What is Rigor Mortis®?
Rigor Mortis® is a web-based, multisensory reading app designed for the Windows operating system. It was created with the Unity 3D game engine (Editor Version 2021.3.38f1), comprising two components. The app’s backbone is The English Code Language Training System, an Orton-Gillingham-based language training system created by Dr. Walter Dunson, Founder and Executive Director of Cardinal Reading Strategies LLC. The Orton-Gillingham approach is an intensive, sequential phonics-based system that teaches the basics of word formation before whole meanings. The system teaches to a student’s strengths while improving weaknesses through explicit and systematic phonics instruction. The English Code Language Training System incorporates auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic instruction with highly interactive, digital content. This multisensory approach allows students to master the eighty-five percent of the English “code” that is phonetic. Further, and most importantly, it allows English language learners to make intelligent choices towards mastering the remaining fifteen percent of the English “code” that must be analyzed to be applied properly. It fosters in all students the ability to forensically master reading, writing, and spelling. An internet connection is required.
The second component found within the app is the multiplayer, first-person shooter game for which the app is named. Hunting zombies is an entertaining stress reliever for completing our curriculum and learning to read. At any time, students should feel free to take a break from their language training studies to go and look for zombies. Just be aware that the zombies are also looking for you, and they are armed.
Below, our guide, the famous English author, William Shakespeare, will explain the motivation behind the creation of this curriculum.
Key Game Features
First-Person Shooter
Multiplayer
Team Voice Chat
WASD Movement
Team Death Match
Headshot Detection
Player Damage Indicator
High Performance
Full C# Clean Code
Login System
Scoreboard
Choice of 4 Weapons
Network Stats
Ammunition Pickups
Shooter AI (Bots)
Kill Camera
Player Footsteps
Start Loading Screen
Rigor Mortis® Landing Page
Below is the screen that the user sees as the app begins, and the theme song plays in the background. While there is much information, draw your attention to the “Play” and “Study” buttons in yellow towards the bottom of the page. These buttons serve as the gateway to Cardinal Reading Strategies’ Orton-Gillingham-based curriculum (“Study“) or the zombie shootouts (“Play“).
Rigor Mortis® Gallery Settings Page
Below is the screen that the user sees after the “Host” button is activated. Players may change galleries, maximum player number, time limits, etc. An important button is the “bots’ button. Bots are players that the computer adds in the event that you are playing alone. You have team bots and enemy bots.
Rigor Mortis® Game Screen (In-Game)
This is the screen that the student sees during the active zombie shootout. Please note the layout. You have information regarding the number of players in the scene, ammunition, player health, time remaining in the scene, and the number of kills and deaths. Students may select a different weapon at any time by pressing “1” for the MP5 submachine gun (your primary weapon), “2” for the AK-9 Assault rifle, “3” for the M82 sniper’s rifle, or “4” for the AG-6 six-cylinder grenade launcher.
Rigor Mortis® Kill Cam
This is the screen that the student sees when they are killed in the game. A black bar appears across the top of the screen, and an image appears at the bottom of the screen that identifies the weapon that killed you. (Did I forget to mention that the zombies are armed?) Functionality is temporarily lost while you await regeneration (about five seconds).
Rigor Mortis® Scoreboard
This is the scoreboard that the student activates when the “escape” button is pressed on the keyboard. The players interactions are paused. From the scoreboard, students may alter certain configurations of the game (“Settings“) or change to a different zombie shootout (“Leave Room“). Students may click the “Resume” button to rejoin the fray.
Rigor Mortis® Demo Links
Below are six live links demonstrating our curriculum’s depth and commitment to multisensory learning. The Simultaneous Oral Spelling Demo demonstrates the auditory and cursive handwriting portions that accompany each language training module. The Cursive Handwriting Demo shows how cursive is taught using four categories of strokes. In this case, the “mountain” letters are taught. The Game Action Demo actually takes you inside of a zombie shootout at a helicopter base in Okinawa, Japan to experience the first-person shooter action. The Orton-Gillingham Lesson Demo demonstrates how closed Syllables are taught and reinforced. Consonant Articulation Demo demonstrates how consonant sounds are generated by examining the tract of articulation and how the components are manipulated. Lastly, Word Construction provides an in-depth view of how the three main cultural influences of Latinate, Anglo-Saxon, and Greek unite to create the English language.
