Mastery Requires Drill
Reading is a skill, similar to the ability to play tennis. It cannot be
instructed like history or science, but requires certain underlying skills
and lots of drill. Many reading programs are highly instructive, expecting
the student to take what they are taught and implement it in their reading.
Can you imagine trying to play great tennis by spending the majority of
your time watching instructional videos but rarely getting out on the court?
The MTC ApproachTo handle the complex logic of our alphabet,
a student must master each level of complexity in carefully sequenced steps.
To facilitate this, MTC starts with blending, segmenting,
and sound analysis. Practice is provided in segmenting words into isolated
phonemes and blending isolated sounds into words. Encoding (spelling), decoding
(reading), and writing exercises are used so the reversibility of the code
is made clear. Some students struggle to correctly pronounce and differentiate
between all sounds of Standard English, and receive more direct instruction
at a sensory level about how parts of the mouth interact to form individual
sounds.
MTC teaches reading and spelling concurrently
through techniques that train students to accurately recognize and understand
that letters and letter combinations stand for specific sounds of speech.
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). 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. MTC
Develops Reading and Spelling Skills. MTC gives the student a system to read and spell better. This system does not
teach rules (as is common with many reading programs) that fail a high percentage
of the time, does not use confusing terms like silent letters or long and
short vowels, does not use symbols that need to be unlearned, and does not
need to teach hundreds of sight words because the system enables the decoding
of most words. The MTC system uses a sound-to-code
approach, then shows the additional complex code along with probability
of the code. By introducing the codes using this direct approach, students
are able to sound out almost any English word without needing the right
rule, exception to the rule, or thinking about which letters are silent,
etc. The student is able to see the codes and recognize that a word like ‘eighteen’ has four sounds, /a-e/ /t/ /ee/ /n/
Initially the twelve consonant sounds with only one main spelling or one
spelling by position in a word are taught (/d/ = ‘d’ as in 'dog'
or 'fed'). Then, the remaining twelve consonants and their most likely spelling
are taught (/ch/ = 'ch' or ‘tch’ as in 'chip' or 'pitch'). The
18 vowel sounds are taught from simple to complex.
After the student learns the most probable spelling for each sound, less
probable, alternative spellings are introduced. The /a-e/ sound uses
the codes, ‘a-e’, ‘a’, ‘ai’, ‘ay’,
‘ey’, ‘ei’, and ‘eigh’ as in cake, baby,
jay, prey, reindeer, and sleigh. Through use and drill, letter patterns
and the probability of their appearance are stored in long-term memory,
enabling an individual to choose the most likely spelling for a word, instead
of random guessing.
Additional language complexities such as overlaps of the code (in which
a letter or letter combinations represent more than one sound) are also
taught. Various exercises are utilized to quickly teach how letters
overlap to produce various sounds as new vowel spellings are introduced.
The MTC method of handling alternative
spellings and code overlap without memorizing rules, sight words, and exceptions,
reduces what most other reading programs require a student to memorize by
about 75%.MTC Makes Reading AutomaticThrough carefully
designed exercises presented in one-on-one training sessions, MTC
embeds the Standard English reading code to an automatic, subconscious level.
This is in contrast to most programs that are designed in such a way that
lessons are easily forgotten in a short period of time (since there is lecture
and not drill to imbed the skill). This distinction is especially beneficial
for older readers who have developed many bad reading habits, and could
easily fall back into old ineffective reading patterns. MTC
uses the following training techniques:
MTC starts with blending, segmenting, and sound analysis, To teach these skills, nonsense words are used so students do not rely on their memory of known words. Practice is provided in segmenting words into isolated phonemes and also blending isolated sounds into words. Encoding (spelling), decoding (reading), and writing exercises are used so that the reversibility of the code is made clear.
MTC unique methodology
MTC embed the English reading code to an automatic level instead of passively teaching lessons that are easily forgotten in a short period of time. It is especially beneficial for older readers who have developed many bad reading habits and will fall back into old ineffective reading patterns if the skills are not taught appropriately and brought to an automatic level. MTC uses the following training techniques to get its tremendous results: |