Orton–Gillingham: What You Need to Know | Reading RocketsDyslexia ret October 18,2023

Orton–Gillingham: What You Need to

Know
By:
Peg Rosen, Understood
Orton–Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling
readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Many reading
programs include Orton–Gillingham ideas, including a “multisensory” approach, which is
considered highly effective for teaching students with dyslexia.
Breadcrumb
1. Home
2. Reading Topics A-Z
3. Dyslexia
4. Orton–Gillingham: What You Need to Know
Orton–Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling
readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Today —
decades later — many reading programs include Orton–Gillingham ideas.

The highly structured approach introduced the idea of breaking reading and spelling down
into smaller skills involving letters and sounds, and then building on these skills over time. It
also pioneered the “multisensory” approach to teaching reading, which is considered highly
effective for teaching students with dyslexia. This means that instructors use sight, hearing,
touch and movement to help students connect language with letters and words.

What Orton–Gillingham focuses on

Orton–Gillingham focuses on teaching kids to read at the word level. While it can help
develop reading comprehension, that is not the primary goal.

This approach uses multiple pathways to help kids learn. For example, students might learn
the letter by seeing it, saying its name and sounding it out while writing it with their fingers in
shaving cream.

Orton–Gillingham also puts a strong emphasis on understanding the “how” and “why”
behind reading. Students may explore why the letter s sounds one way in the word plays,
and another way in the word snake. Once they know consistent rules and patterns, they’re
better able to decode words on their own.

Where to find Orton–Gillingham

Orton–Gillingham is a well-regarded approach to teaching kids with reading issues. That’s
why many classroom teachers use Orton–Gillingham–type strategies in their reading
instruction. Having students walk around the floor in the pattern of a letter, for instance, is
an activity inspired by Orton–Gillingham.

But reading specialists use the approach and programs influenced by it more
comprehensively with students who have dyslexia and other reading issues. Some schools
provide Orton–Gillingham–like instruction through a student’s IEP or response
to intervention.

There are a number of reading programs influenced by the Orton–Gillingham approach.

These include the Barton Reading Program and the Wilson Reading System. These
programs vary somewhat. But they all use a highly structured, multisensory approach.

What Does The Orton-

Gillingham Lesson Look Like?
If you have been researching reading programs for struggling readers, you
might have come across the Orton-Gillingham method a few times. This is by
far the most effective reading approach for students that need to learn
differently. This method might seem complicated – but it isn’t. Here is a step
by step explanation (with a video) on what an Orton-Gillingham lesson looks
like.

Step 1: Review with Sound Cards

Using Phonogram Cards or Sound Cards the student is drilled with skills
they have already learned. Phonogram Drill Cards are usually separated
by color. For example the vowels might be green, the consonants might
be white, the suffixes might be blue, etc.
Students are required to review these Sound Card at the beginning of
each lesson, before a new concept is taught. Reviewing them over and
over again, week after week, month after month helps the students
remember them over time.

Step 2: Introduce a New Skill

When the student is ready to learn a new skill, there are several ways this
is introduced in an Orton-Gillingham lesson.
1. The new concept (sound, syllable type, or spelling pattern) will be taught
explicitly by the teacher.
2. The teacher will use multisensory teaching methods to help the concept
“stick.” This means the student will see it (visual), hear it (auditory), and
move with it (kinesthetic). Students are asked to trace, skywrite, use arm
tapping, write on their palms and paper, build words with letter tiles, write
on textured material, and use other multisensory activities to help
reinforce the new concept.
3. The teacher will use a Keyword or Picture to introduce the new concept.
These pictures help the student remember a particular letter or sound
relationship with a visual.
Step 3: The Blending Drill in the Orton-
Gillingham Lesson
The Blending Drill in the Orton-Gillingham lesson is an activity that
encourages students to practice reading nonsense words. Nonsense
words force the students to use decoding and not memorization skills.
The phonogram cards are separated into three piles on a table top. The
vowels are put in the middle of the pile.
The student points to each phonogram card from left to right and blends
the sounds into a nonsense word. The teacher keeps flipping the cards
from the different columns to make different combinations.

Step 4: Red Words in the Orton-Gillingham

Lesson
Red Words or Sight Words are those words that cannot be sounded out
phonetically and do not follow any particular phonemic rule. Using
multisensory strategies, the student can learn the Red Words by arm
tapping, finger sliding, finger tracing and other multisensory activities.
Step 5: Reading Words, Sentences, and Text
In each Orton-Gillingham lesson, students are asked to read words,
sentences, or a decodable text using the concept that they are learning.
Words:
Students are asked to underline, link, divide, and box letters and letter
combinations, suffixes and prefixes.
Students will identify vowel sounds and letters and other concepts when
reading and learning new words.
Sentences:
Students are asked to read sentences utilizing their newly learned
concept.
They might read these silently to themselves and then again aloud with
the teacher.
Comprehension questions are also often used in this step.
Decodable Stories:
The reading passages in Orton-Gillingham lessons are always decodable
and only contain sounds and concepts that the student has already
learned.
Semantics and vocabulary development are a continual process
throughout the entire reading of the passage.
Students are also asked to visualize, use prior knowledge, use context
clues, and other reading comprehension strategies.
Step 6: Writing
Students are asked to write sounds, words, and sentences that are
dictated by the teacher in each Orton-Gillingham lesson.
It typically begins with the teacher dictating a word and the student will
repeat the word. The student then uses either finger tapping, sound
segmenting, or palm writing while saying the word aloud.
The student will follow up by writing the words down on a sheet of paper
and then asked to read the words back.

Some Additional Activities

that are Included in an Orton-
Gillingham Lesson
Phonological Awareness:
Most Orton-Gillingham lessons will also teach and practice phonological awareness activities throughout
the entire program. These will include activities with rhyming, syllable division, and sound segmentation.

Fluency Drills:
Fluency Drills are often used during the Orton-Gillingham lessons to help the students
practice mastering their newly learned Orton-Gillingham skills. Students are given a fluency
practice drill and with a marker across the first line, they read the words as quickly as they
can. They will do this with every line increasing their speed over time.

Games:
Many Orton-Gillingham teachers and tutors like to use games to reinforce the skills that the
students are learning. Using a lot of interactive and fun learning games, the Orton-
Gillingham lessons can become a bit more colorful and lively for the student.