Meet Your Fellow

Deb Morris, M.Ed., F/AOGPE

Deb Morris is a Fellow of The Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (AOGPE). She has over 16 years' experience as an educator and a decade as a Fellow of the AOGPE. She is a certified reading specialist with an under-graduate degree in English and a Masters in Literacy Education.  

Deb is equally adept at engaging elementary students as she is presenting foundational skills, such as phonics, in a manner that respects the intellect of middle and high school students.  She lives for the lightbulb moment when reading finally makes sense to students for whom it has always been a mystery.  

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Her online lessons provide the one-on-one, multi-sensory, structured-language instruction that is the hallmark of Orton-Gillingham. Finding qualified O-G practitioners can be challenging, and disruptions in the continuity of student instruction due to a change in O-G tutors can be detrimental to growth.  With Orton-Gillingham Nation's flexible online model, this is no longer a concern.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach

Orton-Gillingham (O-G) is a scientifically-based reading research (SBRR) approach that employs multi-sensory strategies to teach reading, spelling, and writing.  Following an initial assessment, students are taught concepts to automaticity - they over-learn them before new material is integrated.  Every lesson is diagnostic and prescriptive, which means that students are not rushed forward before they are ready for new information. 

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O-G focuses on phonics, syllables, and lower-level spelling rules first, and gradually evolves to include morphology (prefixes, roots, and suffixes).   The O-G approach is structured and sequential; however, it's also flexible - which means that students' needs are addressed as they arise.  Students will never be taught a concept because that's what's next.  Students are taught what they need, when they need it. 

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Orton-Gillingham is the gold standard for tutoring individuals with dyslexia.