Welcome to the Empowered Readers 2023 Orton-Gillingham training, led by Grace Sharma and supported by Keely Rincon!  

Our mentor Karen Leopold, is a legend in the world of dyslexia education.  She was trained by Diana Hanbury King, who in turn was trained by Anna Gillingham, one of the founders of the O-G Approach.  Karen liked to say that we are in the business of saving lives.  We agree; there is not a better approach for enriching the lives of students with dyslexia. There is not a better approach to helping any student, with or without dyslexia, to acquire the literacy skills to succeed in our world. 

Before the class starts, we’d like to introduce ourselves….via video! 

  • To watch Diane’s video introduction, use the password “OrtonandGillingham” after you click here
  • To watch Grace’s video introduction, use the password “OrtonandGillingham” after you click here

Below please find additional information on logistics and a pre-classroom checklist. For your convenience, everything that is shown on this page can be downloaded as a 2 page PDF by clicking here. 

Warm regards,

Grace Sharma

Training Logistics:

  • Download and install the Zoom client on your computer.
  • This training is 100% online and we will be using and recording via Zoom
  • Have a personal Gmail account. We will be using Google Classroom to organize all assignments. If you do not already have a personal Gmail account, you will need to create one by June 1st. School district/corporate email accounts will not work due to the security/firewall protections in place. We cannot send you Google assignments until you are signed up in our Google classroom via your personal Gmail account. This is listed in the pre-training checklist below.
  • You will be turning in PDFs of many of your assignments. Please do not send picture files, phone images or formats other than PDF; these will be rejected as valid submissions and will not count towards your coursework. If you do not have a printer with a scanner, there are many phone apps that can take pictures of documents and convert them to a PDF. TurboScan is one we recommend but there are many choices.
  • Watch your mailbox. In the next few days you will be receiving your provided materials via USPS. These include drill cards, manipulatives, and Student Notebook 1. You will want to keep these materials nearby for our live coursework.

Training Checklist:

Task NumberTaskDue Date & How to SubmitComplete?
1.Create a Gmail account if you don’t already have one.
Share the email address with us, else we cannot add you to this course.
If you aren’t sure how to create a personal Gmail account, see directions here		June 1st by 4 pm Pacific
Email your Gmail address to: oganswers@gmail.com
2.Sign the online training policyClick here to download the online training policy.
Print, sign, scan as a PDF and email the PDF to Grace Sharma
by June 4th
3.Once you receive an invitation to the google classroom at your gmail address, complete these modules and accompanying assignments in Google Classroom

  1. Introduction Module

  2. Module I
June 5th by 4 pm Pacific
Submitted to Google Classroom
4.Complete Homework Articles (see instructions and links to articles below. These will also be available online once you have joined the Google Classroom)

  1. IDA Dyslexia & the Brain

  2. IDA Dyslexia in the Classroom

  3. AOGPE Overview

  4. Put Reading First


June 7th by 4 pm Pacific
 Email ONE PDF option for each article: to gracesharma22@gmail.com

  1. Annotated article

  2. Notes

  3. Outline

    4. OR –
  4. Summary
5.Gather your supplies

  1. 3×5 index cards

  2. Flair medium point black pen (or similar)

  3. markers (green, red, and blue)

  4. notebook paper

  5. drill cards, manipulatives, and Student Notebook 1 (mailed to you)

  6. fully charged (or plugged in) laptop/device

Recommended (but not required)

  1. rubber bands or sandwich bags to hold drill cards

  2. repositionable tabs to organize Student Notebook 1

  3. plastic shoebox (or similar) to create your tutoring bin

  4. small tactile surfaces (corrugated cardboard, needlepoint screen, carpet, fabrics)

  5. headset with microphone

June 8th by 8 am Pacific
6.If you want to print the digital training manual
  1. Print pages and secure in a 3-inch binder with tab dividers

(sections for each Module will be released one at a time in the Google Classroom)		As released