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The Parent’s Guide to the Orton Gillingham Methodology: How to help your child at home (the step-by-step roadmap for an OG session) · The Literacy Keys - Dyslexia resources and structured literacy tips by an Orton Gillingham tutor

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  Maybe your child isn't bad at reading, they simply haven't
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  been given the right keys to the code yet.
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  Today we're going to stop guessing what to do and share
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  how to start building a real foundation for your child, brick
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  by brick. Let's face it, are you exhausted
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  from the reading battles and that late night worry about your
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  child's future? I've been in those trenches and
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  I want you to know you aren't powerless.
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  You can help them. In this episode, I'm pulling
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  back the curtain on a typical one hour OG session to show you
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  exactly how we rewire the brain for reading success.
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  I'll explain the Orton Gillingham methodology so you
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  can use it to help your child. So go grab a cup of coffee and
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  let's get started. Well, hello everyone, my name is
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  Tracy Young OG Tudor extraordinaire, founder of the
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  literacy keys.com and most importantly, mom of a dyslexic
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  daughter. Welcome to my podcast where
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  you'll discover ways to unlock your child's reading potential.
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  I'll share tips, strategies, and war stories that have happened
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  along the way because everyone deserves to be able to read.
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  So let's get started. Well, hello everyone, and
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  welcome back to the Literacy Keys.
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  I'm Tracy Young, a certified Orton Gillingham tutor, and I'm
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  really glad you're here. Today we're going to be pulling
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  back the curtain on the Orton Gillingham methodology.
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  Now you've probably heard the term, but I really wanted to
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  share all the elements that are involved.
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  I'm going to go through a one hour session section by section
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  so that you can understand the Orton Gillingham approach and
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  maybe even try a mini lesson at home.
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  The bottom line is that it's never too late to help your
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  child become a better reader and you're more powerful than you
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  realize. So let me start by explaining
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  that the Orton Gillingham methodology is educational
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  therapy. It's not a program and it's not
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  a curriculum. It's a systematic, cumulative
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  and multi sensory approach to teaching.
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  What it does is it creates a foundation brick by brick.
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  Now a typical session is approximately an hour in length.
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  The session is divided into mini lessons that move fast enough to
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  keep an ADHD brain engaged, but slow enough to ensure mastery is
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  achieved over time. Now, even if your child doesn't
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  have ADHD, the sessions or the design of the session keep a
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  child's focus and prevent frustration from setting in,
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  because when frustration occurs, learning stops.
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  So using the Orton Gillingham methodology to develop a session
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  means that it's going to have somewhere between 8 to 10
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  different topics. The Orton Gillingham approach is
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  designed to teach English language by integrating oral
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  language, reading, writing, and spelling.
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  It goes far beyond simple reading.
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  The Orton Gilligan methodology focus on the how and the why so
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  that students go beyond memorization.
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  Because let's face it, there is only so much that you can
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  memorize. And I had to have to admit, I'm
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  enough of a geek that I love delving into the why, because
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  understanding the why is a lot of times how you remember it.
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  I'll discuss each area and explain why it's important, but
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  first I want to take a few moments and talk about
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  Scarborough's rope in order to help explain the Orton
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  Gillingham methodology. Now you can Google Scarborough's
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  rope in order to see the picture, but it's basically a
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  framework that's used to explain the complex process that goes
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  into reading, because reading is rocket science.
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  The image is a picture of a rope made-up of different strands,
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  and they're grouped into two sections.
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  Now one section focuses on word recognition, which we call
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  decoding, while the other focuses on language
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  comprehension, and that includes vocabulary, background
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  knowledge, grammar, and so forth.
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  There are approximately 8 strands in total and a strong
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  reader needs to develop all 8 sections.
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  I like to think that using the Orton Gillingham methodology
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  allows you to integrate these 8 sections into every Lesson plan.
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  So let's dive in and talk about the first one.
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  When you have a session. First area is called Language
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  Development and each section is about 5 minutes long.
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  The Language Development section helps create a bridge between
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  oral language and written language, right?
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  We all see how babies begin to talk their oral language, right?
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  So, for example, I might talk about idioms in this section.
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  Why? Because the student needs to
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  understand that an idiom is an expression that has a meaning
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  beyond the literal words that are presented, and we use them
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  all the time to express something.
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  But if a student doesn't understand the idiom, then
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  they're going to be clueless about what someone is trying to
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  convey. So, for example, let me get
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  specific. If a student hears the idiom
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  when pigs fly, the meaning could be lost on them if they don't
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  understand that the expression means it will not happen.
