RiggsInst.org
Title
The Riggs Institute
Description
About the Riggs Institute
The Riggs Institute is a self-supporting non-profit literacy agency. We support our literacy initiatives (curriculum, "awareness of the issues" and training and assistance in collaborative efforts across the English speaking world) through the sale of our curriculum materials and training and tutorial services, which are in keeping with our IRS status as a 501(c)(3) agency. We operate under a 7-member board of directors, all of which are unpaid, voluntary positions.
Instructional Method & History
Our method of instruction, The Writing & Spelling Road to Reading & Thinking, is based on Romalda and Walter Spalding's The Writing Road to Reading (WRTR). It was based on the research of Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a neuropathologist and brain surgeon who researched the functioning of the human brain in learning language (1923-1948).
His work (with assistance from successful classroom teachers who still taught the Webster-Oxford collaboration on phonetics and correct spelling with rules of the 1850's) involved re-teaching brain-damaged World War I veterans to speak, read, write and spell again. These teachers, including Romalda Spalding, were trained in English orthography in Colleges of Education prior to the introduction and wide dissemination of the "look-say" (whole-word memorization) Dick and Jane readers. Orton published his book Reading, Writing and Speech Problems in Children in 1937. He is considered to be the first person to warn against the discriminatory and potentially damaging effects of the "look-say" Dick and Jane approach to teaching reading. He said that about 30% of the population who are not visually oriented learners would have great difficulty learning to read from these whole-word memorization types of materials.
Languages
English
