As sure as day follows night, Education Minister George Abbott's letter to teachers announcing "A New Focus on Reading" will reignite the age-old and still-unresolved debate about how best to teach reading.
The Education Ministry website, which invites teachers to "join the conversation," has already logged hundreds of responses, some advocating a traditional phonics-based approach and others supporting literature-based "whole language" methods.
The goal of phonics is to enable beginning readers to decode new written words by sounding them out, or in phonics terms, blending the sound-spelling patterns. Many of us learned to read that way, some of us not so much.
The whole-language approach emphasizes identifying words and deriving meaning from context.
But the most successful teachers of reading know that it is not an either/or issue, and that different kids learn in different ways.
Here's what we know for sure, though: To the extent that strong reading skills can be considered predictive of a better-skilled citizenry and work force, countries and jurisdictions with a high proportion of students attaining high reading levels will have an important social and economic advantage.
On the other hand, young people with poor or low-level literacy skills might find it difficult to benefit from further educational opportunities and might be limited in their ability to contribute and participate in societies dependent on information and knowledge.
It is crystal clear that success in beginning reading is a key prerequisite for success in reading in the later years, and that success extends to all other subjects as well. Studies have shown that children with poor reading skills at the end of first grade are likely to have difficulties in reading right across the curriculum throughout their schooling.
So sa国际传媒's newly appointed superintendent of reading, the highly regarded and energetic Maureen Dockendorf, has her work cut out for her, both educationally and politically, as the point guard for the minister's new focus on reading.
To lead this latest effort, Dockendorf will, for starters, draw on research and an understanding of what builds reading success in kindergarten to Grade 3.
Dockendorf also plans a review of various literacy programs around the province to determine why some schools have had exceptional success in teaching their students to read while others have not.
"Where success has happened, it has invariably been the result of a deliberate and relentless focus on reading success, which is precisely what we hope to instil across the province this year," she said in a recent interview.
Dockendorf's approach is supported by the findings of virtually every review of successful reading programs. It's also supported by a growing body of evidence that what matters for student achievement are approaches that fundamentally change what teachers and students do every day in prioritizing the teaching of reading.
Successful programs almost always provide teachers with extensive professional development and follow-up focused on specific teaching methods.
Instructional reviews, national and international, are unanimous in agreeing that programs designed to transform daily teaching practices require extensive professional development in specific classroom strategies and have greater effect than programs focusing on curriculum or technology alone.
None of this will come cheap. That raises the issue of to what lengths the minister is prepared to go to tilt at his treasury colleagues in pursuit of adequate funding to support to improve those FSA results.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