Our Orton-Gillingham Curriculum
The English Code Language Training System, the premiere language training system created by Cardinal Reading Strategies LLC, incorporates auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic instruction with highly interactive, digital content. This methodology places students in position to master the eighty-five percent of the English “code” that is phonetic. Further, and most importantly, it allows English language learners to make intelligent choices towards mastering the remaining fifteen percent of the English “code” that must be analyzed in order to be applied properly. The curriculum is divided into the following fifteen categories:
Author’s Note
Recommended Supplementals
Frequently Asked Questions
Word Construction
A Mixed Review of:
Long and Short Vowels
Vowel Teams
Advanced Vowel Teams
Consonant Blends
Consonant Digraphs
Phonograms with Multiple Sounds
Final Stable Syllables with Two Sounds
Pre-Primer
Primer
1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
Open
Closed
Mixed Open and Closed
Silent “e”
Mixed Open, Closed, and Silent “e”
Consonant + “le”
“r”-Controlled: “ar”
“r”-Controlled: “er”
“r”-Controlled: “ir”
“r”-Controlled: “or”
“r”-Controlled: “ur”
VC/CV
V/CV
VC/CV vs. V/CV
VC/V
V/CV vs. VC/V
Syllabication Master Drill
Introduction to Long Vowel Spellings
“a,” “a-e,” “ai,” “ay”
“e,” “e-e,” “ee,” “ea”
“i,” “i-e,” “igh,” “y”
“o,” “o-e,” “oa,” “ow”
“u,” “u-e,” “ue,” “ew”
Short“a”
Short “e”
Short “i”
Short “o”
Short “u”
Mixed Short Vowels
Initial Blends
Final Blends
“ph”
“sh”
“wh”
Two Sounds of “ch”
Two Sounds of “th”
“qu”
Two Sounds of “c”
Two Sounds of “g”
Two Sounds of “s”
Three Sounds of “-ed”
Three Sounds of “y”
“au”
“aw”
“au” vs. “aw”
Three Sounds of “ea”
“ei”
“eu”
“ey”
“ie”
“oi”
Two Sounds of “oo”
Two Sounds of “ou”
Two Sounds of “ow”
“ou” vs. “ow”
“oy”
“oi” vs. “oy”
CVC Doubling
“Y” Rule
“F,” “L,” “S” Doubling
Silent “e”
Long Spelling: “-ck”
Long Spelling: “-dge”
Long Spelling: “-tch”
Latinate Roots
Latinate Prefixes
Assimilated Latinate Prefixes
Latinate Vocabulary Drill
Greek Combining Forms
Greek Vocabulary Drill
“Mountain” Letters
“Halfpipe” Letters
“Rollercoaster” Letters
“Two O’clock” Letters
“Bridge” Letters
Long Vowels
Short Vowels
Advanced Vowel Sounds
“R”-Controlled” Vowel Sounds
Bilabials
Labio-Dentals
Lingua-Interdentals
Lingua-Alveolars
Lingua-Palatals
Lingua-Velars
Glottal
Bilabial Positions
Lingua-Palatal Glide
Our Nine Zombie Shooting Galleries
Zombies have entirely overrun the world. The planet is infested. Rigor Mortis® will allow students to participate in zombie shootouts in nine global locations: the downtown of a small city in central North Carolina; a country firehouse outside of Le Mans, France; a state forest in western British Columbia, Canada; a town square in the Swiss Alps; the estate of a wealthy family near Moscow, Russia; the village of Brunsdorf, Germany; the Scottish Highlands near Loch Ness; a city park in Vienna, Austria; and a helicopter base in Okinawa, Japan. The student, along with two to five of their team members (bots if you are playing alone), will have to work together to combat the marauding horde.
