Presented by:
Kelly Palmer, M. Ed.
RED 6548
Spring 2010
“When the code is learned, the reading comes easily.”
Arlene Sonday
An Overview of the
program
The Sonday System 1is multisensory structured language program based on Orton-Gillingham,
which is an instructional approach intended primarily for use
with persons who have difficulty with
reading, spelling, and
writing of the
sort associated with dyslexia.
It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach,not a method, program, system or technique.
What is the Sonday
System?
The Sonday System is a unique and individualized curriculum based on the Orton-Gillingham philosophy that aims to help students improve their reading and spelling skills.
It was developed by Arlene Sonday, founding fellow and first president of the Academy of Orton GillinghamPractitioners and Educators (AOGPE).
It is appropriate for all ages and skill levels, pre -reading through college prep.
It meets the standards outlined by The National Reading Panel, The National Institutes of Health and Human Services and No Child Left Behind.
The Orton-Gillingham Approach has been integrating what are now known as the five
dimensions of reading into lesson plans for over four decades.
These lessons incorporate phonemic awareness,
systematic-explicit phonics, automaticity, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
The Sonday System—Learning to Read product line includes 3 programs: Let’s Play Learn,
Sonday System 1 and Sonday System 2. Through a combination of highly organized, Orton-
Gillingham based materials and ongoing training, Winsor Learning can prepare any teacher to
correctly identify and effectively remediate students at every level of instruction, Pre-K to Adult.
The Sonday System product line puts research into practice. It is easy to use and easy to
replicate.
The teacher training program is fully aligned with the precepts of state standards, No Child
Left Behind/Reading First, and IDEA.
The ongoing training program builds a foundation that will
increase knowledge and skills related to science-based literacy instruction for all teachers, tutors
and paraprofessionals.
Interesting facts about Sonday:
Winsor Learning and Sonday Systems began over
40 years ago.
The Sonday System product line enables teachers to use
multisensory language instruction quickly and successfully
because the design is streamlined and uncomplicated, while the
directions are explicit and easily understood.
Windsor Learning provides ongoing and sustained professional
development to enable teachers and other administrators to
understand the science and psychology of oral and written language.
This knowledge enables easy integration into existing curricula.
The Sonday System was developed by:
Arlene SondayA Founding Fellow of the Academy of Orton-
Gillingham Practitioners and Educators
author, the Sonday System Learning to Read, a
reading/spelling curriculum,
Holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Special
Education
She is an instructor at Fairleigh Dickinson
University, New Jersey, and Hamline University,
Minnesota
A member of the Advisory Council, Scottish Rite
Children's Learning Centers
Past Vice-President, The International Dyslexia
Association
consultant for the software program, Ultra Phonics
Tutor.
A member of the Advisory Council, Scottish
Who or What is Orton-Gillingham?
Orton-Gillingham (OG) is a philosophy, not a curriculum,
for teaching the structure and code of the English
language. The philosophy has been in use since the 1930s
and the techniques are sequential, systematic, multi-
sensory and cumulative. The system relies on phonics and
progresses from teaching the fundamentals of word
formation to advanced level word attack. The brainchild of
Samuel Torrey Orton, a neuropsychiatrist and
pathologist, and Anna Gillingham, an educator and
psychologist, their philosophy is based on Orton’s
extensive studies of children with language processing
difficulties like those of dyslexia. Together they developed
a teaching approach to help these children.
Who were Orton and Gillingham?
Samuel Torrey Orton (1879-1948), a neuropsychiatrist and
pathologist, was a pioneer in focusing attention on reading failure
and related language processing difficulties. He brought together neuroscientific
information and principles of remediation. As early as the 1920s, he had extensively
studied children with the kind of language processing difficulties now commonly
associated with dyslexia and had formulated a set of teaching principles and practices
for such children.
Anna Gillingham (1878-1963) was a gifted educator and
psychologist with a superb mastery of the language. Working with
Dr. Orton, she trained teachers and compiled and published
instructional materials. Over the last half century the Orton-Gillingham approach
has been the seminal and most influential intervention designed expressly for
remediating the language processing problems of children and adults with dyslexia.
The Orton-Gillingham Multisensory
Method
The goal was to create a sequential
system that builds on itself in an almost
3-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
dyslexic people learn best by involving all
of their senses: visual, auditory, tactile,
and kinesthetic
STATISTICS SHOW:
According to G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D. in his article
Reading Disabilities; Why Do Some Children Have Difficulty Learning To Read? What Can Be Done About It?38% of fourth graders nationally cannot read at basic level,
that is they cannot read and understand a short paragraph
similar to that in a children's book.
