Letter from Founder

One of my 13-year-old students once asked me, “Why is reading so hard?” The question was simple, but difficult to answer because, for many of us, reading isn’t hard, and it never was. Some of us learned through implicit instruction and, simply, by exposure to books. There wasn’t a  need to understand how or why our language was constructed the way it is to grasp the rules of it – our minds just intuited and accepted those rules.

Some minds, though, need to understand the logic of our language before reading it – they don’t accept the rules at face value. They need to know why a word sounds the way it does and how the different letters work together. For example, how do we know that “truck” should be spelled with “ck” and not just “c” or “k”? The need to know can make learning to read a slow process. But it also demonstrates an innate sense of curiosity, and the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction was designed exactly for these inquisitive minds. It is explicit, structured, multisensory, and emotionally sound, and it’s the approach we use at The Reading Porch.

Our learners work one-on-one with me or my wife Julia, both Associate Members of the Orton-Gillingham Academy. At their own pace, learners engage with the smallest parts of our language, and step-by-step progress from sounds, to words, to phrases and sentences; along the way we work together on fluency, comprehension, and – crucially – the discovery of new ideas through reading and writing.

Beyond teaching the fundamentals of literacy, we also encourage learners to consider that their relationship to language is not limited to the challenges that may confront them. We all participate in language every time we think, listen, speak, sing, act, create. And as each learner arrives with their own unique set of interests and strengths in these domains, it is our work as practitioners to leverage and affirm those interests and strengths during the learning process. We want the various elements of language to unfold side-by-side with a learner’s growing sense of curiosity and self-confidence.

To learn more about us and what informs our teaching, please visit About Us, and to learn more about the Orton-Gillingham approach, click here. If you’d like to set up an initial consultation, or if you have any questions, please email me at TheReadingPorch@gmail.com. 

Sincerely,

Kristen Plylar-Moore, M.S.Ed., A/OGA
Founder, The Reading Porch