Thank you for your kind comment. I will be happy to keep teaching about English!!!

Good morning sweet Fred! I'm not sure what time zone you are in, but you were up very early by my clock. I hope you are having a wonderful day. :-)

You are! Thank you Fred. :-)

Good morning, Fred! I always say, as long as the student can read the word, that's the point. Always the point is to read the word, even if it's not the way we first thought the word would be read. :-) But... rules are good too and help with mastery.

@@ortongillinghamcoaching well said have a good evening.

Thank you, Fred! I appreciate your kindness.

Ha! No rest for the weary, Fred! But that's how much I love OG. :-) I actually went to a family gathering this weekend, so I did get some rest.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Good afternoon, Thank you, Fred! It's not easy to feel worthy of "the camera," so I'll take that very kind compliment any day :-)

Hi Fred! You made my day :-)

Hi, those sounds are because of the schwa where any vowel can take on the /u/ or short u sound. It can also happen in r-controlled vowels and it's a little different than a short u, but it's now an r-controlled schwa. Other examples are dollar or doctor. Even in the middle in a word like "effort" or "evaporate" a schwa can appear. The good thing is that when you hear that schwa, you can tell your student the schwa is never accented, so you can eliminate that syllable as the accented syllable. This is a video on Schwa: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3rYY3V6brV8gtU Please let me know if I can explain further. I'm happy to help!

Thanks a lot 🥰 I have one more question. How to know if it's a schwa sound or not? I understand the schwa is in the unstressed syllable, but my students don't know where to stress in new words (therefore don't know their part of speech). Are there any rules for the schwa sound, please?

Unfortunately, the only rule I know for schwa is that if you have an "a" at the end of a word, like cola or umbrella, those will always be a schwa. The way I teach it is that all vowels say 3 sounds, short, long and schwa. This is just an introduction, and I consider schwa an ongoing lesson because you have to constantly point out words that have it. Most of the time the /u/ sound is fairly prominent, like kitten, tomato, lemon. Other times, it can be tricky. The main goal is to pronounce the word, be able to read it or break it down for pronunciation. If a student can do this by knowing the word from hearing it previously or can learn, we don't really say to-ma-to, we say t/u/, ma, to, it's all good. Here are 2 articles on schwa. One just goes through it (which you already know what it is) and the other is on activities you can do with schwa. #1: ogforall.com/schwa-happens/ #2: ogforall.com/activities-to-make-schwa-fun-and-engaging/

I'm absolutely indebted to you. This information has been invaluable in expanding my knowledge. I can't thank you enough for sharing this with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️ Wish you all the best 🥰😃

@@KhaViTran Thank you very much for your kind words. It makes me so happy to know my work is meaningful. I'm always happy to answer questions and what I don't know we can find the best solution together.

The cards in the video I either made on my computer at home or they came from my training course (they gave us some, but not all decks). The book of cards is on my website. It is a pdf download and there are sticker templates you can print to stick on index cards. The link for that is: bit.ly/3LgYrLe

Thank you, Fred! You know just how to make my day better :-)

Link please for the index cards

You'll notice my channel is dedicated to the Orton Gillingham approach to phonics. I have a free resource of templates for drill cards where those using this approach can print their own cards on a home printer using index cards. The video was meant to go with the template in case they didn't know how to do it. I have also been thanked for the video. Hopefully we all know a constructive saying about opinions to use in this case. But, thank you for taking the time to comment.

Thank you!

Thank you Fred! I so appreciate your encouragement. It's my hope that everyone learns about OG. :-)

I'm so happy to hear from you so far away! Thank you for watching :-)

So happy it helped!

Hi! The closest we come to a reference guide or one-sheet is the Scope & Sequence and in the Scope & Sequence workbooks there are broken down smaller scope & sequenced by each book . I have not created a one-sheet of rules. I'll think about what that could look like. I also use index cards for my students where I put each rule on an index card and punch a hole for a ring, so they have a ring of rules.

Ha! I'm close to earning a donate button and would be grateful for a lunch. :-)

I'm here! Hope you are having a great day Fred :-)

@@ortongillinghamcoaching have good evening young lady

Thank you!

Thank you so much :-)

Sorry or in person

Hi Fred! I trained in person -- a 9 month course at a school here in Atlanta called Schneck School. I am in the process now of creating an online course for tutors, teachers, homeschool parents, and parents. I hope to have that ready this summer. :-)

You are! Thank you for keeping me encouraged. :-)

Thank you for letting me know I'm helping you. It means a lot to me and inspires me to do more. :-)

Good morning! Thank you so much. I need to hear that :-)

Good morning! Thank you for the encouragement :-)

