One thing that I find myself frequently explaining to parents, students, and other teachers is the rationale for using decodable texts. Students are accustomed to using leveled texts in their classrooms and in many school-based interventions that follow and balanced literacy model of instruction. While engaging, there are important reasons why decodable text can be…
Decodable text is written in such a way that it contains very few if any unknown concepts. It uses known syllable patterns, phonemes, and learned words. The complexity of decodable text changes as your students learn new concepts. A decodable sentence for a student working on CVC words with short a is going to look…
If there is one thing Orton-Gillingham teachers can never have enough of, it is decodable text. Finding books that are highly decodable, engaging for our students and suitable for a wide variety of ages is challenging. Differences in scopes and sequences further complicate matters. However, there are some resources that I turn to again and…
Tyler’s classroom teacher shows you his latest writing assignment. He scored 100% on his latest posttest on structured literacy concepts, but his writing sample is full of errors. Despite all the practice on the k/ck spelling rule, he has not applied it here even once. You pop into Camryn’s classroom during reading time and despite…
As teachers and tutors, you know that we must go beyond helping our students learn to decode and read fluently. Comprehension is the end goal for all of the instruction and practice that we provide. BUT how do you know WHAT and HOW to teach in order to help our students improve in this…
When someone says poetry, my immediate image is classical poetry forms such as sonnets. But I also have fond memories of reading Shel Silverstein poems or writing structured poetry forms like haiku when I was a child. Often, poetry is not one of the things people think of when they think of challenged readers. However,…
Many teachers are familiar with decoding strategies that may emphasize the use of picture clues, meaning and self-monitoring. Sometimes these decoding activities are even given cute nicknames to help students remember. While we want students to monitor our students and their reading for accuracy to make sure it makes sense, often…
Part of being a successful Orton-Gillingham teacher or tutor means being prescriptive. This means you tailor your Orton-Gillingham lesson plans to meet the specific needs of your struggling readers. Just as important as being prescriptive is being diagnostic. This means that based on a student’s performance within a particular task, you are able to make…
What Does an Orton-Gillingham Lesson Look Like? If you were to observe an Orton-Gillingham lesson such as Wilson, SPIRE or Barton, they would have similarities, but also plenty of differences. The same is true of a non-program-specific Orton-Gillingham lesson plan that follows the Orton-Gillingham approach. The exact lesson sequence may differ depending on where the teacher was…
Top Five Ways to Help Your Child Get Motivated to Read Some kids love to read and spend a lot of their time getting lost in the pages of a good book. Others hate the thought of reading. Some kids have a hard time staying focused on what they’re reading. Their minds wonder and they…
