Orton-Gillingham spelling rules: free PDFs and how to actually use them

Last updated 2026-07-10

What are Orton-Gillingham spelling rules, exactly?

Orton-Gillingham (OG) is a structured, multisensory approach to reading and spelling built by neurologist Samuel Orton and educator Anna Gillingham in the 1930s. The spelling rules at its core are not memorization tricks. They describe how the English writing system actually works, drawn from the phonological and morphological structure of the language.

The rules fall into a few big buckets: phoneme-grapheme correspondences (which letters or letter combinations spell which sounds), syllable types (there are six: closed, open, vowel-consonant-e, vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant-le), morphology rules (prefixes, suffixes, and roots), and spelling conventions like the Floss rule, the Silent-E jobs, and the Q-U rule. OG training bodies have codified somewhere between 70 and 84 rules depending on how you split the categories. That figure comes up over and over in OG training manuals rather than from a single peer-reviewed count.

What makes these rules work is that they're taught out loud, in a set order, before a child meets a word that uses them. That's the reverse of most classroom spelling instruction, where kids hit words first and patterns second, if at all.

If you're wondering whether your child has an underlying reading problem rather than just weak spelling, learning the signs of dyslexia is a good starting point before you pick any intervention.

Where can I download Orton-Gillingham spelling rules for free?

Legitimate free sources exist, and a few are genuinely excellent. Here are the ones worth your time.

Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR): The FCRR at Florida State University publishes free teacher and parent resources grounded in structured literacy. Their student center activities and phonics scope-and-sequence documents download straight from their site. The spelling rule progressions track closely with OG sequencing without carrying the OG label. ^[1]

Louisiana Believes: Louisiana's Department of Education overhauled its literacy approach and made national news doing it. They publish a free Foundational Skills Teacher Companion with detailed phonics and spelling rule progressions, syllable type instruction, and morphology, all free to download. It's one of the most complete free resources any state agency offers. ^[2]

Florida Department of Education's Just Read, Florida!: Florida's state literacy office has published structured literacy guidance and phonics scope-and-sequence charts that overlap heavily with OG rule sets. ^[3]

IDA (International Dyslexia Association): The IDA publishes free fact sheets on structured literacy, phonics, and spelling that explain the rule categories even if they don't hand you a printable rule card. Their Knowledge and Practice Standards document is free and lays out what a proper OG scope and sequence looks like. ^[4]

Open-license phonics curricula: Some older editions of structured phonics programs have been archived by school districts and turn up through a Google search. The licensing varies, so check before you print.

A warning: plenty of sites selling "OG spelling rule PDFs" for $5 to $25 on Teachers Pay Teachers were not written by credentialed OG practitioners. Some are accurate. Many have sequencing errors or bundle rules in ways that contradict the research. If you're using a free or low-cost PDF, cross-check the scope and sequence against the IDA's Knowledge and Practice Standards. ^[4]

For a structured way to drill the words that come out of these rules, sight word flashcards and sight words worksheets can supplement rule-based spelling work. They serve a different purpose, though: high-frequency words your child needs to read automatically while spelling rules build the deeper code.

What do the core OG spelling rules actually cover?

If you download a scope-and-sequence document and feel lost, here's a plain-language map of what the major rule categories mean.

The six syllable types are the backbone. Every syllable in English fits one of these patterns, and the type tells you how to say the vowel:

Syllable Type	Pattern	Vowel sound	Example
Closed	Ends in consonant	Short	cat, fish
Open	Ends in vowel	Long	go, me
Vowel-consonant-e (VCE)	Vowel + consonant + silent e	Long	cake, pine
Vowel team	Two vowels together	Varies	rain, feet
R-controlled	Vowel + r	R-colored	car, bird
Consonant-le	Consonant + le at end	Schwa + l	table, puzzle

The Floss rule: When a one-syllable word ends in f, l, or s after a short vowel, you double the final consonant: fluff, bell, class. This rule explains a pattern most adults follow on instinct but never learned by name.

The Silent-E jobs: Silent E at the end of a word is not random. OG curricula give it five documented jobs: it makes the vowel before it long, it softens C or G, it gives a word the required two vowels, it keeps a word from ending in V, and it separates homophones (bare vs. bar). Teach all five jobs and a huge amount of apparent irregularity disappears.

Morphology rules: These handle what happens when you add suffixes. The doubling rule (double the final consonant before a vowel suffix when the word is one syllable, short vowel, ending in one consonant: run becomes running). The drop-E rule (drop silent E before a vowel suffix: bake becomes baking). The change-Y-to-I rule (carry becomes carried).

