Our Approach

Orton-Gillingham

The Orton-Gillingham Approach to phonetic instruction is at the very heart of all we do at Horizon Academy. Research shows that the most successful intervention for dyslexia is intensive instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness, and our use of the Orton-Gillingham Approach provides this intervention daily. O-G is taught across all curriculum areas and supported in everything we do at Horizon Academy.

Janet George, M.S., M.ED, Academy of Orton-Gillingham Accredited Training Fellow

Janet George is the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Fellow working with Horizon Academy. Janet George is a board member of the Orton-Gillingham Academy, Founder, and Head of School at Fortune Academy 2002-2018, and co-author of “The Educational Interpreter Handbook.”

Multisensory Math

At Horizon Academy, our teachers use the Multisensory Math Approach. Our math curriculum is designed to teach students how to think. Traditional math, where facts and computations are memorized, does not harness the strengths of students with dyslexia. We take a different approach. The Multisensory Math Approach advocates a Concrete-Representational-Abstract Instructional Sequence and explicit language to make math concepts memorable.  

The Writing Revolution 

Horizon Academy’s writing instruction is rooted in The Writing Revolution, a series of evidence-based sentence-level, paragraph-level, and essay-level strategies created by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler. Similar to the Orton-Gillingham Approach and the Multisensory Math Approach, The Writing Revolution employs explicit language, follows a sequential order, and consistently cycles through concepts. While writing instruction occurs in Horizon Academy’s ELA classes, The Writing Revolution is utilized across multiple subjects to demonstrate student understanding.

Executive Function

Horizon Academy has taken a whole school initiative to implement specific strategies on how students plan, execute and finish tasks. Our schoolwide Executive Function Curriculum helps students build processes in key areas such as goal setting, planning, prioritizing, and organizing.