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When you’re new to Orton-Gillingham (OG) or structured literacy instruction, you might feel like you have to teach something new in every single lesson. A new phonogram. A new rule. A brand-new syllable type. However, in OG lessons, review trumps new concepts. With OG lessons, review is essential. Teaching new concepts every time isn’t necessary….
Whether you’re a structured literacy teacher with summers off or a practitioner that works year-round, summer represents a shift in rhythms and schedule. My thoughts always turn to summer reading books. I definitely intend to read the summer’s hottest beach read or that gripping new thriller. I also find that the change of seasons inspires…
If you are anything like me, you love going to conferences and workshops. Although I always wind up physically exhausted, I somehow also find myself energized and my batteries recharged. Professional development has so many wonderful benefits. You may discover a whole new vein of interest and develop a brand-new skill set. You can reignite…
If your partner, parent, child, sibling, or dear friend is a dedicated and hard-working structured literacy teacher or tutor, you may be searching for thoughtful and useful gifts you can surprise them with this holiday season. You need ideas for gifts for structured literacy teachers. I’m here to help – with this list of gifts that…
You may have seen the recommendation to use decodable readers or decodable text with your students, especially early on in their learning. Let’s take a closer look at what that means, why it might be beneficial, and how to go about it. Many newly trained Orton-Gillingham educators or classroom teachers ask how to use decodable…
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…
At some point in their learning, you may hear one or more of your students shake their heads and ask, “Why is English so difficult?” or “Who made up this crazy language anyway?” Or perhaps you have found yourself having the same thoughts as you try to help struggling readers and writers understand the complex…
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…