Phoneme-grapheme correspondences: These map the 44 phonemes of English to their possible spellings. The long A sound alone can be spelled a (open syllable), a-e (VCE), ai, ay, eigh, ea, ey. OG teaches kids to recognize every spelling and, when writing, to pick the most likely one based on where the sound sits in the word.

Kids with phonological dyslexia struggle specifically with phoneme-grapheme mapping, which is why teaching these correspondences explicitly and in order matters so much for that profile.

Are there legitimate free OG resources from government or university sources?

Yes, several. This matters because .gov and .edu sources go through editorial review that Teachers Pay Teachers documents don't.

The Florida Center for Reading Research (fcrr.org, affiliated with Florida State University) is probably the single best free academic source for structured literacy materials in the United States. School districts across the country use their work. ^[1]

The What Works Clearinghouse at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has reviewed several OG-based and structured literacy programs and posts the reviews free at ies.ed.gov. Their reviews of OG-based interventions show the evidence for decoding is stronger than the evidence for reading fluency and comprehension. Spending 15 minutes with WWC reviews before you choose a program is time well spent. ^[5]

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) funded much of the foundational research on systematic phonics and spelling instruction. The National Reading Panel's 2000 report concluded that "systematic phonics instruction makes a bigger contribution to children's growth in reading than alternative programs providing unsystematic or no phonics instruction." ^[6] The full report is free at NICHD's site.

The Reading League isn't a .gov or .edu source, but it publishes free curriculum transparency reports that rate whether specific OG-branded and structured literacy programs actually match the science of reading. They're free downloads and can help you judge any PDF you're thinking about using. ^[7]

How is the OG sequence different from regular classroom phonics?

The sequence matters as much as the rules. Most classroom phonics programs teach rules in whatever order the textbook publisher picked, often driven by which words show up in grade-level stories rather than any linguistic logic. OG orders rules from simple to complex based on how the language is built.

A typical OG sequence opens with single consonants and short vowels in closed syllables, then blends, then digraphs, then long vowel patterns, then multi-syllabic words, then Latin and Greek morphology. A child doesn't meet a rule until they've mastered its prerequisites. Compare that to a classroom that drops "ough" words in October because the basal reader has the word "thought" that week.

Research in the Journal of Learning Disabilities found that students with dyslexia who got systematic, sequential phonics instruction made significantly bigger gains in decoding than those in control conditions. ^[8] The order is part of why it works, more than the rules themselves.

For kids who also struggle with automatic word recognition, the link between OG rule instruction and high-frequency word reading is worth understanding. Many dolch sight words turn out to be decodable once a child knows the relevant rules. Only a small subset are truly irregular.

Can parents use OG spelling rule PDFs at home without professional training?

Honestly? Yes and no, and the nuance matters.

A parent who reads a well-made OG scope-and-sequence PDF, understands the order, and works through it steadily with their child will do real good. The rules are accurate descriptions of English spelling, and teaching them out loud beats no explicit teaching. You don't need a certification to say "the Floss rule tells us to double the L here" and practice five words that follow it.

What you lose without training is diagnostic precision. A credentialed OG practitioner figures out exactly where in the sequence a child is, spots specific error patterns, and picks exactly which rule to hit next. A parent working from a PDF will do some of that on instinct and miss some of it. That's okay. Imperfect structured practice almost certainly beats waiting for the school to act, and schools are often slow to act.

The ReadFlare free reading toolkit has parent-friendly versions of several phonics concept summaries that pair well with a scope-and-sequence PDF if you want a structured start without buying a $400 training course.

If your child has a formal dyslexia diagnosis or is on an IEP, the school may be required to provide OG-based or structured literacy instruction. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1414, schools must build an Individualized Education Program that includes the specific educational services a child needs, which for a child with dyslexia can mean OG-based reading intervention. ^[9] Using a home PDF while pushing the school for proper services isn't an either/or.

If you're not sure whether your child has a learning disability that would qualify them for services, starting with a dyslexia test or learning disability test is the right move.

What should a quality OG spelling rule PDF include?

Not all free PDFs are equal. Here's what to look for, and what to walk away from.

A good document has a clearly defined scope and sequence, meaning the rules run in logical order from simple to complex, not alphabetically or at random. It separates phoneme-grapheme correspondences from syllable type rules from morphology rules, because these are distinct knowledge domains even though they work together. It includes examples for each rule, common exceptions, and some guidance on how to practice.

