Orton-Gillingham Approach
The Orton-Gillingham approach is a structured literacy approach designed to teach struggling readers, including individuals with dyslexia or language-based learning disabilities. It is based on the work of Samuel T. Orton and Anna Gillingham, who published their findings and research in the 1930s. Orton-Gillingham is considered the “Gold Standard” for teaching students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities. It has been extensively researched and proven to be effective.
The Orton-Gillingham Instructional Principles:
Multisensory: utilizes visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile input
Direct/Explicit: presents concepts using clear and understandable language. There is no assumptions made about student’s knowledge prior to tutoring, students do not guess at words and immediate feedback is given
Sequential: teaches concepts that progress from simple to complex
Systematic: builds on prior knowledge in a structured manner that helps organize language into categories
Cognitive: teaches the history of the English language, rules, generalizations and other key concepts
Prescriptive: provides teaching steps that are planned and implemented into the lesson, strengths/weaknesses are noted, and next steps are prescribed
Diagnostic: provides a means of assessing areas of strength and weakness, interventions and goals for learning
Cumulative: connects the student to what’s already known through frequent review of learned concepts
Flexible: follows a diagnostic model, uses appropriate teaching strategies and supplements each session with materials that meet each child’s needs
Synthetic/Analytic: applies the rules of the language, examines how parts of language form together as a whole and how to break language apart
Success Oriented and Emotionally Sound: is strength-based, provides students with success experiences and celebrates accomplishments
Automaticity: teaches skills and concepts to automaticity so students can immediately retrieve information
Example of a Lesson Plan:
- Visual drill (phonogram cards)
- Blending drill (reading real and nonsense words using cards)
- Phonemic awareness
- Reading review words (includes high-frequency/irregular words)
- Fluency drill
- New concept
- Reading new words and sentences
- Spelling multisensory activity
- Spelling: sounds, words, sentences
- Oral reading with decodable/controlled text (includes new and review patterns)
