The Orton-Gillingham Approach Explained
If you’ve heard of the Orton-Gillingham methodology but aren’t quite sure what it entails, you’re not alone.
The Orton-Gillingham approach, often shortened to OG, is a structured, explicit, multisensory way of teaching reading and spelling.
Practitioners use guided discovery to help students “discover” patterns in reading and spelling through letter-sound correspondences, morphology (meaning), and orthography (writing). These patterns are taught and practiced explicitly and systematically.
What Is the Orton-Gillingham Approach?
The Orton-Gillingham approach helps students learn how spoken and written language work together.
Instruction is carefully sequenced so students build on skills and concepts they have already mastered. Lessons often combine visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning to help students understand and retain new concepts.
Key Principles of Orton-Gillingham Instruction
Explicit and Systematic
Skills and concepts are taught directly and in a carefully planned sequence.
Students build on previously learned knowledge as they develop new reading and spelling skills.
Responsive to the Learner
Orton-Gillingham instruction is responsive to the individual learner.
Practitioners continually observe and record student progress and adjust instruction based on each student’s strengths and areas of difficulty.
Multisensory
Students use visual, auditory, and kinesthetic strategies to learn new concepts.
They may:
- hear a pattern
- see the pattern
- trace the pattern
- visualize the pattern
- build the pattern
- write the pattern
Using multiple pathways can help reinforce learning and make new concepts more memorable.
Integrates Decoding, Encoding, Fluency, and Meaning
Orton-Gillingham instruction can address a wide range of literacy skills, including:
- phonemic awareness
- sound-symbol relationships
- syllable patterns
- spelling generalizations
- decoding strategies
- base words and affixes
- fluency and phrasing
- comprehension strategies
- vocabulary
Cumulative
Previously learned skills are reviewed regularly and connected to new learning.
This repeated practice helps students strengthen their understanding and develop greater automaticity over time.
Who Can Benefit From Orton-Gillingham?
Orton-Gillingham instruction is often beneficial for students with dyslexia, language-based learning disabilities, and students whose second language is English.
Many of its principles can also support other developing readers.
Students who struggle with phonological awareness, decoding, spelling, or remembering letter-sound correspondences may especially benefit from instruction that is explicit, structured, and responsive to their needs.
Why Does Structured Literacy Matter?
Learning to read fluently, comprehend text, and write are all complex tasks.
Structured literacy helps make patterns and generalizations clearer while providing practice that is individualized to the learner.
It helps students build a strong foundation and expand on the skills and knowledge they have already developed.
Put simply, structured literacy helps students understand how and why words work the way they do.