Understanding the Orton-Gillingham Approach 

 

Founded in the 1930s by Dr. Samuel T. Orton and Anna Gillingham, the Orton-Gillingham approach was designed as an intervention for those who struggled with reading, spelling, and writing. This highly structured approach empowers students with strategies and information that help them better understand the English language.   

Initial lessons focus on explicitly teaching the relationship between graphemes (letters) and their phonemes (sounds) and scaffold over time to teach spelling rules, patterns, and phonetic skills that break larger words into smaller parts. Orton-Gillingham implements all of the components and instructional elements of a Structured Literacy approach.  

Structured Literacy brings the science of reading into the classroom and ensures students receive evidence-based, explicit teaching and an equal opportunity for success. It is especially well suited to students with dyslexia because it directly addresses their core weaknesses in phonological skills, decoding, and spelling (Moats, 2017). According to the International Dyslexia Association, “This approach not only helps students with dyslexia, but there is substantial evidence that it is effective for all readers” (2019).  

 

Principles of Orton-Gillingham

 

In the Orton-Gillingham method, assessment drives instructional decisions and allows educators to pinpoint each student’s skill deficits. Ongoing monitoring is a process that evaluates the effectiveness of instruction and demonstrates student progress. A comprehensive assessment system supports the prevention of reading difficulties, identifies at-risk students, and provides critical answers to guide effective literacy instruction and intervention.  

New learning is direct and cumulative. Concepts within the scope and sequence are explicitly taught and scaffolded onto previously learned concepts, ensuring that a solid foundation is built. Orton-Gillingham lessons provide a high level of student-teacher interaction, guided practice, and immediate and corrective feedback. Students are given opportunities to activate prior knowledge through practice and review of previously learned material before introducing a new phoneme or spelling rule.  

Educators use data to determine where to begin and how to group students to maximize success while supporting an MTSS framework of establishing goals and instruction based on individual student strengths and areas of need. Lessons can be further tailored to create individual learning paths that include targeted strategy instruction, differentiated lessons (pacing, presentation, assistive technology), and more opportunities for supported practice and application to build students’ confidence and skills.    

Orton-Gillingham is well recognized for pioneering a “multisensory” learning model that incorporates visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile sensory modalities. Materials and activities that activate the senses, such as manipulatives, hand motions, gross motor movements, and sand writing, can support early learning and be scaffolded later as skills are mastered. Multisensory teaching supports the diverse learning needs of students, making education more accessible and inclusive for all.  

Orton-Gillingham is a comprehensive approach based on the structure and history of the English language, integrating oral language, reading, spelling, and writing to teach how our language works. Direct, synthetic instruction begins with phonemes (sounds) and the alphabetic principle (the relationship of sounds to letters) and progresses to more complex concepts such as advanced spelling rules and morphology. 

 

How Orton-Gillingham Teaches Letter Order 

 

The Orton-Gillingham letter order emphasizes the foundational skills of reading and writing. The order of teaching letters follows a logical progression based on the frequency and function of the letters. While the order can vary depending on the curriculum, initial letters are typically selected based on how often they appear in the English language.   

The first letters in the beginning lessons of IMSE’s scope and sequence are /m/, /a/, /l/, and /o/. All four of these sounds are considered continuous sounds and can be stretched or prolonged through a flow of air when spoken. This can make blending easier for young learners. Once these first four letters are learned, words with CV and CVC combinations can be practiced in reading and spelling. The next five concepts taught include /h/, /g/, /c/, /d/, and /t/.  

Learning the first nine letters in this order provides students with opportunities to practice phonetic skills with “green words” like lad, got, ham, and log. Combined with red word instruction, students can read and spell sentences like “The hat had a tag” early in the scope and sequence.    


Phonological Awareness

 

Phonological awareness is a term used to describe the ability to identify and manipulate sounds within words. Phonological awareness rehearsal allows students to think about the parts of the whole. It includes a set of subskills that develop along a continuum and allow students to focus on the knowledge of sound structures, including phonemes, onsets and rimes, and syllables.   

