“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.”
Jacqueline Kennedy

Orton-Gillingham Curriculum

(Multisensory, Alphabetic, Structured Literacy approach to teach language skills to students with a specific disability in reading, spelling and penmanship.)

Multi-sensory:

Students use visual-auditory-kinesthetic-tactile (VAKT) modalities to learn sounds, enabling them to use their strengths and strengthen their weaknesses.

Phonics:

Letter sounds and combinations are taught emphasizing a strong phonics based program through letter manipulative, etc.

Structured:

Lessons are organized with specific patterns and activities based on identified goals and continually reviewed which students find facilitates their learning.

Sequential:

Concepts are taught in a specific order.  Once students master simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, the program moves on to four and five letter words, more complex vowel patterns, multisyllabic words and affixes. It also addresses word origins and morphology- prefixes, suffixes, roots and combining forms.

Systematic:

The systems in place leads the student to successful mastery without frustration. Finger tapping words (segmenting the sounds) before writing the word, ensures fewer mistakes in the correct spelling of a word.  Daily reinforcement of reading and spelling practices, rules and sentence dictation, learning to blend while pointing to each individual  sound, strengthens a student’s ability to decode unfamiliar words; and, grammar and paragraph writing: using fluency and metacognitive strategies.

Cumulative:

Constant review within the context of a new lesson enables students to practice and perfect previously learned material and thereby, retain the information long-term.

Daily Lesson Plan

My sessions consist of Orton-Gillingham Basic Language Skills. Every session provides a systematic, sequential, intensive and comprehensive literacy curriculum individually designed for students who are dyslexic or reading challenged. A variety of activities help to develop the necessary and basic skills for reading, spelling and writing, penmanship (cursive.) Each session meets 2 to 3 times a week for one hour each day. Included in each session is:

Reviewing/Alphabet Sequencing/Phonological Awareness Activities – alphabetical order, counting sounds, isolating vowels, dictionary skills, rhyming,etc.

Printing/Handwriting (cursive) – Learning to print legibly and/ or increase fluidity in the writing (cursive) process (grade appropriate.)

Reading of Sounds/ Blending Drill – the Initial Reading Deck teaches the sound and symbol awareness of word parts.

Spell Sounds – A sound is dictated, student repeats the sound and gives the corresponding letter or letters that go with the sound.

Reading Review Words Practice – Word lists provide focused practice of previously introduced concepts.

Spelling Review Words Practice – spell words are dictated from the review reading list along with Learned Words (sight words) with a coding activity included.

Sentence Dictation – words from the review reading list which include the previous concept taught along with morphology words (affixes: prefixes, roots, suffixes) are written in cursive for practice and review.

New material – This includes the Discovery of a new concept using: Auditory- to listen and echo new sound; Visual- reading list of new words on board; and, Kinesthetic- Tactile-skywrite, and paper trace new sound; also, reading new word list and sentences along with a spelling activity.

Oral Language – activity to help foundational skills of comprehension, oral language, and world knowledge through controlled student reading focusing on incorporating new concept using fluency skills.

Writing – Includes grammar, simple/complex sentences and paragraphs in a journal.

Read Aloud – Short stories/chapter books in narrative or expository text of interest to students. Question and answer during and after reading for assessment of understanding / comprehension skills.