ROAD TO THE CODE
A Phonological Awareness Program
for Young Children
Presented By Allison Brown
Rational
Throughout my years as a classroom teacher, the greatest
portion of my time was spent in Kindergarten and First Grade
classrooms. These classroom literacy experiences were the
reason I chose to research the commercially available, early
childhood intervention Road to the Code. While instructing my
young students in the past, I was trained in Wilson Fundations
to introduce important early literacy skills to my classes
Wilson was a very effective curriculum to use with my
students to guide them towards reading success. However, it
did require constant modification to match my school's small
group model for instruction (shortened lessons, modified
activities, and adjusted pacing). Additionally, I chose to
research Rode to the Code because it is a much more
affordable option for instruction. Like most teachers that have
to supplement classroom supplies regularly from their own
finances, purchasing a single, spiral bound book is much easier
to attain than the necessary Wilson kits for instruction. I am
researching Road to the Code to gather knowledge about other
commercially available intervention programs that could be
equally effective in helping young children learn to read as
Wilson Fundations or other phonological awareness
interventions.
Road to the Code
IMPORTANT FEATURES
Summary Implementation
Road to the Code is a developmentally Road to the Code is ann 11 week, 44 lesson
sequenced program that teaches phonemic program. Students should receive four 15-20
awareness and letter-sound correspondence. minute lessons per week. All lessons
These program uses repeated practice and contained scripted instruction and
multisensory activities to enhance basic reproducible materials contained in the
reading and spelling skills. teacher guide.
Strategies Authors
Every lesson focuses on 3 key activities that Benita A. Blachman Ph.D
are repeated daily throughout the program. Eileen Wynne Ball Ph.D
Those three are: Rochella Black M.S.
Say-It-and-Move-It Darlene M. Tangel Ph.D.
Letter Name and Sound Instruction
Phonological Awareness Practice
Say-It and Move-It
The Say-it and Move-it activities
teach students to segment
words into phonemes.
Instruction using this strategy
begins with single sounds or
repeated sounds. Then it moves
to full words featuring closed
syllables. Students repeat a one,
two, or three phoneme word,
move a small disk for each
sound they hear, and finally
slide the disks to blend all the
sounds together. The say-it-and-move-it segmentation activity was designed to The results of this study indicate that the methods used in the
make explicit the role of segmentation in an alphabetic segmentation intervention were successful in teaching
system. Children were instructed to represent phonemes in kindergarten children to segment one-, two-, and three-
one-, two-, or three-phoneme items with disks on a card.. phoneme items as measured by the phoneme segmentation
They were taught to say each phoneme in the item and test. Thus, we were able to demonstrate that kindergarten
simultaneously to move a disk to represent each phoneme. children can be taught to segment words and that this skill
(Ball and Blachman, Pg. 212) has an impact on some important aspects of early reading.
The increased ability in phoneme segmentation skills
The first section of the Road to the Code program consists of demonstrated by the treatment group had a significant impact
a Say-It-and-Move-It (SIMI) activity in which each student is on aspects of their early reading skills--specifically, reading
asked to repeat a target sound(s) and to then move a small phonetically regular words and words. (Ball and Blachman,
tile while repeating the sound(s). (Schmitz and Loy, Pg 346) Pg. 219)
The component administered to Group 2 (LS) included
Letter and Sound activities reinforcing the letter-sound correspondence of eight
letters. Group 2 (LS) not only demonstrated the largest mean
PIPA gain on the Letter Sound subtest, but also the largest
Instruction
mean gain on this subtest when compared to the other three
groups. Another interesting note is that while only eight letters
are specifically taught as part of the Road to the Code
The Letter and Sound activities program, both students in Group 2 (LS) also recognized
teach students to connect visual letters not explicitly taught in the program at post-testing, with
one student moving from zero recognized letters at pre-test to
representations of letters in 15 recognized letters at post-test. (Schmitz and Loy, Pg 354)
print to the spoken sounds of
language. Students match letters
to sounds and then begin to
utilize their alphabetic
knowledge to segment and spell
words. Letters are shown with
multiple key word pictures that
begin with specific vowels and
consonants (Ant on an apple) to
show examples of sound
alliteration.
. The second section of each program lesson consists of an
activity reinforcing letter-sound correspondence. Eight letters
are explicitly taught as part of the Road to the Code program;
specifically, short a, m, t, short i, s, r, b, and f were taught.
(Schmitz and Loy, Pg 346)
Letter and Sound
Lesson 10, 15, 20- Assess student
Progress Monitoring knowledge of letters and sounds.
Use those scores later to determine
phonemes that need additional
practice.