It should also split reading (decoding) rules from spelling (encoding) rules, because they overlap but aren't identical. Reading, a child applies rules to figure out a word from print. Spelling, they choose among possible grapheme options for a sound. Good OG instruction makes that two-way street explicit.

Red flags: rules listed without examples, claims that "there are no exceptions" to rules that have dozens (English spelling is regular but not perfectly rule-governed), morphology sections that skip Latin and Greek roots, or syllable type instruction that only covers closed syllables and VCE patterns.

Kids with surface dyslexia struggle specifically with irregular words that don't follow predictable rules, so any resource you use should admit where the rules break down instead of pretending they're universal.

For kids with both phonological and naming speed difficulties, what researchers call double deficit dyslexia, spelling rules alone won't be enough. Fluency and automaticity practice has to run alongside rule instruction.

How many OG spelling rules are there, and do I need to teach all of them?

The number depends on the source. Orton and Gillingham's original work codified around 70 rules. Contemporary OG training programs list between 75 and 84, depending on how the subcategories are counted. The OG-based Wilson Reading System works through a sequence of 12 steps that covers most of these rules over one to three years of instruction.

No, you don't need to teach all of them, at least not right away. About 20 core rules cover the vast majority of English words a child meets through third or fourth grade. The long tail (Latin-derived spelling patterns, Greek combining forms, advanced suffix assimilation rules) matters more for older students dealing with academic vocabulary.

If you're a parent working at home with an early elementary student, prioritize this: the six syllable types, the Floss rule, silent-E jobs, the basic doubling and drop-E suffix rules, and the most common vowel team spellings. That's roughly 25 to 30 rule concepts, and it covers the bulk of words in grades 1 through 3.

For older students or more complex profiles, rules governing Latin roots and Greek combining forms get important. A student trying to spell "photograph" gains far more from knowing that "photo" means light and "graph" means write than from memorizing the word as a sight word.

The ReadFlare parent advocacy kit includes a sequenced checklist of the highest-priority rules for elementary ages so you can track where your child is without parsing a full 80-rule scope-and-sequence document.

What's the research basis for OG-style spelling instruction?

The case for systematic, explicit phonics and spelling instruction is strong. The case for OG specifically as a branded program is more complicated.

The National Reading Panel's 2000 report, funded by NICHD, found clear evidence that systematic phonics instruction produces better outcomes than whole-language or incidental phonics for both typical readers and struggling readers. ^[6] The finding has been replicated over and over.

For students with dyslexia specifically, a 2019 meta-analysis by Stevens and colleagues in the Journal of Learning Disabilities found that phonics-based interventions produced moderate to large effect sizes for decoding outcomes. ^[8]

The What Works Clearinghouse reviewed specific OG-based programs and found mixed results across outcome areas. For programs like Wilson Reading System, WWC found "potentially positive" effects on alphabetics (which includes phonics and spelling) with low-to-moderate evidence strength. ^[5] The honest read: OG principles work, individual OG-branded programs vary in their evidence, and no single study has pitted all OG variants against each other.

A 2014 paper by Galuschka and colleagues in PLOS ONE found that phonics instruction was the only intervention with a significant effect on spelling outcomes in dyslexia, outperforming reading fluency training, cognitive training, and other approaches specifically for spelling. ^[10]

For children with rapid naming deficit, the evidence suggests spelling rule instruction should run alongside fluency-building, since slow retrieval of letter names and sounds interacts with spelling production in ways rule knowledge alone doesn't fix.

How do I use a spelling rule PDF in a daily practice session?

A 15-minute daily session beats a 90-minute weekly one. Spaced repetition is one of the most replicated findings in learning science.

Here's a simple structure that follows OG methodology without turning you into a trained therapist.

Start with review (3 to 4 minutes): Practice two or three rules you've already covered with flashcards or a quick verbal drill. Ask your child to tell you the rule, more than recall a word. "What's the job of silent E in the word 'bake'?" is better practice than "spell bake."

Introduce or continue one new rule (5 to 6 minutes): Teach or keep working one rule. Use the multisensory piece: say the rule out loud, write examples together, tap phonemes on fingers, mark syllable types with colored pencils. OG's multisensory emphasis is not decoration. Research supports that encoding information through more than one sensory channel strengthens retention, especially for students with dyslexia. ^[6]

Word work (3 to 4 minutes): Spell five to ten words that use the target rule. Mix in two or three review words. Keep the list short. More words is not more learning if the child is worn out.

