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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…
When you’re the parent of a child with a diagnosis like dyslexia can be overwhelming. Relief over finally having answers and a plan for helping your child can swiftly turn to a feeling of being unprepared. Parents find themselves faced with an abundance of new information, unfamiliar terms in both legalese and “teacherese” and overwhelming…
In a typical summer, I might be writing to you about the dangers of the “summer slide”. The summer slide is a term used to describe the learning loss that occurs during the summer vacation. Struggling students are particularly at risk for losing ground in their quest to become a fluent reader. The statistics are…
Do you have an older, struggling reader or writer? Here are some useful APPS for older struggling readers and writers. As your students become older and the demands on them in the classroom increase. The role of technology moves from a tool for practice and skill reinforcement, to that of assistive technology. Assistive technology is…
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 WHY English isn’t crazy.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed about how to help your child practice their reading, especially when they have dyslexia. There are a few simple tools for reading with dyslexia that can help make time spent reading with new readers more productive, less frustrating, and happier for you and your child.
K or CK? Is there a rhyme or reason? After introducing the FLOSS rule, the next spelling generalization that is usually taught is the K/CK spelling generalization. This is an incredibly useful and freeing spelling generalization that allows students to spell many words using standard spelling. This generalization applies to the END of words and…
Decoding and encoding consonant blends is among the most important concepts you teach your beginning readers. This is a skill they will use across multiple syllable types, in both single syllable and multi-syllabic words and even in reading and writing Latin roots and Greek combining forms. Your students may come to you already confident…
Many children have some knowledge of consonant digraphs when they start their Orton Gillingham lesson with an Orton-Gillingham tutor, although few really are familiar with the term digraph, its definition, or all of the digraphs we teach in Level 1. Here are some tips for making digraph instruction multisensory and memorable. A digraph is…