"Bob, Stop Teaching Kids to Read": The Story Behind Online Reading Tutor

For over fifteen years, while I was a special education math and science teacher, I would take 15 to 20 minutes out of a 75-minute math or science class and have my learning disabled students complete lessons in a software called Academy of Reading®. It was an incredibly effective teaching strategy. Students would improve anywhere from two to five grade levels in a semester.

But on a Friday afternoon in March 2009, this all came to an abrupt end.

Called to the office

I was called over the PA to the vice-principal’s office and was ordered to stop teaching kids to read in my math class. The ruling was that I could only teach math curriculum in math class; using math time to teach reading was no longer allowed.

Every one of these IEP students was functionally illiterate. This was a very challenging, multiple-exceptionalities learning disabilities class: not one of the twelve students in it was able to read their grade 9 math workbook, most reading at around a grade 5 level. Many of them were smart, right-brain dominant, and on the severe end of the dyslexia spectrum. Not one could do basic arithmetic, like their times tables.

Making the case, and losing it

I pleaded my case to the principal. I pointed to the research by Dr. Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading Research at Tufts University, showing that students who had dyslexia or who struggled to read almost always struggled with arithmetic too, and that helping these students become readers would improve their arithmetic skills as well. I brought in a paper from the International Reading Association’s annual meeting titled “The Problem with Math Word Problems are the… Words.”

It was like talking to a brick wall. It wasn’t that I hadn’t been successful teaching reading: the trustees had recently given me the Outstanding Teacher Award based on my results teaching students with dyslexia to read. But the edict stood: reading could only be taught in English class.

I pushed back. “Show me a high school teacher who teaches reading,” I said. “Reading stops being taught after grade 3.” I kept going: “All these kids have an IEP. It’s written into their IEP that they are to be taught to read. Teaching them to read is legal.” I got nowhere. The decision was final. The inflexibility of the system would no longer allow it.

What I did next

I retired in June 2009, after a thirty-four year career I was proud of. In 2010 I spent twenty weeks as a reading consultant for a school district in BC, where I picked up invaluable primary and junior-level experience.

In June 2011, I launched onlinereadingtutor.com. The vast majority of our students have an IEP for reading disabilities, including dyslexia, and they’re able to improve their reading fluency through our training. Honestly, Online Reading Tutor has turned out to be even more effective than my classroom ever was.

Why I’m telling you this

Parents, I share this story so you understand something important: there is real, ongoing ignorance in the teaching profession about reading and dyslexia. Reading instruction is often nowhere to be found in teacher’s college. It takes a special Ministry course to learn it properly, and very few teachers take that course, because unless you’re a primary teacher, reading instruction simply isn’t part of your curriculum.

If your child is a struggling reader or has dyslexia, there is a real chance they will get no help with their reading after grade 3. They’ll get plenty of technology and accommodations. They won’t be taught to read.

If that’s where your child is right now, you don’t have to wait for the system to change. Download our app and start their training today. With just 20-30 minutes a day, your child can train anywhere, anytime, and become a fluent reader.

Bob taught his first dyslexic student to read in 1990, using a hard copy of the Orton-Gillingham Structured Reading Program, and has been building and using Orton-Gillingham based software to help struggling readers ever since.