Science of Reading and Orton-Gillingham (OG)

Science of Reading with a special focus on how it's taught through the Orton-Gillingham (OG) method, perfect for homeschool families. This includes the key building blocks: phonemic awareness, phonemes, graphemes, digraphs, blends, diphthongs, and symbol-sound connections.

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🧠 What Is the Science of Reading?

The Science of Reading is based on decades of research into how children learn to read. It shows that reading is not natural—it must be taught, step-by-step, in a way that helps kids connect letters and sounds.

The Orton-Gillingham method follows this science and teaches reading in a structured, sequential, multisensory way. It's especially helpful for kids with dyslexia or who need extra support.

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🔤 The Building Blocks of Reading (Plain Language)

1. Phonemic Awareness (Sound Only — No Letters Yet!)

• What it is: The ability to hear and play with individual sounds in spoken words.

• Skills taught:

  • Rhyming: cat, bat, hat

  • Breaking words into sounds: /c/ /a/ /t/

  • Changing a sound: change /c/ in “cat” to /h/ to make “hat”

🧠 OG Lessons: Use clapping, tapping, oral games (no letters yet!) to teach these sound games.

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2. Phonemes (The Individual Sounds)

• What it is: A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound. English has 44 phonemes, even though we only have 26 letters.

🧠 OG Lessons: Start teaching one phoneme at a time using mouth formation, sound picture cards, and kinesthetic practice.

Examples:

• /m/ like in "mat"

• /sh/ like in "ship"

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3. Graphemes (Letters or Letter Combinations That Make Sounds)

• What it is: A grapheme is a letter or group of letters that spell a phoneme (sound).

Examples:

• The sound /f/ can be spelled f (fan), or ph (phone)

• The sound /k/ can be spelled k, c, or ck

🧠 OG Lessons: Teach one sound at a time and show all the ways to spell it (with picture keywords and writing practice).

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4. Letter-Sound Correspondence

• What it is: The match between a letter (grapheme) and a sound (phoneme).

🧠 OG Lessons: Teach explicitly and repeatedly: "This is the letter B. It makes the /b/ sound, like in bat."

Multisensory methods:

• Skywriting (arm movements)

• Sand or glitter trays

• Bumpy boards

• Say, touch, trace, write

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5. Blends (Two or More Consonants Together)

• What it is: Two or three consonants that are said together, but you can still hear each sound.

Examples:

• bl, cr, st, gr, fl

🧠 OG Lessons: Practice building, reading, and writing blends (e.g., “bl” + “ock” = block).

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6. Digraphs (Two Letters, One Sound)

• What it is: Two letters that work together to make one new sound.

Examples:

• sh (ship)

• ch (chop)

• th (this, thin)

• wh (when)

🧠 OG Lessons: Introduce digraphs as special "team letters" and always practice sound + symbol.

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7. Diphthongs (Gliding Vowel Sounds)

• What it is: Two vowel sounds that slide together in the same syllable.

Examples:

• oi (boil), oy (toy)

• ou (out), ow (cow)

🧠 OG Lessons: Use mouth movement charts, auditory games, and picture cards. These are often introduced after short vowels and long vowels are secure.

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8. Syllable Types (Why Some Vowels Say Their Name)

English has 6 syllable types, and each one helps explain why vowels sound different in words.

Syllable Type	Example	Rule
Closed	cat	Ends in consonant, vowel is short
Open	he	Ends in vowel, vowel is long
Silent e	cake	"e" makes the first vowel long
Vowel team	boat	Two vowels work together
R-controlled	car	The "r" changes the vowel sound
Consonant-le	little	Ends in -le, creates a separate syllable

🧠 OG Lessons: Use syllable cards, clapping syllables, and word sorts to help students break and read longer words.

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9. Encoding vs. Decoding

• Decoding = Reading (sound it out)

• Encoding = Spelling (write the sounds you hear)

🧠 OG Lessons always pair reading + writing: what we read, we spell; what we spell, we read.

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🗂 Typical OG Lesson Sequence (Preschool to Early 1st Grade)

Level	Skills Focused On	Sample Letters/Sounds
Level 1	Phonemic awareness + Letter-Sound (short vowels)	m, a, s, t, p
Level 2	Add consonants, blending CVC words	b, d, g, n, h
Level 3	Begin digraphs, word families	sh, ch, th
Level 4	Introduce blends and short vowel review	bl, st, cr
Level 5	Start long vowels, silent e	a_e, i_e
Level 6	Introduce vowel teams	ai, oa, ee
Level 7	Introduce R-controlled vowels	ar, or, er
Level 8	Begin diphthongs, multisyllabic words	ou, oy, ow

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