March 8, 2022

The Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery applauds the Ontario Human Rights Commission for the ambitious inquiry into how Ontario’s publicly funded English-speaking schools are ensuring students with reading disabilities are learning to read. The Inquiry placed a needed spotlight on teaching students with reading disabilities, systemic issues in education, and preparing educators to teach literacy.

We wholeheartedly agree that learning to read and write is vitally important and a basic human right for all children. We deeply believe that all children should have access to the education and professionals that will ensure they are able to learn to read and write.

The Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery is gravely concerned, however, that some of the program evaluations and recommendations within the report do not reflect recent advances in the science of reading instruction currently endorsed by the international academic community.

Read the full statement

by Laurel Dickey

There’s a heated debate underway in education circles about the best way to teach reading and I’m sorry to say that most of the chatter misses the point. I’ve been teaching our young students to read and write for 35 years and if there was one single best program for teaching literacy I would already be using it. The reality is what drives my decision-making as a teacher is not my use of any particular set of materials, but my theory of teaching and learning.

Scientific research on learning tells us that all creatures, humans included, need to interact with the world in order to learn. And each person’s way of interacting takes them along a unique path. Many desired learning outcomes might be similar for all learners – proficiency in reading and writing by the end of grade three among them – but the specific routes for learning will be as varied as the learners are.

As a teacher, this requires me to be responsive to my learners. And in order to be responsive, I cannot teach reading and writing from a narrow, prescribed set of materials, and certainly not those materials purported to be designed in order for children to learn about “phonics first” and in isolation from opportunities to read stories in actual books.

Learning to read is not as simple as first learning the letter sounds and then learning to combine them. Young readers certainly need to learn that the print functions in certain ways, one of them being that letters represent sounds and the sounds can be combined to form words.

But they also need to learn that, in English (unlike in some other languages) we must look at the print from left to right and top to bottom. They also need to learn that print will convey some sort of a message and that what is read will sound like the oral language that they hear all around them. They need to learn that simply combining sounds is not enough, because there are many other regular and irregular spelling patterns that are necessary to control in order to fluently read and write.

All of this complexity belies the idea that there could be a “simple view of reading” upon which instruction would be based. Becoming literate is a complex process, and for some children, a highly skilled and observant teacher is needed in order to make effective learning possible.

Laurel Dickey is a lifelong educator living in Massachusetts

By Dr. Billy Molasso

Over 1800 literacy professionals came together with a common goal at LitCon 2022 — to strengthen their knowledge and expertise to help struggling readers. Your passion for childhood literacy was evident on our LitCon Twitter feed and during each LIVE session. Continue to expand your professional learning network and share best practices. Each year at this homecoming we are reminded of the impact our community has in classrooms across the globe. You are dedicated to lifelong learning as an educator and we are so happy you came together to learn at LitCon.

Gay Su Pinnell was inspiring with her opening keynote. Here are 7 key takeaways to keep with you as you return to your students and colleagues:

Teach Children Not Programs

Teach Key Understandings Daily

Root Learning in a Rich Text Base

Have Learning Conversations

Create Coherent Learning Systems

Engage in Collegial Learning

Be Open to Scientific Inquiry and New Ideas

Share these 7 takeaways with your professional learning network or print a version to keep in your classroom. (PDF) (JPEG)

By Braedan Schantz

Aida sat down beside her Reading Recovery teacher talking at an auctioneer’s pace. Her dad brought home a new kitten last night, and now she has three of them. “That’s just like Lin in The Black Kitten book,” she exclaimed, “I am just like her now. I wonder if one of my cats will try to hide like the black kitten. I’m going to make a new story about them today.”

Aida read The Black Kitten the previous week during her Reading Recovery lesson and I noted that she selected it to take home to read every day since. Aida’s excitement about her new kitten was contagious! As we sat down to begin reading familiar books, she, of course, selected The Black Kitten.

She wrote about her new kitten during the writing portion of her Reading Recovery lesson and much of our conversation was about—-you guessed it—– her new kitten. Aida uses language in all its forms–reading, writing, and speaking–to communicate and discover new things about the world and herself.

In every Reading Recovery lesson, children exercise choice and voice. They choose the books they want to read. Teachers get to know their students’ interests and select books that will be engaging and challenging. Students use their voices by composing and writing a message or story each day.

Giving children choice and voice in reading and writing is highly motivating! Emotion facilitates encoding. We learn best when we are engaged, engrossed, and swept up in active, meaningful, authentic experiences. Aida could have learned how to problem solve an unknown word at the syllable juncture through a worksheet or whole class chant but learning to encode and decode through reading, writing, and speaking is more supportive and intrinsically motivating.

