BARTON READING & SPELLING SYSTEM

The Barton System is a Structured Literacy program that is Orton-Gillingham influenced. O-G is different in both what is taught (reading and spelling are taught as related subjects) and how it is taught (the methodology). Research- and evidence-based, Barton is an intensive intervention program that is multi-sensory, direct, explicit, structured and sequential.

Barton students complete levels 1-8 in elementary school and levels 9-10 in middle school. At the completion of the Barton system, your student will be reading, spelling and basic writing at the mid-9th grade level. This is considered adult reading level in our society.

ORTON-GILLINGHAM INFLUENCED

The Orton-Gillingham Multisensory Method was developed in the early 1930s by Anna Gillingham and a group of master teachers. Dr. Samuel Orton assigned Anna's group the task of designing a whole new way of teaching the phonemic structure of our written language to people with dyslexia.

The goal was to create a sequential system that builds on itself in an almost three dimensional way. It must show how sounds and letters are related and how they act in words. It must also show how to attack a word and break it into smaller pieces. It must be a multi-sensory approach as people with dyslexia learn best by involving all of their senses: visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic.

The Orton-Gillingham Multisensory Method is different from other reading methods in what is taught and how it is taught.

#1 WHAT IS TAUGHT

Phonemic Awareness is the first step. You must teach someone how to listen to a single word or syllable and break it into individual phonemes. They also have to be able to take individual sounds and blend them into a word, change sounds, delete sounds and compare sounds - all in their head. These skills are easiest to learn before introducing printed letters.

Phoneme / Grapheme Correspondence is the next step. Here you teach which sounds are represented by which letter(s) and how to blend those letters into single-syllable words.

The Six Types of Syllables that compose English words are taught next. If students know what type of syllable they're looking at, they'll know what sound the vowel will make. Conversely, when they hear a vowel sound, they'll know how the syllable must be spelled to make that sound.

Probabilities and Rules are then taught. The English language provides several ways to spell the same sounds. For example, the sound /SHUN/ can be spelled either TION, SION or CIAN. The sound of /J/ at the end of a word can be spelled GE or DGE. Students with dyslexia need to be taught these rules and probabilities.

Roots and Affixes, as well as Morphology are then taught to expand a student's vocabulary and ability to comprehend (and spell) unfamiliar words. For instance, once a student has been taught that the Latin root TRACT means pull and they know the various Latin affixes, the student is able figure out that retract means pull again, contract means pull together, subtract means pull away (or pull under), while tractor means a machine that pulls.

#2 HOW IT IS TAUGHT

Simultaneous Multisensory Instruction Research has shown that people with dyslexia who use all of their senses when they learn (visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic) are better able to store and retrieve information. So a beginning student might see the letter A, say its name and sound, and write it in the air - all at the same time.

Intense Instruction with Ample Practice Instruction for students with dyslexia must be much more intense and offer much more practice than for typical readers.

Direct, Explicit Instruction Students with dyslexia do not intuit anything about written language. So you must teach them, directly and explicitly, each and every rule that governs our written words. And you must teach one rule at a time and practice it until it is stable in both reading and spelling before introducing a new rule.

Systematic and Cumulative By the time most students with dyslexia are identified, they are usually quite confused about our written language. So you must go back to the very beginning and create a solid foundation with no holes. You must teach the logic behind our language by presenting one rule at a time and practicing it until the student can automatically and fluently apply that rule when reading and spelling. You must continue to weave previously learned rules into current lessons to keep them fresh and solid. The system must make logical sense to our students from the first lesson through the last one.

Synthetic and Analytic Students with dyslexia must be taught how to take the individual letters or sounds and put them together to form a word (synthetic) as well as how to look at a long word and break it into smaller pieces (analytic). Both synthetic and analytic phonics must be taught all the time.

Diagnostic Teaching The tutor must continuously assess the student's understanding of the rules and the ability to apply those rules. The tutor must ensure the student isn't simply recognizing a pattern and blindly applying it. And when confusion of a previously-taught rule is discovered, it must be retaught.