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  There are so many things that adults take for granted that
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  children need to be taught, and the language development section
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  allows you to discuss orally what these things are so that
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  they become familiar with it. After we finish this, we go on
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  to Alphabet. Now, this isn't just about the
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  AB CS, it's also about spatial awareness and the logic of our
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  language system. Yes, we do have the student go
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  through and recite the alphabet, but they are not allowed to sing
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  it because too often children don't know the order of the
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  letters without singing the entire alphabet song.
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  So through continuous repetition and different practices, we
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  disconnect the letters and the order of the letters from the
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  song. This is also the section where
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  we introduce dictionary skills and thesaurus skills.
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  A student learns how to identify synonyms, antonyms, and how to
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  select an appropriate word. Once we finish the alphabet then
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  we're on to the next session which is a visual drill.
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  And here we're reviewing the card deck and this can take
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  between 5 to 10 minutes depending upon the student.
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  Now we have 2 separate decks that we drill.
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  Why we are building automaticity.
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  Mastery requires repetition, and we want the brain to see a
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  letter and fire off the sound without having to think about
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  the sound, right? Because if they have to spend
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  all their brain power decoding the sound of the letter B, they
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  have no energy left to understand the sentence or the
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  word. So this section, the student
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  first identifies the letter that are presented on these cards and
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  they go through really quickly and we only introduce letters
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  that have already been taught. Then we move on to the second
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  deck, which includes keywords, and the sound student goes
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  through, identifies the keyword and the sound that again have
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  already been taught. So it's just a quick building
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  automaticity through repetition. From here we go to the fourth
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  section. Now this is more of an auditory
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  drill, and here what we're doing is laying the foundation for
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  spelling. So we review what's called the
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  spelling deck. And again, it could take between
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  5 to 10 minutes depending on the student.
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  This is a different set of cards from the previous one, and
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  they're even a different color. Most of them tend to be green,
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  whereas the other deck they're white.
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  Now I like to think of it's the flip side of the previous deck
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  because by focusing on the sounds, the student is then
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  required to identify how to spell those sounds.
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  Now this practice helps solidify the sound letter relationship.
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  So I might start off by saying the sound and then the student
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  needs to write down all the ways that they know how to spell it.
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  So for example, the student may write K comma C and then they
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  also incorporate based on the position.
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  Well, what happens when I hear the in the final position at the
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  end of a word? Then they may write down digraph
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  CK, the letter K, the letter C, the letter KE, all depending
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  upon the conditions that are present in the word.
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  And what this does is this connects the ear to the hand.
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  It's one thing to recognize a letter when you're reading, and
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  it's another thing entirely to retrieve it from memory for
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  spelling. And this is drill is done every
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  single session because the repetition is truly the friend
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  of the dyslexic brain. From here we go to the next
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  section and this section is new learning.
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  I like to think of this as kind of the aha moment.
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  And it's not me just teaching what it is.
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  It's engaging the student to discover elements.
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  So I'm not just pushing out all the information by engaging
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  them, I'm pulling them in so that they can discover patterns.
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  Because when they discover the pattern, it sticks.
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  Rather than having me just push the information out, we
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  introduce one and only one new concept at a time.
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  Maybe it's a new suffix, or it's a rule about syllable division.
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  The new concept is introduced during a discovery learning,
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  right? That pulling that student in so
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  that they can see and discover the pattern, right?
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  What this does is it engages the student with the learning and
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  they own the discovery. The message that is always
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  underscored is that the student isn't bad at reading.
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  They simply haven't been taught those elements.
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  They haven't been given the key to the code yet.
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  From this section, then we go into practice.
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  So for example, the 6th section is practicing reading.
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  We practice lessons that have already been learned.
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  In one session the student might work on a word list.
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  Another session might focus on sentences.
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  The essential part of the practice is that the words are
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  controlled. This that means that the student
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  has learned the concept or the rule.
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  They are not asked to read words that they cannot decode.
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  And the reason for this is that we want to provide wins, not
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  foster frustration. And if they haven't been taught
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  something, I don't expect them to be able to read it.
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  Now, when I have a list of words or sentences, I like to ask my
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  students to pick a number, say between 1:00 and 10:00.
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  I circled the number that they've selected.
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  And those are the items that we work on.
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  If I know I'm not going to have enough time because I need to go
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  through all the different topics, I don't need them to
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  read 10 sentences. I can get them to read 3
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  sentences. I demonstrate it, and then they
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  feel engaged because they're the ones selecting the sentences.