Dictation (2 to 3 minutes): Dictate two or three sentences that contain rule-following words. Sentence-level dictation is where the rules have to transfer into real writing, and home sessions skip this step constantly.

End with something the child reads successfully. Always close on a win.

For very young kids or those just entering phonics, first grade sight words give you decodable and high-frequency word practice that runs alongside rule instruction without conflicting with it.

What if the school isn't providing OG-based spelling instruction? What are your rights?

This is where knowing the law matters as much as knowing the spelling rules.

Under IDEA (20 U.S.C. § 1414), if your child has a disability that affects their education, dyslexia included, the school must provide a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment. The IEP has to include measurable annual goals and the specific services the school will provide. ^[9] The law doesn't name OG, but it does require that interventions be based on peer-reviewed research to the extent practicable, per 34 C.F.R. § 300.320.

The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance that dyslexia can qualify a student for services under IDEA or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Their 2015 Dear Colleague letter states that "nothing in the IDEA prohibits the use of the words 'dyslexia,' 'dyscalculia,' or 'dysgraphia' in IDEA evaluation, eligibility determinations, or IEP documents." ^[11]

If your child's IEP leaves out evidence-based spelling or phonics instruction and your child isn't making adequate progress, you can request an IEP meeting, present data on your child's current performance, and ask for a change to the services offered. You can also request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at the school's expense if you disagree with the school's evaluation.

Some states go further. As of 2024, more than 40 states have passed dyslexia-related laws that require screening, intervention, or teacher training in structured literacy. The exact requirements vary a lot by state.

Document everything in writing from day one. Emails, meeting notes, evaluation reports. The paper trail is what makes your rights real.

For a closer look at the process, understanding what a learning disability test involves and what its results mean is a useful step before requesting school-based services.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a completely free Orton-Gillingham spelling rules PDF I can print at home?

Yes. The Florida Center for Reading Research (fcrr.org) and Louisiana Believes (louisianabelieves.com) both offer free, downloadable structured literacy documents that include OG-aligned spelling rule progressions. Louisiana's Foundational Skills Teacher Companion is one of the most complete free options. The IDA also has free fact sheets that explain rule categories. None of these require registration or payment.

How many Orton-Gillingham spelling rules are there?

Depending on how subcategories are counted, OG-based curricula typically include between 70 and 84 rules. These cover phoneme-grapheme correspondences, six syllable types, morphology rules (doubling, drop-E, change-Y-to-I), and spelling conventions like the Floss rule. For parents working at home with elementary-age children, focusing on the 25 to 30 highest-priority rules covers most words in grades 1 through 3.

Can I teach OG spelling rules to my child without being a certified tutor?

Yes, with realistic expectations. You won't have the diagnostic precision of a credentialed OG practitioner, but working systematically through the rules with your child beats nothing. Use a quality scope-and-sequence document, keep sessions short (15 minutes daily), include multisensory practice, and track which rules your child has mastered. If your child has a formal diagnosis, push the school for professional services at the same time.

What is the Floss rule in Orton-Gillingham spelling?

The Floss rule says that in a one-syllable word, when a short vowel is followed by f, l, or s at the end of the word, you double that final consonant. Examples: fluff, bell, class, staff, hill, dress. The name comes from the letters f, l, s. It explains a pattern most English speakers follow naturally but have never been taught by name.

What are the six syllable types in Orton-Gillingham?

The six syllable types are: closed (ends in consonant, short vowel: cat), open (ends in vowel, long vowel: go), vowel-consonant-e (silent E makes the vowel long: cake), vowel team (two vowels together: rain), r-controlled (vowel modified by r: bird), and consonant-le (at word's end: table). Knowing a syllable's type tells you how to say its vowel and is the foundation of multi-syllabic word reading.

Do OG spelling rules work for kids who don't have dyslexia?

Yes. OG-based spelling instruction helps any child learning to read and spell, not only those with dyslexia. The rules describe how English spelling actually works, so explicit teaching benefits all students. The National Reading Panel found systematic phonics instruction helps both typically developing readers and struggling readers. Children without dyslexia often pick up the patterns faster, but the knowledge is equally valid.

What's the difference between an OG scope and sequence and a spelling rule list?

A spelling rule list is just a reference card of rules with no sequence information. A scope and sequence specifies which rules are taught first, which are prerequisites for others, and roughly when in instruction each rule appears. The sequence is what makes OG instruction work. Teaching the VCE syllable type before a child has mastered closed syllables, for example, creates confusion instead of clarity.

Can I find free OG spelling rules on government or university websites?

