A glance

• Orton-Gillingham is a method of teaching that is designed to assist struggling readers.
  • Orton-Gillingham is a teacher of the connections between letters and sounds.
    • It was the first to introduce multisensory approaches for teaching reading.

Orton-Gillingham – is a systematic literacy program that teaches students who are struggling in writing, reading spelling, comprehension, and reading. While this method works for any student, it’s especially effective for students suffering from difficulties with dyslexia and auditory processing disorders as well as speech and language difficulties and other learning difficulties.
Orton-Gillingham is typically used for one-on-one tutoring sessions, in small groups of instruction as well as in the classroom with a mainstream teacher.

What is Orton-Gillingham?

Orton-Gillingham is an organized literacy program that assists students who struggle with reading due to dyslexia, auditory processing issues, speech difficulties, and other learning challenges. Orton-Gillingham is thought of as to be a method of instruction in reading that is based on evidence for children with dyslexia and is intended to be a small-group or 1:1 instruction in reading.

The Principles of the Orton-Gillingham Approach

Structured

Each lesson at Orton-Gillingham is based on the same strategy, activity and routines. The student is always aware of what to expect during every lesson.

Students can easily move from activity to activity because they know the routine. This provides a calm and relaxed environment for both the student as well as the teacher.

Sequential

Every ability can be learned in clear order or in a sequence. Students begin by with simple pattern words (CVC) and then moves slowly, step-by-step, towards more complicated and challenging concepts, such as vowel patterns, multisyllabic words spelling rules, affixes and the morphemes.

Since all teaching techniques learnt from bottom up so that the student won’t have any spelling or reading problems in Orton-Gillingham.

Cumulative

Each lesson builds upon the previous lesson. The pupil is taught a skill and isn’t able to move on to the next one until the lesson has been learned. When students are learning new information as they go over old material until it’s in the long-term memory of the student.

Explicit

The instructor is at the heart of the Orton-Gillingham class. The teacher teaches students exactly the information they need, and does not make assumptions or guesses about that the pupil already is aware of. Orton-Gillingham makes use of ongoing interaction between the teacher and student in every lesson.

Multisensory

In an Orton-Gillingham class the teacher makes use of the student’s sensory pathways- auditory, visual and tactile.

In order to learn the vowel “a,”for instance, the student may first glance at an image of an apple, then shut their eyes and listen to the sound. Finally, trace the letter with their fingers when they speak aloud. The combination of listening, looking and moving around leaves an unforgettable impression on the pupil.

Systematic Phonics

Orton-Gillingham offers systematic phonics, starting with the alphabetic rules in the early stages of learning to read and then moving on to more complicated concepts as students advance. Students are taught that words are composed of speech sounds that are distinct, and the letters in written words graphically represent each one of these sounds.

Show Me An Orton-Gillingham Lesson!

The Orton-Gillingham teacher employs teaching, interaction with students and feedback to teach an Orton-Gillingham course with an organized sequence and scope. Writing, reading and spelling instruction are all integrated into each Orton-Gillingham class.

A Sample Lesson Plan Outline:

• Visual drill (phonogram cards)
• The Auditory Drill (dictate phonograms)
• Blending of sounds (reading words)
• Review skills previously taught
• Introduce a new phonogram/concept/rule/syllable instruction
• Spelling work
• Sentence work
• Oral reading using decodable and controlled text

Utilizing the set goals and the sequence The instructor will design the next lesson according to how the student did during the lesson.

Here’s a sample Orton-Gillingham lesson that you can take a look at. Remember that this is a brief section that gives you an idea of the lesson, but it’s not the whole lesson.

It also was the first to introduce multisensory approaches for teaching reading, which is an integral component of literacy programs that are effective. It is a method that uses the senses of hearing, sight and movement to assist students make connections between language and words and letters. Orton-Gillingham is used extensively to instruct students with dyslexia .

What is it that Orton-Gillingham’s focus is on

Orton-Gillingham’s focus is upon teaching reading on a word level. It also helps develop reading comprehension, however that’s not the primary goal.

This approach makes use of various senses to assist students to learn. For instance, students could be able to learn the letter “p” by looking at the letter, speaking its name and then recording it as they write it out with the fingers of shaving cream.

Orton-Gillingham helps students to understand how to follow the patterns and rules that are involved in reading. By acquiring these skills, they’ll be more adept at decoding or pronounce words.

How the Orton-Gillingham system works

First, look to have the teacher or a specialist trained in the Orton-Gillingham method to evaluate students. The assessment will reveal the students’ reading abilities and areas of strength as well as obstacles.

Students are taught by small group. The instructors teach the techniques in a specific sequence, in line with how humans naturally develop their language.

Students must be able to master each skill before they proceed to the next. If a student has a problem the instructor will help them re-learn the skill. The aim is to get students to apply the knowledge they’ve acquired to recognize words on their own.

Where can you find Orton Gillingham?

Many teachers use Orton-Gillingham-type strategies in their general reading instruction.

Reading specialists employ this method more thoroughly for students with dyslexia or other challenges with reading. Some schools provide Orton-Gillingham-type instruction through a student’s IEP or response to intervention (RTI).

Many reading programs are affected by the Orton-Gillingham method. This includes The Barton Reading Program and the Wilson Reading System. The programs are different, however they all employ an organized, multisensory method of learning.