Orton-Gillingham (OG) Instructional Support

The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to students. The essential curricular content and instructional practices that characterize the Orton-Gillingham Approach are derived from two sources: first from a body of time-tested knowledge and practice that has been validated over the past 80 years, and second from scientific evidence about how individuals learn to read and write; why a significant number have difficulty in doing so; and which instructional practices are best suited for teaching such individuals to read and write.

The approach is so named because of the contributions of Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham. Samuel Orton was a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist. He was a pioneer in focusing attention on reading failure and related language processing difficulties. He brought together neuroscientific information and principles of remediation. Anna Gillingham was a gifted educator and psychologist with a superb mastery of the language. Encouraged by Dr. Orton, she compiled and published instructional materials that provided the foundation for student instruction and teacher training in what became known as the Orton-Gillingham Approach.

Why OG at Valley Prep?

In August 2019, Valley Prep established a new position: student support specialist. Mrs. Mary Bolanos assumed this role and was trained in the OG approach, with a focus on one-on-one and small-group instruction designed to better-serve those students who require additional support inside the classroom.