Homewood hosts Orton-Gillingham training

Homewood City Schools hosted an Orton-Gillingham training session recently. From Jan. 21-24, Homewood teachers and others from around the state came to the Board of Education offices to learn new ways to teach children how to read.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach was created to help children with reading impairments, such as dyslexia, learn to read by using more of their senses. Today, teachers use those multisensory techniques to help all children learn to read.

Emily Wilder, a kindergarten teacher at Edgewood Elementary School, said the training involves unorthodox teaching methods but produces results. Wilder participated in an October training session and said she can already see its impact on her students.

“We have a deck of cards and children see it, say it, and we do a motion that goes along with letter, name and sound,” she said. “It helps all students, not just students with dyslexic tendencies. It helps all students learn to read.”

HCS Director of Instruction Patrick Chappell said Homewood has been involved with Orton-Gillingham training for the past five to seven years.

“We’ve really worked on this a good, long while in Homewood,” he said. “It’s one of the more meaningful professional learning experiences, as reported by our teachers, that we have undertaken.”

The training has taken off in Homewood. At first, it mainly attracted specialists, such as reading coaches and those who taught English language learners. But now it draws special education and traditional classroom teachers as well.

Chappell said more than 20 Homewood teachers attended the January session, and 40 have been trained in the past year. October’s session was primarily for kindergarten through second-grade teachers. January’s session, meanwhile, was for third through sixth-grade teachers, along with a few special education teachers from the middle and high school.

The Homewood City Schools Foundation covered half of the training costs.

Chappell said the school system will continue to use this training in the future. A lot of teachers really believe in it, he said.

“If teachers believe in something, they want to do it,” he said. “It’s one thing for me to say something is valuable, but when the person they teach with says it’s valuable, they really take to it.”