Road to Code

Road to the Code is a program designed to incorporate phonological awareness activities into the Kindergarten and 1st grade classroom before students have had a chance to fail. Originally conceived for students in Kindergarten, research has verified that Road to the Code is also effective for 1st grade students struggling with beginning reading and spelling skills. Taught by classroom teachers, resource and reading teachers and language specialists, Road to the Code is meant to augment instruction in critical early reading skills in classrooms that are already rich in oral and written language activities and where reading to children is a common occurrence. The overriding goal of Road to the Code is to develop in students an awareness that spoken words can be segmented into phonemes and that these segmented units can be represented by the letters of the alphabet.

Road to the Code consists of 44 lessons that are taught in groups of 4-5 students 4 times a week over an 11-week period. Each of the 15-20 minute lessons are divided into 3 parts and follow the same daily format: Say-it and Move-it, a phoneme segmentation activity; letter name and sound instruction; and to conclude, an activity to reinforce phonological awareness.

Strengths of Road to the Code

• Teaching to mastery is inherent in the design of this program.

• The manual frequently reminds teachers to verify that students have mastered an objective before continuing with the lessons, thus increasing the chances of student success.

• Highly structured, developmentally sequenced activities are designed to ensure a high rate of correct responses.

• The teacher’s manual is “user-friendly” and includes suggestions for pacing and adapting to the individual needs of students by either challenging some students or simplifying for others.

• To maintain interest and motivation, materials and activities are varied. The sound board will lend itself to a wide range of uses.

• Research support for Road to the Code is strong and furthermore, the specific phonemic awareness tasks chosen for this program have been proven by research to be particularly beneficial for building beginning reading and spelling skills.

• Once students have mastered the letter names and sounds used in this program, teachers can use this same format for introducing other letters of the alphabet. All activities in Road to the Code can be adapted for use beyond the 44 lessons in the manual, increasing this program’s flexibility and usefulness.

Weaknesses of Road to the Code:

• None were noted

Source: Florida Center for Reading Research