The Orton-Gillingham Approach

   The Orton- Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, and multisensory way to teach literacy designed to help struggling readers. Although it was designed and is widely used to teach students with dyslexia, it works with all students by helping them use their senses to make connections between letters and sounds. The Orton- Gillingham Approach is meant to provide students with tools to keep kids engaged and give them tools to attack new words, rather than the students simply asking the teacher what a word is. Using the three-part drill, students say the sound they see, write the sound they hear, and then blend the sounds together. The Orton- Gillingham Approach focuses on the needs of students, builds off of previous lessons, and helps all students read, write, and spell. 

   Some strategies that can be used include:

o  Card drills

o  Letter formation techniques

o  Decoding activities

o  Tapping out words- students may say C, A, T as they tap their shoulder, elbow, and hand then slide down their arm as they bled the word ‘cat’. 

o  Repetition 

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I have always tried to incorporate multisensory activities in Science and Math lessons, but in the beginning I struggled with incorporating multisensory activities into reading. Not only have I learned the importance of multisensory learning, but I have also seen the benefits of it. The Orton- Gillingham Approach is a wonderful way for teachers to train and continue finding new ways to teach phonics. Orton- Gillingham conferences can be expensive, but there are tons of resources online so teachers can incorporate OG-style activities in the classroom. Students can listen to phonics instruction all day long, but chances are they will not pick up as quickly as they would if they were engaged, involved, and explicitly guided through phonics instruction. Students learn all kinds of different ways, so educators must accommodate to these different learning styles by incorporating the different activities that will help them learn. 

The following video is an example of a teacher using the Orton- Gillingham three-part drill in the classroom. The teacher is using sand trays for multisensory learning and is keeping students on task.