The Right to Read Report

This report was so interesting to read! I spent a lot of time processing the recommendations and considering them in the context of my school district and of British Columbia in general. The report aligns greatly with my experiences as a teacher, as a parent, and as an education student. I graduated from the Bachelor of Education program in 2021, and my program, which was an elementary program, did not ever teach us to teach reading. We learned about balanced literacy and were never taught how to teach students to read. When my son entered kindergarten, he was taught to read by guessing from the picture. His teacher used the three-cueing system. His first- and second-grade teacher did use structured literacy, but it is interesting that there is such a hodge podge of reading instruction within one school. I feel like my district, Coast Mountains School District, is very much what the report calls “ad hoc” in their approach to literacy instruction.

Significant Recommendations

The most important recommendation in the report, to me, is to update the curriculum from a balanced literacy approach to one that is based on the science of reading. I had to go beyond the executive summary to find the specific recommendations related to this. In the full report, recommendation 27 involves the revising of Ontario’s kindergarten program and grades 1-8 language curriculum. It is of utmost importance that the curriculum—the guiding document of education—incorporates developmentally appropriate, research-backed literacy instruction and intervention so that we can successfully teach students to learn to read.

I think that Recommendation 48, “The OHRC recommends that teacher education programs address the importance of word-reading accuracy and efficiency for teaching reading comprehension; how accurate and efficient word-reading develops; how to teach foundational word-reading and spelling skills in the classroom and the importance of teaching foundational word-reading skills to promote equality for all students,” is incredibly critical (Ontario Human Rights Commission 22). The follow-up recommendations, 49 to 55, “that teacher education programs better equip teachers who are qualified to teach Kindergarten to Grade 6 to deliver the critical components of word-reading instruction and identify, instruct, and support students with word-reading difficulties” are similarly important (22). While policy, curriculum, and in-service training are all incredibly important, beginning with how we train new teachers will make long-lasting change. Training teacher candidates in how students learn to read and how to best teach reading, according to the body of reading science, will change the way upcoming generations of students learn to read. Insisting that BC teacher education programs move beyond educational theory and cultural influences will make a sea change.

Impact on BC Teachers

I think that implementing the Right to Read recommendations could be transformational for BC teachers. I know that educators want to be effective and want their students to learn. Those who have learned that they are teaching students to read ineffectively have been horrified (many were quoted in the Sold a Story podcast). If we were given the resources, the training, the time, and the support, we could ensure that all of our students learn to read. This would be transformational for student success, job satisfaction, and teachers’ pride in their profession.

Recommendations I Disagree With

There are no recommendations I disagree with. I feel like all are incredibly relevant in our district and in our province, and I would like to see this equity-oriented approach applied here. I do worry that being too vague in recommendations will result in partial implementation, which is something that I am seeing here in the Coast Mountains School District. We have seen an ad hoc implementation of many of the report’s recommendations, where the recommendations are centred around elementary schools, and there is minimal guidance–or resources–given beyond elementary school.

References

Ontario Human Rights Commission. (2019). Right to read: Public inquiry into human rights issues affecting students with reading disabilities. https://www3.ohrc.on.ca/en/right-read-inquiry-report-0  

Sold a story: How teaching kids to read went so wrong. (2022). APM Reports.