Low literacy rates in Canada prompt reading curriculum changes [Video]

It’s back to school season, and several provinces across Canada are changing the way they’re teaching their children how to read with a renewed focus on phonics. 

School boards in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Alberta and New Brunswick are implementing a “structured literacy” approach to improve how reading is taught. 

“We know that those foundational word-reading and spelling skills, oral language, understanding and communication [are] really foundational to everything a child is going to do throughout the years,” Jamie Metsala, a professor of education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, told The Current’s host Matt Galloway. 

“If we fail early on, that really has a devastating impact, not only on the academic trajectory of students, but also on social emotional well-being,” said Metsala, who is also the Gail and Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Learning Disabilities. 

According to Metsala, when students aren’t able to meet the desired reading level, it can cause a chain of consequences …