Yes. The Florida Center for Reading Research (fcrr.org, affiliated with Florida State University) publishes free structured literacy resources. The Louisiana Department of Education (louisianabelieves.com) offers a free Foundational Skills Teacher Companion. The Institute of Education Sciences (ies.ed.gov) hosts What Works Clearinghouse reviews of OG-based programs. The NICHD's National Reading Panel report is free at nichd.nih.gov.

Is my school required to use Orton-Gillingham if my child has dyslexia?

Not by name, but under IDEA (20 U.S.C. § 1414) the school must provide instruction based on peer-reviewed research to the extent practicable. The U.S. Department of Education's 2015 Dear Colleague letter clarified that dyslexia can and should be named in IEP documents. If your child isn't making progress with the school's current approach, you can request an IEP meeting and ask for evidence-based structured literacy intervention, which OG-based programs qualify as.

What is the silent E rule in Orton-Gillingham spelling?

OG teaches that silent E at the end of a word has five jobs: it makes the previous vowel long (cake), it softens a C or G before it (peace, age), it ensures the word has at least two vowels, it prevents a word from ending in V (give), and it separates homophones like bare and bar. Teaching all five jobs removes much of the apparent irregularity in English spelling for students.

What's the best free OG resource for a parent who has never heard of structured literacy?

Start with the IDA's free fact sheets at dyslexiaida.org, which explain structured literacy and the rule categories in plain language. Then download Louisiana's free Foundational Skills Teacher Companion from louisianabelieves.com for a practical scope and sequence. Read the IDA material first to understand the why, then use Louisiana's document as your working reference. Fifteen minutes with both gives you more grounding than most classroom teachers have.

Are Teachers Pay Teachers OG spelling rule PDFs worth buying?

Some are accurate and well-sequenced. Many aren't. The problem is you can't tell the difference without already knowing the material. Before spending $5 to $25 on a TPT document, cross-reference its scope and sequence against the IDA's Knowledge and Practice Standards, which are free. If the TPT document's sequence matches the IDA framework and includes syllable types, morphology, and phoneme-grapheme correspondence sections, it's probably usable.

How long does it take to teach all the OG spelling rules?

A full OG scope and sequence typically takes one to three years of consistent instruction, depending on the student's starting point, how often you meet, and whether there's an underlying learning difference. Students with dyslexia usually need more time and more practice per rule than typical learners. Wilson Reading System, one of the well-researched OG-based programs, is designed as a multi-year intervention with 12 structured steps.

Sources

1. Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University: FCRR publishes free structured literacy and phonics resources used by school districts nationally, including scope-and-sequence documents aligned with OG principles
2. Louisiana Department of Education, Louisiana Believes: Louisiana Believes publishes a free Foundational Skills Teacher Companion with detailed phonics, syllable type, and morphology progressions aligned with structured literacy
3. Florida Department of Education, Just Read Florida: Florida DOE publishes structured literacy guidance and phonics scope-and-sequence documents free for educators and families
4. International Dyslexia Association, Knowledge and Practice Standards: IDA's Knowledge and Practice Standards describe what a proper OG scope and sequence includes and what credentials practitioners should hold
5. What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences: WWC found potentially positive effects for Wilson Reading System on alphabetics outcomes with low-to-moderate evidence strength; OG-based program reviews vary by outcome domain
6. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Reading Panel Report 2000: National Reading Panel concluded that systematic phonics instruction makes a bigger contribution to children's reading growth than unsystematic or no phonics instruction; multisensory encoding supports retention
7. The Reading League, Curriculum Transparency Reports: The Reading League publishes free curriculum transparency reports rating whether OG-branded and structured literacy programs align with reading science
8. Stevens et al., 2019, Journal of Learning Disabilities: Meta-analysis found phonics-based interventions produced moderate to large effect sizes for decoding outcomes in students with dyslexia; sequential instruction was associated with stronger outcomes
9. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1414, U.S. Department of Education: IDEA requires schools to develop an IEP including specific educational services a child needs, with interventions based on peer-reviewed research to the extent practicable per 34 C.F.R. § 300.320
10. Galuschka et al., 2014, PLOS ONE: Meta-analysis found phonics instruction was the only intervention with a statistically significant effect on spelling outcomes in children with dyslexia, outperforming other intervention types
11. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Dear Colleague Letter 2015: ED's 2015 Dear Colleague letter states that nothing in IDEA prohibits using the words dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dysgraphia in IDEA evaluation, eligibility determinations, or IEP documents