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Why Play Still Matters in Serious Reading Instruction Teachers who use structured literacy or Orton-Gillingham lessons know how important direct and explicit teaching is. But even with all that structure, there’s still room for play. When teachers bring simple, low-prep literacy games into reading instruction, something powerful happens. Students stay motivated, pay attention longer, and…
If you’re a structured literacy teacher, the right structured literacy books can sharpen your practice tomorrow morning. Luckily, I’ve rounded up eight super practical books that offer: 1. Research you can explain to families and colleagues.2. Routines you can plug into your OG lessons.3. Joyful ideas that help our most reluctant readers feel successful. The…
If you are a dyslexia specialist or educational advocates for your students with dyslexia, you may be facing an uphill battle. Trying to encourage structured literacy changes to classroom instruction can sometimes be a challenge/. There is bountiful scientific evidence supporting a structured literacy approach as part of the regular Tier 1 curriculum. However, the…
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…
I’m digging into specific principles of the Orton-Gillingham approach. Three words are key to describing some of the principles that define Orton-Gillingham. Instruction is explicit, systematic, and sequential. While these principles are crucial for your students with dyslexia or learning challenges, they also constitute powerful teaching for most of your learners. In another post, I…
Teaching to mastery is one of the most important considerations when teaching your students with dyslexia. Striving readers and writers very often find the class and instruction moving forward before they have had a chance to master new concepts. This results in learning gaps. When I encountered this in pupils at school, I would describe…
Schwa vowels can be puzzling to children and adults at first. Breaking down schwa sounds by groups can be helpful. Starting with schwa a sounds is one of the common unstressed syllables in the English language. With this “How to Teach Schwa Tutorial”, your students will be able to pick this unstressed syllable up rather…
As teachers of structured literacy, we soon discover that English is more logical than it appears at first, but that isn’t always the popular opinion out there. This article details several resources to prove WHY English isn’t crazy. Have you ever heard… These are the types of comments I hear from my students during Orton-Gillingham…
One challenge that structured literacy practitioners face in their work is isolation and frustration with how to share their knowledge in a way that will be well received. While this is a bigger challenge for those working in a school setting, the issue may also arise for those in private practice when communicating with other…