How We Teach is Why We Work

The Rules and Logic of Language

Teaching the rules of reading and spelling, along with the patterns and concepts that shape them, is the key to mastery. Once students understand the logic of the English language, they can master it.

Our approach to teaching reading and spelling is rooted in the rules, patterns, and concepts that govern the English language. By revealing why words are spelled the way they are, we take the mystery out of spelling and empower students with the know-how to spell even unfamiliar words confidently for the rest of their lives. Similarly, by teaching the rules and patterns of spelling and reading, we eliminate the guesswork and reduce dependence on whole-word memorization.

Equally important, our programs deliver these fundamental rules of reading and spelling in a way that is not only easy to teach but also easy (and fun!) to learn.

How We Teach the Rules and Logic of Reading and Spelling

The foundation of our curriculum is the Orton-Gillingham approach.

First, the Orton–Gillingham method helps take the mystery out of reading and spelling by translating sounds into phonograms and by teaching students to apply rules and generalizations that simplify the reading and spelling process. This approach instills confidence, helps children overcome learning disorders, and makes reading and spelling easier, even for struggling learners.

Second, we embrace the hallmark of a true OG program, namely, multisensory instruction. Children are wired to learn using multiple pathways to the brain—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. While teaching through a child’s strongest pathway is a good start, Dr. Orton discovered an even better way to achieve optimal learning: simultaneous multisensory instruction.

Modern research has confirmed that when a child is taught through all three pathways at the same time, he will learn significantly more than when taught only through his strongest pathway.

All About Reading and All About Spelling are carefully designed to activate all three learning pathways simultaneously. This approach accelerates learning, enhances retention, and boosts motivation, enabling your child to succeed.

Visit these links for more information about the Orton–Gillingham approach to learning and how it drives the success of our programs.

• The Orton–Gillingham Approach to Reading and Spelling
• The Power of the Orton–Gillingham Approach
• Six Ways We Make Reading and Spelling Easy

Our unique multisensory lessons hold the secret to your success

When a child employs his senses of sight, sound, and touch, learning takes on a whole new level of potential. When children see something as it is explained, hear about it, and physically participate in the learning through hands-on activities, they are much more likely to retain new information.

Our spelling program implements the multisensory OG approach in the following ways:

• Visual Pathway
• Children watch as new concepts are demonstrated with color-coded letter tiles. Then, they see how their spelling words are written. In addition, they look at and read their flashcards during their review session.

• Auditory Pathway
• Children review their flashcards orally, segment words aloud, and say the sounds of the phonograms as they are written during their review sessions.

• Kinesthetic/Tactile Pathway.
• During our unique, entertaining, and fun activities, children write down dictated phonograms, phrases, and sentences.They also formulate new spelling words using their letter tiles.

Our focus on the rules and the logic of the English language, combined with our multisensory approach to learning, is a proven and powerful method for teaching both reading and spelling.

With our approach, students are taught exactly what they need to know in a clear and straightforward manner. They understand what they‘re learning and why they’re learning it. There’s no guessing, no ambiguity, and no confusion. Each concept is taught sequentially—building on previously learned knowledge—and to mastery before new lessons begin.

By integrating hands-on multisensory learning into the fun activities accompanying each lesson, students are motivated to learn and can master concepts more quickly and with a deeper understanding that lasts a lifetime.

Additionally, our OG approach enables students with reading disorders, such as dyslexia, to overcome their language processing issues. Every year we hear from homeschoolers who share how our All About Spelling and All About Reading curriculum have produced life-changing results for their struggling learners when other programs have failed.

Learn more about our multisensory approach to learning through these links:

• 20 Activities for Kinesthetic Learning
• Multisensory Teaching for Reading and Spelling
• 16 Ways to Make Practice Sheets Fun
• 7 Strategies To Make Reading and Spelling Stick
• 4 Spelling Strategies You Won’t Want to Miss
• 6 Ways We Make Spelling Easy
• Spelling Rules
• Games and Activities to Help Your Student with Reading

Explore the tools and free resources we offer to support multisensory learning:

• All About Learning Press Free Homeschool Resources Page
• Using Letter Tiles to Teach Reading and Spelling
• Games and Activities to Help Your Student with Reading
• Word Flippers
• 10 Great Ways to Review Spelling Word Cards
• 8 Ways to Encourage Spelling Success (and Happy Spellers)

All About Reading and All About Spelling are specifically designed to be easy for you to teach.

Our curriculum is developed deliberately to serve the needs of both students and teachers. No training is necessary to teach our programs, as our teacher’s manuals guide you through each lesson step-by-step, with explicit instructions requiring no advance preparation. You don’t need prior teaching experience to succeed with our programs. In fact, you don’t even need to be a good reader or speller yourself to be the excellent teacher your child needs to learn these lifelong skills.

Our programs are easy to teach for the same reasons that make them easy to learn for students: new concepts are broken down into narrowly focused, simple-to-learn incremental building blocks covering as many lessons as necessary to fully understand and master the new concept.

Here’s how we make teaching All About Reading and All About Spelling easy and effective:

• Open-and-go lesson plans – The lessons are lightly scripted so you can focus on your child instead of figuring out what to do next.
• Adjustable pace – Our mastery-based program allows you to adjust the pace of your lessons to match your child’s learning speed.
• Adaptable lessons – Our lessons are specifically designed to make it easy for you to tailor your teaching to suit your child’s developmental level and attention span. Consequently, our approach is effective for all ages—beginning spellers, intermediate students, teens, and adults—as well as all types of learners, from fast learners to struggling learners with or without learning disabilities.

The best way to understand how we make our multisensory lessons easy for you to teach is to take a look inside our teacher’s manuals and view samples of a few of our lesson plans.

Spelling Lesson Samples – View sample teaching lessons from any All About Spelling level.

How We Teach is Why We Work

What we teach–including the rules and the logic of the English language–and how we teach it–using the Orton-Gillingham approach–is why we work.

Our lesson plans are designed to make learning easy and logical. Concepts taught in each lesson are systematic, narrowly focused, and build on knowledge learned from previous lessons. They’re logical. And they work.

Here for you

Our service and our support for our customers are second to none. Our customer service representatives are extremely knowledgeable and have years of homeschooling and counseling experience. Feel free to contact them with any questions you may have about our products or for advice on teaching strategies or resources to help you succeed in your homeschooling efforts. Help is a click away on our Contact page.

We also provide an extensive library of useful and informative articles and resources to assist you in your teaching efforts, including the small sampling below. We encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter and visit our blog for teaching tips, free downloadable activities, promotional offers, and much more.

Here are a few articles you may find useful today:

• How to Choose a Spelling Program that Works
• 7 Ways to Make Spelling Logical
• 20 Best Tips for Teaching Reading and Spelling
• 7 Ways We Make Reading and Spelling Easy to Teach
• 12 Things Teachers Love about All About Reading and All About Spelling