Chesapeake Academy third grade teacher Niki Allen participated in the Orton Gillingham Program’s Comprehensive Training Program. This course provided participants with an in-depth understanding of the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education’s (IMSE) Orton-Gillingham methodology, focusing primarily on phonological awareness and phonics (along with encoding/decoding).
Participants also discussed how to teach fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension using the Orton Gillingham philosophy of multi-sensory, sequential, direct instruction. This approach can be incorporated into an already existing literacy program as well as stand alone. Research indicates that this method of reading instruction holds significant benefits to all students although it was first conceived to support dyslexic students.
“Orton Gillingham provides my students the comprehensive, multi-modal instruction that secures literacy,” said Allen. “I am glad to join the rest of Chesapeake Academy’s lower school teachers in completing this training and embracing this method.”
