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Explaining Orton-Gillingham to families isn’t always easy. It can be a challenge to avoid using a lot of technical language and jargon when talking about dyslexia and the parts of an Orton-Gillingham lesson. Many times, parents seeking tutoring services are told their child should receive Orton-Gillingham instruction or sometimes a specific O-G-based program. However, they’re…
If you have a child or students who struggles with reading comprehension, there are a number of reasons why this is happening. These include: weak decoding due to poor phonological awareness skills that have compounded over the years and impacted a child’s ability to make meaning of text weak fluency skills poor vocabulary development due…
Do you find yourself scratching your head when thinking about how the heck to run an Orton-Gillingham lesson plan in small groups during a typical school week? Common problems which may arise: Timing could be off. You might only have a session about 30 minutes a day or a few days a week. A…
Whenever my students meet with me for an Orton-Gillingham lesson, they have a few supplies handy, like their Orton-Gillingham binder. I, of course, come towing my large O-G bag, but I find having things that the student can easily access while I am not with them is helpful for them. Families have an opportunity to see…
One of the very first things students need to master happens to be one of the most difficult for many of them: the short vowel sounds. Short vowels are introduced very early in level one of an Orton-Gillingham lesson plan or with any reading intervention program for that matter. While every student is different, probably the most…
When a Student Finds It Hard to Blend Sounds Together: 6 Tips for Getting Over the Hump While very often, things go along quite swimmingly in the Orton-Gillingham lesson plan, from time to time we all have a student that has particular difficulty blending sounds together. They know their letters and can correctly…
(Contains an affiliate link.) Phonological Awareness contains a mixture of foundational literacy skills which are critical for reading success. It’s hard to argue against the need to provide a strong phonological awareness curriculum, particularly in the younger grades where we can identify and remediate early to avoid later reading failure. We want to…
Students with dyslexia frequently struggle to have legible and fluent handwriting. In a world surrounded by computers, it can be easy to let handwriting slip through the cracks or decide it is unimportant. However, there are several good reasons to spend some time on cursive handwriting practice, whether you are a classroom teacher, support teacher…
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…