Emphasis on early reading skills is welcome
By Geoff Johnson, Times Colonist October 16, 2012
Teachers tend to be justifiably skeptical about “the next big thing” in the world of education, and in the last 30 years or so there have been more than a few fads, trends, new ideas and gurus left in the dust of the ongoing search for a better way.
So when you see, as I did last week, 20 experienced kindergarten to Grade 3 teachers actively engaged in a thoughtful discussion about legitimate research into what fosters reading success in the early years, you wonder if somebody somewhere isn’t doing something right.
That seems to be the case as a team of the province’s most highly respected and well-known practising educators leads a provincial initiative aimed simply at increasing the number of engaged successful young readers in B.C.’s K-3 classrooms.
The goals are modest, achievable and based on what teachers know already but would like to know more about; “what we are doing, but should be doing more often,” as one teacher put it.
And that, in essence, is why the initiative has been willingly taken up by teams of teachers in 59 school districts. It is also why some of the meetings will take place in the rooms of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, a group normally not as supportive of projects originating with the government.
Initially proposed by the previous minister of education, George Abbot, and by deputy minister James Gorman, the Changing Results For Young Readers program is not designed to change anything, just to extend the opportunity for knowledgeable teachers to elevate the conversation around reading and evidence-based practice using current knowledge about what fosters reading success for all children.
Not another revolution then, just progress based on the work of respected researchers like Richard Allington, the author of What Really Matters, and a professor of education at the University of Tennessee.
“Based on studies of large-scale initiative over the past decade,” says Allington, “the earlier you intervene with at-risk readers, the greater the improvement. Early intervention has repeatedly shown to have a substantial impact on children’s reading progress.”
Simple as that.
A key to the acceptance of the provincial program, according to superintendent of reading Maureen Dockendorf, previously a teacher and principal herself, is that “our goal is to support teachers by further building their capacity and skills which are at the heart of early reading success for every student.”
And this time, the province has dedicated $10.7 million in increased funding to support early reading in every district.
The money is being used almost exclusively to enable classroom teachers, learning-assistance teachers, librarians and administrators to meet and focus on the building of a community of readers – a culture of reading within and beyond the classroom.
If all this sounds too idealistic in the world of public education, a world sometimes defined by politics and conflict, the enthusiasm of teachers for the program may be partly welcome respite from the previous turbulent school year – an opportunity to get back to why they became teachers in the first place.
All teachers, but especially teachers specializing in early learning, understand that becoming an effective reader is a significant key, probably the significant key, to future school success, and that if children reach Grade 4 and are still unsuccessful readers, it is going to be an uphill battle for them from then on.
It was 19th-century British statesman John Lubbock who perhaps said it best: “The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.”
And by becoming a successful reader, every child can step confidently onto that “wish to learn” pathway at school and, most importantly, in life.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
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