According to Louisa Moates, “Perception of, memory for, and the ability to think about phonemes play a central role in learning to speak, read, and spell” (Moates, 2020). Research indicates that the performance of these skills can serve as a predictor of later success in reading and spelling (Ehri, et al., 2001). These skills should be a focus in the early stages of reading development, beginning as early as three years and continuing to develop through second grade. Phonological Awareness activities are not time-consuming and can be completed in as little as two minutes. Skills can be practiced throughout the week with a variety of highly motivating activities that incorporate movement, silly songs, and the use of manipulatives.


New Concept

 

New concepts are taught directly using systematic, cumulative lesson plans that follow a scope and sequence and general routine. One concept is built upon another, providing students with a solid foundation and knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences. Each concept is introduced through a multisensory teaching experience that includes valuable information about applicable orthographic patterns, positioning, and constraints or rules that students can apply directly during reading, spelling, and writing practice.   

Decodable readers and daily spelling dictation offer students practice opportunities to master reading and spelling with green words. Green words follow the regular phonetic rules and contain known concepts, making them easy for students to demonstrate phoneme-grapheme mapping skills. With repeated practice, these words are added to the student’s orthographic lexicon, a mental sight word bank, that allows readers to recognize words instantly without having to decode them phonetically. 


Syllabication

 

A syllable is a unit of pronunciation within a word that contains a vowel sound.  The vowel sound may be alone or surrounded by consonants. During syllabication, the students are explicitly taught to break a multisyllabic word down into smaller parts-or syllables. They can identify each of the four syllable patterns and seven syllable types to apply correct pronunciation to each syllable and successfully decode the entire word. The first two syllable types (open and closed) make up for nearly 75% of all syllables in our English language (Stanback, 1992). Learning to divide words into syllables provides students with a useful strategy to analyze unfamiliar words and gives them an advantage when reading and spelling challenging, multisyllabic words in text.   


Red Words

 

In addition to learning the letter-sound correspondences in phonetic words, students must also know how to read and spell irregular words that are commonly found in text beginning at the primer level. Sound-symbol correspondence knowledge will not be enough for students to decode words like the, said, any, friend, and cough. These tricky words are called “red words.”  Red words do not follow the regular phonetic rules, as they contain one or more unexpected spellings. “Red” is used as a reminder to stop and retrieve the word from memory. The red word instruction process uses a gross to fine motor procedure that stimulates various learning modalities through arm tapping, finger tracing, verbalizing, and writing to enhance memory.     


Oral reading

 

Providing daily opportunities for oral reading is key. Repeated exposure of decodable text will promote students’ orthographic mapping for new phonetic concepts and high utility words. To further extend fluency, students will benefit from modeling to enhance their prosody, intonation, and pacing while reading. Tracking while reading, paying careful attention to punctuation, and engaging in activities like Reader’s Theater can further improve key fluency characteristics such as speed, accuracy, and proper expression.    

 

An Orton-Gillingham Lesson Plan 

 

Three-Part Drill 

 

Once the student has learned the first four letters in the scope and sequence, the three-part drill can be routinely implemented to enhance knowledge of sound (phoneme)-symbol (grapheme) relationships. This 15-minute drill addresses multisensory learning modalities in three steps, including the visual, auditory/kinesthetic, and blending step, to build phoneme-grapheme identification, spelling, and blending fluency skills. 

In the visual step of the drill, the teacher shows the letter and the students states the sound.  The goal is for the student to rapidly transfer letter symbols into sounds, recognizing the relationship between sounds and the letters that represent them. 

The auditory or kinesthetic step focuses on auditory training for oral spelling. The teacher dictates the sounds and the student identifies the spelling(s) and practices writing them in the sand. The goal here is to set the student up for speech to print success. 

During the blending step, students will practice isolating and blending sounds into syllables and words. Practice with this step will support fluency (accuracy and automaticity) reading and comprehension.      

