Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, Flawed

The Right to Read report highlights the fact that children who experience dyslexia are not being adequately supported in Ontario schools. The report’s call for the establishment of a more effective identification and intervention infrastructure within the school system is timely and persuasive. Unf...

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Main Author: Jim Cummins
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Windsor 2022-04-01
Series:Journal of Teaching and Learning
Online Access:https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/7279
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author Jim Cummins
author_facet Jim Cummins
author_sort Jim Cummins
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description The Right to Read report highlights the fact that children who experience dyslexia are not being adequately supported in Ontario schools. The report’s call for the establishment of a more effective identification and intervention infrastructure within the school system is timely and persuasive. Unfortunately, the Right to Read report advances two unsubstantiated claims to explain the reading difficulties some children experience in the early grades. Specifically, it argues that Ontario schools are failing to teach reading skills effectively for all students, not just those with specific reading disabilities. Second, it attributes this general failure to the fact that most Ontario schools implement a balanced approach to reading instruction, which the report claims, pays insufficient attention to teaching sound/letter correspondences in a systematic, explicit, and intensive way. Neither of these claims is supported by the scientific data. Ontario students are consistently among the top performers in cross-Canada and international comparisons of reading performance. Furthermore, the empirical research is fully consistent with the implementation of a balanced or contextualized approach to literacy instruction that integrates the teaching of sound/symbol relationships with a more general commitment to immerse children into a literacy-rich instructional environment.
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spelling doaj.art-91751c47477d47b38513990b244708572023-02-02T18:52:59ZengUniversity of WindsorJournal of Teaching and Learning1911-82792022-04-0116110.22329/jtl.v16i1.7279Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, FlawedJim Cummins0University of Toronto The Right to Read report highlights the fact that children who experience dyslexia are not being adequately supported in Ontario schools. The report’s call for the establishment of a more effective identification and intervention infrastructure within the school system is timely and persuasive. Unfortunately, the Right to Read report advances two unsubstantiated claims to explain the reading difficulties some children experience in the early grades. Specifically, it argues that Ontario schools are failing to teach reading skills effectively for all students, not just those with specific reading disabilities. Second, it attributes this general failure to the fact that most Ontario schools implement a balanced approach to reading instruction, which the report claims, pays insufficient attention to teaching sound/letter correspondences in a systematic, explicit, and intensive way. Neither of these claims is supported by the scientific data. Ontario students are consistently among the top performers in cross-Canada and international comparisons of reading performance. Furthermore, the empirical research is fully consistent with the implementation of a balanced or contextualized approach to literacy instruction that integrates the teaching of sound/symbol relationships with a more general commitment to immerse children into a literacy-rich instructional environment. https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/7279
spellingShingle Jim Cummins
Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, Flawed
Journal of Teaching and Learning
title Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, Flawed
title_full Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, Flawed
title_fullStr Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, Flawed
title_full_unstemmed Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, Flawed
title_short Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read Report: Sincere, Passionate, Flawed
title_sort ontario human rights commission right to read report sincere passionate flawed
url https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/7279
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