Phonological Awareness
The third and final section in each lesson of the Road to the
Code program includes a general, phonological awareness
activity in which one or more phonological skills are
emphasized (i.e., rhyming, alliteration, phoneme
segmentation, phoneme blending, and letter-sound Every lesson ended with a final
correspondence). (Schmitz and Loy, Pg 346)
activity related to building
stronger phonological
awareness. In some lessons
students were given pictures, no
printed component, to compare
words. Students were taught to
recognize the connection
between initial consonants,
rhyming sounds, or final
consonants. In other lessons
students are given activities
with letters and words
Results from both this study and a previous Our results indicate that it is possible to
dissertation study (Schmitz, 2011) indicate
the Road to the Code program may have a enhance the reading success of low-income
positive impact on the development and children who begin school with limited
improvement of a young child’s phonological literacy skills and who go to low-achieving
awareness skills. Further, this program is schools by providing reading instruction in
considered to be a research-based program LETTER NAMES the early grades that emphasizes phonological
(Blachman et al., 2000), includes instruction AND SOUNDS
in phonemic awareness, which has been awareness and provides explicit instruction in
found to be the phonological awareness skill the alphabetic code. (Blachman et al., Pg. 266)
most closely tied to future reading
achievement (Bus & van Ijzendoom, 1999;
Good et al., 1998), and has a user-friendly
format. (Schmitz and Loy, pg. 356)
SAY-IT AND
MOVE-IT
Full Road to the PHONOLOGICAL
AWARENESS
Code Program
Schmitz and Loy found that students that did
Results from this study indicated that most not receive the full 3 section program had
inconsistent scores in all areas. Even though
students who received the full Road to the Code they received varied instruction on a variety
program (FP) typically made more progress than of skills using fun games, that did not replace
students who only received one component. This the value of explicit letter and phoneme
instruction. (2014)
was particularly seen in the area of segmentation,
both at the syllable level when compared with Blachman et al. found that even though
Groups 3 (PA) and Group 1 (SIMI), and at the instruction was focused on 8 specific letters,
phoneme level when compared with Group 3 students were able to generalize their new
understanding of letter and sound
(PA). (Schmitz and Loy, Pg. 355) correspondence to spell other phonetically
regular words as well. (1994)
Strengths LIMITATIONS
Affordable No technology component
Complete intervention guide Requires supplemental instruction on reading for
Reproducible materials included meaning and sight words.
Targets phonemes, phonological awareness, and Minimal outside research conducted
phonics simultaneously Only includes instruction on 8 letters and closed
Includes an easy to follow schedule, but also syllables. No irregular words.
suggests splitting/slowing lessons to meet student No measure to indicate alternative starting point, must
needs start at Lesson 1
Varied activities to keep lessons engaging and Additional activities, independent practice, and home
enrichment activities not provided.
interesting
Covers a variety of skills, but a narrow scope of ability
Teacher notes to explain lesson purposes and scripted
levels.
directions to make instruction simple. Provides
Minimal opportunities for progress monitoring
feedback for incorrect responses.
provided- only mention letter and sound recognition.
Multisensory
Conclusion
Road to the Code is a user friendly literacy
intervention that focuses on very early skills such as
phonemic awareness and letter-sound connections.
The lessons are multisensory, although they could use
some modernization to include technology, and
engaging to students. Research shows that this type of
program can prevent reading, writing, and spelling
failure when given to young children. The lessons are
developmentally scaffolded and build off of newly
learned skills throughout the curriculum. There is
flexibility in pacing, and independent opportunities to
continue past the initial 8 letter, 11 week program.
Teachers should utilize this instruction in small
groups and be well versed in the Road to the Code
manual before starting the intervention. More
affordable option for early childhood educators, but
will be inappropriate for older students.
References
Ball, E. W., & Blachman, B. A. (1988). Phoneme Segmentation Training: Effect on
Reading Readiness. Annals of Dyslexia, 38, 208–225.
Blachman, B. A., & And Others. (1994). Kindergarten Teachers Develop Phoneme
Awareness in Low-Income, Inner-City Classrooms: Does It Make a Difference?
Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–18.
Blachman, B. A., Tangel, D. M., Ball, E. W., Black, R., & McGraw, C. K. (1999).
Developing Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition Skills: A Two-Year
Intervention with Low-Income, Inner-City Children. Reading and Writing: An
Interdisciplinary Journal, 11(3), 239–273.
SCHMITZ, S. L., & LOY, S. (2014). Road to the Code: Examining the Necessity and
Sufficiency of Program Components. Reading Improvement, 51(4), 341–358.
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