Hi! I'm so glad you asked me your question. In the word "literal" you would not drop the first e. It's a tricky one to divide, and someone using a word like this needs to have heard this word before because you have to know that it's pronounced LIT-ER-AL. If I am dividing this word, I would underline the vowels and labels VCV, and VCV again to get 3 syllables. You go to the first syllable and ask, is it LI-TER or LIT-ER? It is LIT-ER (because you have heard this word before), the second VCV syllable would be E (long e)-RAL or ER (r-controlled)-AL? It's ER-AL. Another reason it's also tricky is that different dialects are going to pronounce the second syllable differently. I tend to say the "ER," but I think it can also be a schwa (where we pronounce the vowel as a short u sound). The last syllable is a schwa for sure. We don't say, LIT-ER-AL, we say, Lit-er-ul. The accent is on that first syllable. We stress, LIT-er-ul. So labeling this word, I would say, LIT, C (Closed syllable), ER - R/[ə] (R-Controlled or Schwa), and AL - C/[ə] (Closed/Schwa) with the accent on the first syllable. I hope this helps! Feel free to ask me any questions.

@@ortongillinghamcoaching Thank you very much for extending your wealth of knowledge on this topic by answering my question. I really appreciate your help. 😁

Hi! In the Orton Gillingham Manual, they use white cards for consonants and salmon-colored cards for vowels. In the first OG course I took, all of our reading consonant decks are on salmon cards and vowel cards are yellow, short vowels are green colored cards (with pictures on them). I don't think it's imperative to have colors, but if you make the vowels and consonants two different colors, it's easier to highlight vowels versus consonants. But any colors you choose are fine. In my Drill Card book, I have a sticker template where you can print those and put the stickers (print on clear stickers) on color-coded cards. There is also a book of fold-over cards where you could print those on different colored paper and fold over. Link: ogforall.com/downloads/drill-cards-pdf-format-orton-gillingham-based/

@@ortongillinghamcoaching I’m looking at the scope and sequence books and workbooks too, do they need each other or are they the same information presented differently

Hi! Workbooks One and Two are my more like my blog, in a linear format (how a teacher would learn OG in a class), where the Scope & Sequence Workbooks are in the order you teach. Both contain worksheets. The worksheets are similar, and some are even the same or use the same words, but the Scope & Sequence worksheets are more graphic, with pictures and less words. The Scope & Sequence Books also contain a lot of mini-cards you can use as a deck (or keep in the books). Each book in S&S contains a full Scope & Sequence as well as smaller Scope & Sequences that go with the specific book. I divided it into four books only because it was so comprehensive it got too big to be one book. I felt it was too cumbersome as a digital file. I’m happy to answer any follow-up questions.

All of my material is in digital format. With tutoring and teaching, I think being able to print often and multiple copies is important, so I do not offer a physical format of any product. Once a purchase is made, links for the downloads are emailed.

@@ortongillinghamcoaching would it be beneficial to buy all 6 books as a homeschooling mama? I’m looking to transition into teaching with this method but am trying to figure out how to and if I can use it alongside the curriculum I already have or if it would replace it. The curriculum I use is spiral based and although it’s been great I feel like the traditional method alongside it being spiral vs mastery makes for difficult retention of spelling rules. Are you on fb or instagram where I can chat with you so it’s easier to keep track of replies?

Hi Tamika, there are a few options. I have this book with decks in it -- you can just fold over the cards or print stickers (there are templates) and stick them to index cards: ogforall.com/downloads/drill-cards-pdf-format-orton-gillingham-based/ I also have a video to help with printing your own cards as well as a template for making your own cards. The templates are a free download on my blog site: Drill Card Template (for Jewel Box Cards) - bit.ly/3Eb3LuO Video for printing on index cards: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJS8aoSdiqt5gdE In my Scope & Sequence workbooks, there are mini cards throughout the books: ogforall.com/downloads/category/scope-sequence-workbooks/

Thank you!

Good morning! :-)

Thank you! You are always so kind. :-)

Thank you!

Thanks 😊

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much!

Hi Linda, thank you for your kind words! The FLOSS rule says, after one short vowel in one syllable words ending in a F, L, or S, double the F, L, or S. These vowels are short, just like in the British words. Other examples are: grass, fill, mass, miss, puff, miff. These are all short vowel sounds. There are exceptions to the rule though. Words like as, if, gas -- and more. The vowel sounds in all of these, even the exceptions, are short. I'm so grateful I can help you learn English. Please let me know any time you have a question. You can also email me at [email protected]

Hi Lisa, I have a couple of articles on schwa, in addition to the video. Links are: ogforall.com/activities-to-make-schwa-fun-and-engaging/ ogforall.com/go-bananas-for-schwa/

Thank you so much for responding. I will be using your activities tomorrow. Also, I wanted to thank you for your videos. You are so informative, and your approach is direct which is excellent. Thank you again. @@ortongillinghamcoaching

Hi Fred, do you mean just the short vowel rules on a one-sheet? That's doable! If it's all of the OG rules that might get tricky. Let me know.

I love them!

Thank you very much!

Yes! Every Scope & Sequence workbook has the full scope and sequence.

Thank you so much for your continued support of my videos. I am grateful!