Ms. Stern’s Classroom Edit display name

About my class

The Orton-Gillingham, OG, approach to reading and reading intervention has proven time and again that students can make significant progress if teachers are trained to use this program. By the time students reach upper elementary grades, reading deficits that exist become increasingly difficult to repair thus creating a chain reaction of deficits in all areas of reading and writing. At least half of the middle school students I work with, struggle at foundational levels of reading skills; letter-sound recognition, letter-sound patterns, word decoding, and fluency. Orton Gillingham is a research-based, multi-sensory approach to teaching reading, writing, and spelling. This program is specifically designed for students with dyslexia and other reading disabilities and impairments and has shown success with increasing student reading ability outcomes. As a special education teacher, at the secondary level teaching reading and math skills, I have seen students struggle on a daily basis with basic reading and writing tasks. The frustration that occurs from these deficit(s) is difficult to watch and is mentally/emotionally draining on the student. As their teacher, it is crucial that I have the tools to provide the interventions and instruction that will close up years of reading deficits. The best way to do that is through the Intermediate Orton Gillingham Training Program. My students will have access to daily, individualized and well-scaffolded instruction in spelling and spelling patterns, syllabication patterns for encoding and decoding, affix and root/base word, and vocabulary. Students will use a variety of sensory interactions to provide multiple pathways of practice to increase information retention. With proper training, my students will be able to navigate and participate in a world where reading and writing skills are a must-have. All students deserve an opportunity to advance in this world but we know without strong literacy skills the outlook is gloomy.