Substantial research supported by NICHD shows clearly that without
systematic, focused, and intensive intervention the majority of children rarely
"catch up." Failure to develop basic reading by age nine predicts a lifetime of
illiteracy.
With proper early instruction, the national prevalence of reading failure can
be reduced significantly.
By putting in place well designed, evidence based, early identification,
prevention, and early intervention programs in our public schools, the data
strongly shows that 20 million children today suffering from reading failure
could be reduced by approximately two-thirds.
More Research:
In the article, The Efficacy of a Supplemental Multisensory Reading Program for First Grade Students, (2008) written by
Deborah Sheffel, a study was conducted to examine the
effectiveness of an Orton- Gillingham based multi-sensory
reading program as a supplement to regular first grade
classroom instruction.
Both comparison and treatment groups were taught using
the district's core reading program during a ninety minute
reading block, and the treatment group's reading instruction
was supplemented with an Institute of Multi-Sensory
Education (IMSE) reading program for thirty minutes per
day.
The most dramatic improvement was in alphabetic
principal skills. There was substantial evidence that
phonemic awareness skills improved more for students in the
treatment group than in the comparison group.
So what do struggling readers need?
The Orton-Gillingham Approach always is focused upon the learning needs
of the individual student. Students with dyslexia need to master the same
basic knowledge about language and its relationship to our writing system as
any who seek to become competent readers and writers.
However, because of their dyslexia, they need more help than most people
in sorting, recognizing, and organizing the raw materials of language for
thinking and use.
Language elements that non-dyslexic learners acquire easily must be
taught directly and systematically.
Sonday System has these components:
Instructional Strategies: 10 Ef fect ive Practices
•Simultaneous Multisensory Instruction-Empowers students to store and retrieve information by utilizing their auditory, visual, tactile, and
kinesthetic senses. In order to develop multisensory associations, reading instruction must include the
teaching of spelling and handwriting.
•Lots of practice following intense instructionProvides many opportunities to practice new material.
•Direct, explicit instructionProvides the opportunity to learn everything about the English language that they cannot process intuitively.
The teacher presentations employs lesson formats which ensure that the student approaches the learning
experience understanding what is to be learned, why it is be learned, and how it is be learned.
•Systematic and cumulativeHelps students learn the logic behind their language. Teach one rule at a time and practice it until it
is over learned for both reading and writing before adding a new rule. You must also weave previously
learned rules into current lessons to keep them available for application. This is called spiraling.
•Synthetic and analytic phonicsInstruction is required in order to both blend sounds into a word (synthetic) and to look at a word
and break it into individual sounds (analytic)
The teacher presentations employs lesson formats which ensure that the student approaches the learning
experience understanding what is to be learned, why it is be learned, and how it is be learned.
•Diagnostic and prescriptiveAllows the tutor to continually assess whether the student understands the rules and can apply them.
When confusion of a previously taught rule is discovered it must be retaught.
Rereading Levels 1-5
1. Learning the alphabet
2. Developing Listening Skills
3. Printing Letters
4. Sound Puzzles
5. Letter to Sound Skills
The Sonday System 1
Logical sequence of Instruction:
1. Read Sounds
2. Spell Sounds
3. Read Words
4. Spell Words
5. Introduce new Material
6. Rea aloud
The Four Steps to Student Success
1. Assess, gather, Enter and Analyze data
2. Plan the intervention
3. Implement the intervention
4. . Monitor Progress- Evaluate Effectiveness
Because every student has different
needs, there are no preconceived
timelines or paths of progression. All
sessions are individualized. We
constantly monitor student progress
through teacher observation and formal
evaluations every four months. We rely
on our own assessments, as well as
feedback from teachers, parents and the
students themselves, to determine
success. Some students may reach their
goals within months; others may benefit
from our services for years.
How long are students in the program?
The Orton-Gillingham Approach is most often associated with a
one-on-one teacher-student instructional model. Its use in small group
instruction is not uncommon.
A successful adaptation of the approach has demonstrated its
value for class-room instruction. Reading, spelling and writing difficulties
have been the dominant focus of the approach although it has been successfully
adapted for use with students who exhibit difficulty with mathematics.
Reading and Math?
Video of the
Sonday System
http://www.winsorlearning.com/site/video
s/
"Reading is the most important academic
skill and the foundation for all academic
learning. Teaching children to read must
be our highest priority."
--California Task Force on Reading,
Every Child a Reader