barton literacy training

Arlin McFarlane
Tutor Coordinator

The Barton System is a structured literacy approach that helps people with dyslexia and other learning difficulties learn to read and write.

  • Structured literacy is a systematic approach to reading instruction. It explicitly teaches how to identify every sound in a word so the reader can sound out words and blend them together when reading. (For example, the word “cats” has four distinct sounds, one for each letter. The word “bath” has three sounds.) As they advance, readers learn about syllable patterns, prefixes, suffixes, sentence structure, and more. Research has shown that structured literacy has a much higher success rate than “whole language” approaches to reading instruction.

The Barton System was designed to be used by people without educational training—parents, for example, who want to support their children. Yet it is just as useful in the classroom.

We are always looking for more literacy tutors and periodically offer workshops to practice the skills needed to effectively tutor struggling readers.

There are 10 levels in the Barton System. You do not have to complete them all in order to begin tutoring. In fact, you can begin tutoring after having completed just one level.

Interested in becoming a tutor? Contact Arlin to get started!

Interested specifically in Barton training? Connect with Stephanie for more information.

Stephanie Hammond
Executive Director