GIFT (Gillison’s Investigative Forward Thinkers) offers multisensory direct, explicit, and implicit instructions in reading, reading/language comprehension, writing/written expression, and in Mathematics.  Learners from ages six to seventy years old will grow and progress in their metacognitive skills (learning how to learn).  

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Our learners/thinkers develop reading and writing skills that will move them forward in their self-confidence and independence at home, at school, and on-the-job. These are necessary skills for all people to live a life of quality.  Reading is a civil right for each person’s success in life.  We will use evidence-based, Orton-Gillingham approaches and principles to guide the brains of our learners toward becoming skilled readers and writers.  

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We also use the multisensory math instructional approach.  Mathematics is language-based.  Once learners comprehend the language, they comprehend how to apply their knowledge and become skilled mathematicians.  Learning is a process.  We want our thinkers to enjoy the learning process.  Our thinkers continue to grow and move forward when they continue to learn and investigate while building background knowledge.  We will expose our learners to more vocabulary words.  Building their foundation in vocabulary will help them to become more verbally expressive and build their background knowledge.

 

You can learn something new faster when you have already learned something.  Background knowledge is the velcro to which new information sticks.  Gaining the ability to read is a GIFT.

 

Big Ideas in Beginning Reading