 

Learning a New Concept 

 

The introductory lesson is designed to ignite all sensory learning pathways to help the child to develop a deep connection with the phoneme concept as it is applied to alliteration, letter formation, common objects, and literature. Instruction in this component includes: 

Following the multisensory experience, children will engage in guided practice to apply the new phoneme or rule to the spelling of words and sentences. Spelling strategies like pounding syllables, fingertapping sounds, and arm tapping red words enhance the child’s ability to manipulate the parts of the whole. Children will also gain a solid understanding of how to self-edit their writing by checking for capitalization, understanding, punctuation, and spelling (CUPS).   

 

Red Word Instruction 

 

Non-phonetic spelling patterns make red words difficult to learn and master. Using a structured, multi-sensory approach to red word instruction will engage the student’s learning modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile) to activate feedback that is essential to promoting long-term memory. Some examples of multisensory teaching techniques that are included in learning a new red word include:  

 

Master the Orton-Gillingham Method with IMSE 

 

IMSE is dedicated to supporting districts and schools as they progress toward their literacy goals and provide science of reading-backed literacy instruction in the classrooms — reaching all tiers of learners.  

The IMSE curriculum equips educators with the essential strategies, tools, and resources to effectively teach foundational literacy skills. Professional training programs provide daily lesson plans and structured routines for key literacy components to ensure consistent and effective instruction across settings. Educators have access to step-by-step guidance for letter order instruction, spelling, reading, vocabulary, and interactive read-alouds that focus on oral language and comprehension.  

The curriculum also includes specialized resources to support English Learners, ensuring equitable access to effective literacy instruction. IMSE has everything educators need to ensure that students have the foundational skills to be successful readers, spellers, and writers.  

IMSE Resources 

 

FAQs about Orton-Gillingham Letter Order 

 

What is the Orton-Gillingham sequence?

 

Orton-Gillingham lessons are presented in a logical, well-planned order that follows a scope and sequence of concepts from easier to more difficult.  

 

What order should you teach letter sounds?

 

While the order of letters might vary from one program to another, it is recommended to select letters for initial instruction based on frequency and functionality. Targeting these letters first will promote early blending and word building. It is also best to separate letters that look or sound similar. Once a few letter-sound relationships are learned, CV (at) combinations can be taught to make real and nonsense words. This gradually expands to include more complex letter combinations by adding additional concepts to make CVC (hat) and CCVC (flat) words.  

  

What is the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching letters?

 

The approach has five main steps to implement effectively. The steps include phonological awareness, teaching a new concept, syllabication, teaching red words, and oral reading.  

Weekly lessons integrate these components to allow students to apply previously learned and new knowledge to move their reading and spelling skills beyond the word level to sentences and expanded text. Opportunities for application and practice with previously learned concepts are embedded throughout the lessons.     

 

How do you teach Orton-Gillingham red words?

 

IMSE’s instructional sequence for learning a new red word teaches students a systematic process that engages them in sequential steps that integrate gross and fine motor movements, finger tracing, simultaneous verbalization, motor or muscle memory, and repeated writing to enhance memorization.  When students are introduced to both the regular and irregular spellings of a red word and then engage in a multisensory learning process, they have an advantage in mapping these words into long-term memory for automatic word recognition.  

 

 

Ehri, L., Nunes, S., Willows, D., Schuster, B., Yaghoub-Zadeh, Z., & Shanahan, T. (2001). Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel’s meta-analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 250–287. 

International Dyslexia Association. (2019). Here’s why schools should use Structured Literacy. Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2019. Retrieved from https://dyslexiaida.org/heres-why-schools-should-use-structured-literacy/  

Moats, L. C. (2020). Teaching Reading is Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and Be Able to Do. Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers 

Moats, L. C. (2017). Can prevailing approaches to reading instruction accomplish the goals of RTI? Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 43, 15–22. 

Stanback, M. L. (1992). Syllable and rime patterns for teaching reading: Analysis of a frequency-based vocabulary of 17,602 words. Annals of Dyslexia, 42(1), 196-221. 

 

 

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