Breaking the Code is seeking two initial groups (one teachers, one parents) of approximately 6-8 individuals looking for a crash course/bootcamp in teaching decoding skills according to research-backed principles.  The recent explosion of interest in the science of reading is obviously a welcome and heartening development, but we also realize that the glut of information now available can easily become overwhelming, and that asking teachers and parents to sift through it all and educate themselves—while continuing to juggle their many other responsibilities—is a very tall order.  Contrary to popular belief, we know from experience that learning to teach reading efficiently and effectively is not actually rocket science; however, there is…

One of the most serious, and most persistent, misconceptions in the world of reading early reading instruction involves the use of context clues. Regardless of whether they are explicitly taught an incorrect interpretation of three/multi-cueing system or simply absorb its tenets in graduate school or via professional development, many teachers of beginning readers erroneously learn that children should focus primarily on beginning/ending letters and then use a variety of guess-and-check methods (e.g., picture clues, other information in the text) to make educated guesses about unfamiliar words.  If you’re not familiar with the research, a reliance on context clues has been identified as a compensatory strategy for weak decoding skills (Nicholson,…