any CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) word with a short vowel on a whiteboard to 90 % accuracy. c) Student writes any CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words with a short vowel on a whiteboard to 90 % accuracy. Lesson 9 As above but using words with diagraphs sh, ch and th (e.g. shop, fish, chip, that, with, much, shed etc). Lesson 10 Do five to ten words for each activity below. Students do NOT attempt reading and writing until segmenting of these words has been mastered. a) Student segments any 4 sound CCVC or CVCC word with a short vowel (e.g. black, sled, must, brush, slip etc.) using four blocks and making the appropriate visual vowel sign to 90 % accuracy. b) Student reads any 4 sound CCVC or CVCC word with a short vowel on a whiteboard to 90 % accuracy. c) Student writes any 4 sound CCVC or CVCC word with a short vowel on a whiteboard to 90 % accuracy. Lesson 11 As above but with 5 sound CCVCC and CCCVC words (e.g. stump, print, french, scrub, split etc).