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I use a lot of tracing in my Orton-Gillingham lesson plans. When I introduce a new phonogram, students will trace the letters while saying the sound. When I introduce a new prefix or suffix, students will trace the letters while saying the meaning. And when we are working on learned words (high frequency sight words…
After working with a student in Orton-Gillingham lessons for awhile, the routine can become very well known. Guess what? That’s a good thing! But… if you don’t take time to shake things up every now and then, you run the risk of having certain segments become a bit mundane. You really don’t want that to…
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…
(This post contains affiliate links.)Hi everyone! It’s back to school time and I’m sure you’re busy getting all your classrooms prepared and supplies organized. I work with students all year round, but I certainly use the BTS season to rethink some of my teaching strategies, purchase new materials and set a plan to help my…
What are learned words? In Orton-Gillingham terms, learned words are what many people call sight words. You may also refer to them as red words or high frequency words. Most teachers can agree that learned words cannot be sounded out, and make up a large amount of our text in the English language. Our students…
(This post uses affiliate links.) Hi everyone! As an Orton-Gillingham teacher who works with children with dyslexia, I know first hand how they struggle with phonological awareness. Under the umbrella term called phonological awareness, we have a very important early reader offshoot- phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is a critical early reading indicator. What Is Phonemic…
We all need a little motivation from time to time, don’t we? What tasks sometimes feel tedious to you? (Don’t even ask me about laundry.) Now try to imagine the challenges your students face when learning. What helps them sustain and persevere? Multisensory spelling strategies! After a great conversation with my fellow OG teachers the…
Hi everyone! Welcome to my second week of Friday Foundations. I’m taking the time each Friday to share tips and resources with my fellow OG instructors. I thought I’d share some photos of multi-sensory activities I incorporated into my lessons. Keep in mind, NOTHING I do here is a silent activity, The child is always…
Here are some Orton-Gillingham lesson planning tips to get you started for the upcoming school year. Today, I’m blogging about how I use my words and sentences lists. This was one of the requested topics from a weeks back on my Facebook page. Hopefully seeing photos will help to give a better understanding. After being…