Westmore Town, NC
Fire Station #24, Le Mans, France
Black River State Forest, Canada
Alpine Village, Switzerland
Gein Manor, Moscow, Russia
Brunsdorf, Germany
The Highlands near Loch Ness, Scotland
Rader Park, Vienna, Austria
Helicopter Base, Okinawa, Japan
Our App’s Developer
Walter E. Dunson, Ph.D., B.C.A.S.E., is the executive director/founder of Cardinal Reading Strategies, LLC. He has nearly thirty years of experience working with students internationally in the areas of language-based learning and language acquisition. Dr. Dunson is an author, a lecturer, a senior literacy consultant and trainer, and a special education advocate who is board-certified by The American Academy of Special Education Professionals (AASEP) and The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET). AASEP/NASET members adhere to a strict code of ethics and fulfill continuing education requirements in special education, including evidence-based reading research. Dr. Dunson serves on the NASET/AASEP Advisory Council for Board Certifications and Professional Development. Further, he serves on the editorial board of two peer review journals: the Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals (JAASEP) and Special Education Research, Policy & Practice (SERPP).
A former language training instructor at the Kildonan School in Amenia, NY and the Briarwood School in Houston, TX, Dr. Dunson was mentored through a 2760-hour practicum in the Orton-Gillingham Approach by a founding member of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (AOGPE). To provide diagnostic-prescriptive remediation, he has received additional training in:
Lindamood-Bell’s Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech
Visualizing and Verbalizing Program of Concept Imagery for Comprehension and Thinking
Seeing Stars Program of Symbol Imagery for Sight Words, Reading, Phonemic Awareness, and Spelling
Dr. Jane Fell Greene’s Language! Program, a curriculum for at-risk and ESL students in grades K-12, and includes components for writing, spelling, reading, grammar, and vocabulary
In keeping with the findings of the National Reading Panel, Dr. Dunson also incorporates:
Great Leaps for Reading, a program that has been recognized for years as a researched and evidence-based fluency program that enables students to make significant strides in their reading.
Six Way Paragraphs, a three-level series that teaches the basic skills necessary for reading factual material through the use of the following six types of questions: subject matter, main idea, supporting details, conclusions, clarifying devices, and vocabulary in context.
Sounds and Letters, a manual of cumulative units of phonemic awareness drills intended for use by teachers or speech-language pathologists to build efficiency in the five activities of phonemic awareness (replication, blending, segmenting, substitution, and rhyming).
Dr. Dunson is strong proponent of evidence-based reading research, and a former member of the Board of Directors of the International Dyslexia Association (Houston Branch). He appeared as a guest on NPR and Project Baltimore, and he presented on the importance of evidence-based reading instruction before the Maryland State Board of Education, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the Maryland House of Delegates, and the Maryland Senate. He has served as an expert witness and an educational advocate in cases involving the District of Columbia Public Schools and several county school districts in Maryland and Virginia, and he served as the keynote speaker at the 17th Annual Region 4 Dyslexia Conference in Houston, Texas on December 16, 2016. In addition to his position as Founder and Executive Director of Cardinal Reading Strategies LLC, he is a former member of Right to Read-Maryland, a coalition of educational organizations, advocates, and supporters who have the common goal of improving teacher education so that all teachers have the knowledge and tools to teach reading effectively. Several bills that foster effective reading instruction using the science of reading were introduced in the Maryland legislature by Right to Read-Maryland from 2017-2020. Dr. Dunson has also served as a guest lecturer at the University of Maryland and as an adjunct professor in Loyola University Maryland’s Graduate School of Education, where he taught evidence-based reading instruction to public and private school educators. Lastly, he is a former member of the Maryland State Department of Education Elementary Literacy Work Group, a committee chartered to revise the four reading courses at the college/university level that all Maryland teachers must complete to obtain state certification.
Dr. Dunson is the author of School Success for Kids with Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties and The English Code. He is the co-author of Understanding Twice Exceptional Learners: Connecting Research to Practice, and the developer of Rigor Mortis.
Purchase from Cardinal Reading Strategies LLC
$
69
99
-
24-Hour Access
-
Multisensory
-
Explicit
-
Systematic
-
Sequential
-
Cumulative
-
Engaging
Popular