Explode the Code

I have and I really like it. What grades do you work with?

Dear Sherri: What is Explode the Code? I have several first-grade students who show classic signs of ADD and ADHD (they are not diagnosed) and have difficulty learning to read. Would this program benifit these students. Thanks!

It is a phonics program that introduces sounds systematically. I think ESP will send you a sample copy of one of the workbooks. What area are you from? Do you have a special ed teacher in your school that might have a copy of this?

Explode the Code is available from Educators Publishing Service, the publishing arm of the International Dyslexia Assocation. I think it would work very well in a one-on-one teaching situation. Many of the pages have horizontal frames with a picture and two sentences. The children read the sentences and underline the one that fits the picture. It makes students think about what they’ve just read and most of the text is highly decodable. On rare occasions I used it at the end of the year in first grade for students who were very advanced in spelling concepts. I found that it took me at least as long to check what students had done as it took them to do it and student time was not used wisely. With early struggling readers in a tutoring situation, I think it would be a great tool. Grace

How is Explode the Code different than Wilson reading? Thanks

Our tutor uses this I thought it was great because I could see my daughter did not sound the middle vowel because she would circle the wrong picture so it has made her a little more aware to sound out all the letters and not to just guess.It also is showed me she wasn’t sounded the second letter in a blend but she does need to go over it with someone as she tries to guess most of the time and guesses right or looks at previous page to get answers.My daughter is in third grade and we are up to book 2.

Thanks for the replies. I had never read of anyone using it on this bulletin board, so I was interested in finding out if anyone else had heard of it. I heard about Explode the Code from a private tutor, so I ordered it for tutoring a student on a one-one-one basis at my school. I like the developmental progression of starting with consonants, then short vowels, consonant blends, then long vowels. I cannot compare it to Wilson because I’ve never used Wilson. The boy I use it with does well with it until he has to spell for memory. I find I need to get him to practice the words presented for each concept by making puzzles of the words to supplement the workbook.