Greenlee Primary School recently implemented Orton-Gillingham teaching methodologies and it’s had a noticeable positive impact.
Orton-Gillingham is a diagnostic and prescriptive language-based teaching method, which combines multisensory inputs, direct and explicit instruction and guided discovery to equip students with widely applicable tools with which to decode language.
Primarily utilized to assist learners with dyslexia, it has been shown to be a highly effective strategy for teaching literacy to all levels and abilities, due to its systematic and rule-based approach.
Since the implementation of Orton-Gillingham methodologies, 31% of Greenlee’s previously below grade-level students are now performing at or above expectations.
“Greenlee’s teachers completing the Orton-Gillingham training has not only empowered them as reading teachers but has also changed the culture of our school,” said Greenlee principal Jason Hall. “I am forever grateful that our teachers have had this opportunity, not only for their professional growth but for how it has had an impact on our students as well.”
Teachers at Greenlee also praise the methods, with many saying that their students now look forward to and are excited for lessons each day.
Teachers said they’ve noticed “a tremendous boost in their overall morale” with children using the strategies in their independent work time.
All the teachers interviewed said the training they received would be beneficial for any classroom educator and pointed to a resultant positive increase in consistency and communication between classes and grade levels. The ability to be more engaged with their students, rather than following a scripted curriculum, has also been welcomed.
With schools and other institutions nationwide reporting decreasing attainment levels due to the pandemic and other associated factors, Greenlee’s success across the same time period is even more impressive. As a public school, they are achieving comparable results to private, specialized programs that can cost between $20,000 and $40,000 a year.
It’s possible through funding from AMY Wellness, the Community Fund of Western North Carolina, the Mitchell Fund, personal family foundations and the Mountain Air Community Fund in partnership with Camp Spring Creek. Susie van der Vorst is the primary training source through Camp Spring Creek.
The camp, located in nearby Bakersville, provides one-to-one tutoring and “arts, friendship and fun in the outdoors’’. In previous years, Spring Creek has been solely responsible for applying for and requesting grants for teacher training. This funding is now matched by the schools involved.
With recent studies detailing a drastic and continuous decrease in literacy scores across the United States, Hall garners credit for adopting and embracing research-based approaches in place of the standard, recurring systems that have seen children’s reading levels continue to drop in recent years.
The National Report Card, released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in late 2019, revealed that reading and overall literacy scores for 4th and 8th graders had decreased from the previous assessment in 2017. Those numbers are forecast to plummet even further as a result of educational disruptions over the past two years.
To learn more about Orton-Gillingham or Camp Spring Creek, call 688-1000 or email info@campspringcreek.org.