The Barton Reading & Spelling System is an Orton-Gillingham influenced multisensory, explicit, and systematic phonics program used to directly teach students with reading and spelling difficulties such as dyslexia. If your child has struggled to learn to read or spell in a regular classroom setting, or has been diagnosed with dyslexia, this class is for them.

I will be live with your child for the complete 50 minute tutoring session, each and every session. This is a 1-to-1 class, so we move at your child's pace and all instruction is targeted specifically toward their strengths and weaknesses.

As with every Orton-Gillingham influenced reading intervention, it is highly recommended to meet a minimum of 2 times per week. Some families prefer to meet 3 or 4 times to meet reading goals faster. If you are not able to meet 2 times per week, please reach out to me and we can discuss this together.

Every student that goes through the Barton system will start in Level 1 if they are ready. If a student is not ready to start with Level 1, we will address any pre-existing challenges and/or begin with the Foundation in Sounds program. In this program we address common difficulties many students with dyslexia have with telling the difference between similar sounds such as: /f/ vs. /th/, /s/ vs. /sh/, /r/ vs. /l/, etc. and remembering these sounds in order to read and spell.

If a student is ready to start, and they have already mastered some of the material in earlier levels or have experience with another Orton-Gillingham approach, I will give them a post-test for each level to see where we should start and ensure we fill in any gaps along the way. 

During each lesson (new concept) we will work on the following activities:
-sound review
-review of previous lesson
-phonemic awareness warm-up
-new concept: reading with tiles (real words)
-spelling with tiles (real words)
-reading with tiles (nonsense words)
-spelling with tiles (nonsense words)
-reading on pdf (real & nonsense words)
-spelling by typing (real & nonsense words)
-non-decodable word practice (reading & spelling)
-reading phrases
-spelling phrases
-reading sentences
-spelling sentences
-reading a story
-extra practice activities for review

A tutoring session = 50 minutes
A lesson = all above listed activities on a new concept (usually takes 2-3 sessions to complete)

Please note that most students will take 2 or 3 50-minute sessions to finish a lesson, depending on their age, the difficulty of the new concept, and their ability to focus. Some students move faster than that while others are slower. In my instruction, I know there is a sense of urgency to get students reading ASAP, so I always move as fast as I can but as slow as I must to ensure mastery and understanding.

We also play games, both as warm ups, and at the end to wrap up each tutoring session. If a student needs a break, or if they find a concept particularly difficult, we will play games to reinforce the concept. All games are directly related to the skill being taught and include activities such as: crossword puzzles, sorting sounds/words, fill in the blank with the missing letter, matching pairs, word search, balloon pop spelling, snakes & ladders spelling rules, phrase sorts, gameshow quizzes with a timer, etc.