Master The Code
Unique and Important Differences
Why Master The Code (MTC)?
- MTC rebuilds a student's reading system.
- MTC overcomes poor reading habits.
- MTC trains reading at a basic sound-to-code level.
- MTC produces rapid, measurable results.
- MTC encourages fluency and comprehension.
- MTC produces guaranteed gains in reading.
- MTC students read better for a lifetime.
Using these techniques and making the sequence of the reading and spelling instruction align with the logic of our alphabetic system results in the most rapid mastery and automation of reading and spelling.The Master the Code program we teach in Sarasota, Florida, uses the following cognitive training techniques beyond simple recall exercises that yield tremendous results:
- Immediate feedback (One-on-one training allows for immediate correction of errors and encouragement of correct responses)
- Concentration (The training drills require full attention, which brings faster results because of less time off-task)
- Sequencing (An introduction of tasks and information from simple to complex in small enough steps so that new material can be mastered quickly and easily)
- Stretching (Constantly pushing activities to more demanding levels that challenge or stretch the student skills to improve)
- Loading (Adding a task upon a task concurrently, thus forcing automation and mastery of skills to a subconscious level)
Master the Code (MTC)
For your students who have reading and spelling problems, Master the Code is a powerful tool.Master the Code (MTC) is a revolutionary 'sound-to-code' reading program that completely transforms a student's basic reading system. Students who completed MTC can read, write, and spell fluently.
What it does - Master the Code (MTC), is a revolutionary sound-to-code based reading system that consistently provides big, fast results for students who read below grade level. Averaging a 4-year increase in reading skills in 18 weeks, MTC was developed from the latest research available.
Why we use it- Combined with PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement) your child will not only have greatly improved reading skills, but his/her comprehension will increase as well.
These programs have been designed to develop:
- Memory (ability to remember the sound-symbol relationship)
- Sound Segmenting (ability to separate or unglue sounds)
- Sound Blending (ability to put together sounds to form words)
- Auditory Analysis (ability to manipulate or analyze small changes in groups of sounds)
- Processing Speed (ability to process information quickly)
- Working Memory (ability to retain incoming information and process it quickly and properly)
- Attention (ability to stay on the given task in spite of distraction)
- Visualization (ability to create and use mental images)
- Reading Fluidity (ability to read smoothly)
- Logic and Reasoning (ability to nonverbally reason and solve problems)
What we like about it - The versatility of MTC can give a first grader a reliable reading system for life, and it can completely rebuild the faulty system of a lifelong struggling reader.
Yes, they receive instruction, but the student's proficiency accelerates through doing, not simply learning what to do. Mastery is exciting to students!
The program can provide an incredible foundation for those students just learning to read. It also aids individuals of all ages who struggle with reading difficulties, and is especially beneficial for student-readers who might have developed inefficient or inaccurate reading habits (like guessing words by looking at parts of the word or sentence).
We offer students guaranteed, measurable results!
Yes, they receive instruction, but the student's proficiency accelerates through doing, not simply learning what to do. Mastery is exciting to students!
The program can provide an incredible foundation for those students just learning to read. It also aids individuals of all ages who struggle with reading difficulties, and is especially beneficial for student-readers who might have developed inefficient or inaccurate reading habits (like guessing words by looking at parts of the word or sentence).
We offer students guaranteed, measurable results!
Hallmarks Of a Good Reading Program
Teach Underlying Skills
Since sounds (not syllables, blends, full words, or rhyming combinations) are the keys that unlock our English writing system, successful readers must be taught to segment (pull apart), blend (put together), and analyze words at the sound (phonemic) level.
Use a Sound-to-Code Basis
Good reading programs teach the sound code for the 43 phonemes (individual sounds) of the English language as well as the alternative spellings for those sounds. By learning that letters or letter combinations stand for specific sounds of speech, reading and spelling are taught concurrently.
Handle the Alternative Spellings Of Sounds and Code Overlap
After the student has learned the most probable spelling for each sound, the less probable (alternative) spelling should be introduced. Overlaps of the code, in which a letter or letter combinations represent more than one sound, must also be taught. Poor readers often pick up and often come in different varieties.
Reading Crisis
A Revolutionary Sound-Based Reading Program
Since the dawn of creation, man has communicated through spoken language. For most children, in fact, the ability to talk naturally develops without formal instruction. However, reading and writing are completely different entities.A fundamental fact we must remember is that written language was developed in order to record our spoken language. Speech sounds are the foundation upon which the written code was formed. Speech sounds existed before written language and are audible, consistent, and in a sense "real." They existed well before written language was developed and would continue to exist even if all written records of our civilization were destroyed. Letters in English are merely the arbitrary, man-made, unstable code that we use to represent speech sounds on paper. As with all codes, of course, English was designed to be reversible. You can write it into the code (encoding or spelling) and transfer it back (decoding or reading). The key is to remember that sounds are the building block.
The Reading Crisis in America
Media reports in this country often focus on the high illiteracy rates that plague our nation's schools. Parents, educators, and politicians have been lead to believe that many of our children are failing to learn to read. Yet, several questions remain. Just how serious is the problem? Have objective studies been done to assess the nation's literacy rate accurately?
Until recent years, the testing that had been done to examine this country's illiteracy rate had been nonexistent or done poorly. Conventional wisdom told us that many children were not learning to read, yet that was often purely speculative, based on tests given by classroom teachers, or declared after the review of large group standardized tests. For example, the California Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) allows educators to compare individual children to a large sample group. Ultimately, however, this only reveals where a child's skills rank compared to the whole group. If the whole group is reading at low levels, then an average reader is actually a poor reader!
The National Assessment Governing Board, working with the National Center for Education Statistics, has tested students nationwide in a study that cleared up many of the methodological and sampling problems of past research (NAEP, 2000). Students were rated at four levels: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. In a 1998 national study, 38 percent of fourth grade students were rated Below Basic. In other words, 38 percent of those tested were functionally illiterate! In the same study, only 31 percent of students were at or above the acceptable level of Proficient. As you consider these findings, keep in mind that 11 percent of students were untestable due to learning disabilities or language barriers. In other words, if the untested poor readers are added in, approximately 44 percent of fourth grade students are illiterate and only 25 percent are at an acceptable level!
These sobering results also held true in a 1992 study of 26,000 adults by the same group (NAEP 1992). Adults were expected to read test materials that were designed to be reflective of reading they would regularly need to do in everyday life. Level 1 required a minimal level of competence. Overall, 22 percent of the adults tested were at Level 1 or lower. For the whole population, that translates to roughly 42 million American adults who are functionally illiterate! Forty-eight percent of the adults were at Level 2 or lower, barely literate. Only 3 percent of all adults reached the highest level, Level 5. Indeed, there is a reading crisis in America!
To a large degree, this crisis can be attributed to the fact that the most prevalent reading programs in use in this nation's schools are insufficient. As a result, not only do many children in elementary school fail to learn to read, but also a majority of these children never catches up. They actually get worse over time (Fletcher and Satz 1980). Likewise, the vast majority of children in special education programs make no progress whatsoever (Truch 1994). Fortunately, there's a solution to this crisis in the brain training Master The Code Program we offer at Kid Potential Sarasota in Sarasota, Florida.