It is a new year and I hope you will join me in learning more about the science of reading. Our journey should not be one of confirming what we already know about reading or validating our experiences. Instead, consider what it would mean to change your approach to reading instruction based on scientific facts. …
Learn how to make high frequency words sight words by using them in context.
Students should analyze the phoneme-grapheme relationships of a word, it’s meaning, syllable type, spelling pattern, morphemic parts, and etymology to help make it a sight word!
Teach any word to be a sight word with this template!
It is the beginning of the school year, and we are eager to see how our students read and what skills we need to teach them. How do we accomplish both? We do so with a comprehensive reading assessment that covers all skills needed for reading. Science of Reading and a Reading Assessment …
Word Ladders (sometimes called word chains) are a powerful way to connect phonemic awareness and phonics.
Orthographic mapping is a process and not a skill. There are instructional practices and skills that promote orthographic mapping.
Mark Seidenberg’s 2017 book, Language at the Speed of Light explains how human brains learn to read and how educational instructional practices can support this complex process. By highlighting the decades of the science of reading, Seidenberg explains the gap between the science and current educational practices. He also offers suggestions for how teachers can…
If you are curious about what happens in the brain when humans read, this is the book for you! I am not qualified to write a true book review (nor am I attempting to), but I hope to summarize some of the main topics in the book. What happens in the brain when we are…
In the first part of an Orton Gillingham lesson we practice phonemic awareness, blending, and letter-sound correspondence. After that, it is crucial that students review and reinforce previously learned skills. The student must also learn new information and practice this new skill in their reading and writing. Concepts taught and reviewed cover ALL strands of…
This is Part 1 of a series of posts about what is included in an Orton Gillingham lesson plan. Many assume an Orton Gillingham lesson only includes phonics. While explicit instruction of many phonics skills is a large part of an OG lesson, a quality lesson covers SO many more aspects of our language. This…
Orton Gillingham is an approach and not a program. It is a systematic approach to teaching literacy to individuals for whom reading, writing, and spelling do not come easily. Many of these individuals have dyslexia, but many others can benefit from the structured literacy approach as well. In the hands of a well-trained Orton tutor,…