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  I have one student who's always like, well, let me see before I
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  pick. And So what I do, it becomes a
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  game with us. I show him my list and then I
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  move it so that he can't read and pick and kind of
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  predetermine which sentences he wants to read.
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  And he knows I'm going to do that all right while he's
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  picking the numbers. So it kind of becomes our game
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  for it. And by picking the numbers, it
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  seems like such a little gesture, but it provides the
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  student with an element of control over their learning,
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  right? They are the ones that determine
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  the items to work on. So once they've practiced the
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  reading, then we go into the handwriting section.
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  And let's face it, in a site that uses mostly thumbs to type
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  on their phone, this segment might seem a little
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  anachronistic or ridiculous. But in fact, there's a purpose.
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  There's a reason why we incorporate it.
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  Handwriting is an important part of the lesson.
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  We teach cursive writing because the formation of letters occurs
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  in One Direction from left to right.
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  There's much less lifting of the writing instrument off of the
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  paper. And for our kids with dysgraphia
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  or executive functioning challenges, then the physical
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  act of writing can be a bottleneck that we need to
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  remove. So we work on handwriting so the
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  hand knows how to move basically without thinking because it
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  becomes automatic. And this allows the brain to
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  focus on spelling of words, on writing the information rather
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  than the letter formation. The next section that we go into
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  is spelling and dictation. This section focuses on the
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  rules of spelling, but is different from the drill that I
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  talked about before because we're actually practicing the
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  spelling of words according to rules that they have already
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  learned. So for example, as I talked
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  about earlier when they just identified the possible ways of
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  spelling the final sound in a word, now there are specifics.
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  We may start up with words, some of which end in CK, others which
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  end in K, and over time, as they learn more lessons, then we may
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  add in more words. So now they have to
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  differentiate between words that end in CK, words that end in K,
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  or words that end in C And there are rules.
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  We might use a grid. All right, So the student has to
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  explain out loud the rule that is being used before they
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  actually spell the word correctly.
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  At other times, I may dictate a word, use it in a sentence
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  before asking the student to spell the word.
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  The medium that we used to spell the word varies.
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  It may be paper one day, a chalkboard another day, a
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  whiteboard another day, and even a scratchy towel on the fourth
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  session. The concept of this section is
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  to ensure that a student can hear the sounds, that they
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  remember the rules, that they control their hands, and they
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  write the word correctly. That's a lot, and that's why we
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  build up to it from here. All right, then the next section
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  that I want to cover is Review Now.
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  The lesson itself ends with a recap of the new discovery that
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  we had earlier in the session. But what I love to do is to turn
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  this around and ask the student to play teacher and explain the
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  new learning to me Now. This helps me check for
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  understanding and keep them focused because when they're
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  explaining it, they've got to be focused enough to be able to
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  explain it to me, right? I want them walking away feeling
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  like an athlete who has just finished a workout, not a kid
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  who's just failed the test. So these are the different
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  subsections or sections that go into an overall one hour
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  session. And I wanted to give you a
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  general sense of what the Orton Grillingham methodology looks
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  like. So think the overall session is
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  made-up of mini sessions but they're all interlinked and
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  depending if I need to spend more time in one area then I
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  will because that's what's essential.
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  If it's not an individual lesson, it's more like a
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  marathon, and I can't just brush over something and assume that
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  they are going to learn it. I have to teach it.
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  They have to absorb it. We have to practice it and
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  practice it right. All of those elements work
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  together to build that foundation, and each section
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  builds upon the other. So the ultimate goal, let's face
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  it, is independence. And each child has a unique
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  path. And what I love about the Orton
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  Gillingham methodology is that allows me to ensure that it's
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  diagnostic so I can see the area that one student is struggling
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  in. Then we need to spend more time
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  and practice on that area so each lesson is individualized to
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  that student. So like I said at the beginning,
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  think about taking and incorporating a couple of these
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  elements when you're sitting there at the kitchen table
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  trying to help your child. So if you're feeling overwhelmed
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  or want to see if one to one educational therapy is right for
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  your family, head over to the literacy Keys and contact me.
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  Also, keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks.
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  I'm going to be introducing and talking about my six week summer
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  spelling challenge, right? That might be right for your
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  child. Well, that's all I have for this
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  episode. Thank you for listening and I
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  will see you next week. Bye now.
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  Well, that's a wrap. Thank you for listening to the
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  Literacy Keys podcast. Follow us on social media and
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  most importantly, tell a friend. See you next week.