In many classrooms, opportunities for children to learn to read and write while engaging in authentic texts are dwindling. Curriculum publishers, grassroots groups, and even some lawmakers are slowly eroding the print-rich environment that many children, especially those growing up in a literacy desert, so desperately need. Some schools are reducing reading and writing in order to practice isolated skills.

Some states across the country are even passing legislation to ensure systematic phonics for all, and we all need to ask, “At what cost?” We will not motivate our children to become readers and writers with a love of books if we do not put books in their hands. They won’t write a message or tell their story if we do not give them time to compose, write and share ideas. They won’t read, write, and tell the stories of their families and communities if we do not create spaces where rich storytelling is valued, honored, and supported.

Most families, teachers, and administrators are “literacy centrists.” We do not hold an extreme position in the so-called “reading wars.” We all agree phonics instruction serves an important purpose, but phonics alone won’t make them real readers. My fervent hope is that we find common ground as a community of learners before we find ourselves asking, “Where have all the readers gone?”

Braedan Schantz is a Reading Recovery and Literacy Lessons Teacher Leader and faculty associate at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio

by Kimberly Reynolds

I never quite understood the magnitude of the saying, “seeing something through the eyes of a child” until the last couple of months of school last year.  That is when I had the privilege of working with a student who needed additional literacy support.  Abby was a remote learning academy student and her parents trustingly allowed her to come to school for thirty minutes a day to work with me during the Covid Pandemic.

Every morning, I enthusiastically waited in the office for Abby to arrive for her in-person lesson.  The minute she walked through the doors, her energy and personality were contagious.  She would begin her greetings with our administrative assistants who she sweetly called her “office girls” and considered to be her “best friends”.  She often squeezed in a quick conversation with our administrators, guidance counselor, and any and all teachers within talking range.  She would invite the visiting school resource officer to view her books and read with her.  With her bedazzled backpack and carefully placed facemask, she would comment on the way to my room, “I love being here!!”

“Through language children learn to make sense of and interact with their environment, which is critical to learning…Research has demonstrated that purposeful, contextualized conversations with young children impact their emotional, cognitive, and physical development.” (Lyons, 2003, p. 56)

Abby made sure to highlight our work in her writing to show staff members in the building who walked by our room and with whom she invited to always stop for a quick chat.  We also took pictures of our elementary school, which she turned into a book to share with her remote class.  Her book was carefully written to give the classmates in her remote class the experience she was awarded that she wanted to provide them, as well.  Her perspective was unique to those students in that their view was limited to the computer screen and her view was much broader.

“Reading and writing are two different ways of learning about the same thing – the written code used to record oral language.  It is like having two hands.  The knowledge you have about writing can be used during reading, and vice versa.” (Clay, 2016, p. 77)

The most precious time of the day was walking Abby out to her car where her mom and adorable two dogs greeted us with tremendous enthusiasm and the biggest licks!  She would highlight our lesson and then invite me back to her house for the afternoon.  She explained where her house was located using street landmarks, which was her version of google maps.  I was honored that she wanted me to join her for the afternoon but felt that her dogs needed her attention instead.

One afternoon when talking with the guidance counselor, we were sharing some of the things that made us smile during the pandemic.  Abby’s name came up as we highlighted the enthusiasm of her time at school each day.  Even though it was brief, she made sure to check in with as many people as she could including the ladies making lunches to go in the cafeteria.  The guidance counselor referenced her as an ambassador of our school.  When I looked up the definition, it stated an ambassador as “a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity”.  Her energy, enthusiasm, and positive energy were contagious and needed during a time that could easily be overwhelming and heavy.

“Since emotions are such an important and inseparable part of the learning process, it is important that educators and parents understand the critical role emotions play in learning and how they can create positive learning opportunities to help children become independent, secure lifelong learners.” (Lyons, 2003, p. 59).

Abby gave us all a unique “lens” through which to view during a unique time in our lives.  I could have easily missed finding the positive learning opportunities that were made possible as a result of a challenging time in all of our lives.  I look forward to how our ambassador will continue to positively and inadvertently influence so many people.

Kim Reynolds is a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader and ES Reading Intervention Lead Teacher with Dublin City Schools in Dublin, Ohio. She is also the Reading Recovery and Literacy Lessons Docent, The Ohio State University, and a LitCon presenter.