The Reading Foundation in both Calgary and Vancouver is an extremely rewarding place to work. Each week, when students exit the program, the parents (and adults who come) spontaneously talk about the changes they have seen in their children or themselves. They are grateful for this and shower us with thank-you cards, small gifts, flowers, chocolates and other forms of acknowledgement. Many students continue to write to us years after leaving the program and some of the success stories bring tears to your eyes. Here is a sample of some of their comments and stories. Professionals Bev Walker, Integrated Learning Consultant Yvonne DePeel, Superintendent of Education Ron Teffaine, School Psychologist Parents/Students Laurel, Student Age 10 Julia Church, Student Age 17 Chris, Student Age 15
I am writing this letter regarding Dr. Steve Truch and the Reading Foundation. I have had the opportunity of working with Dr. Truch and the Reading Foundation for the last two years.
I am the Superintendent of Education with the Stoney Education Authority. I began researching successful literacy programs about four years ago. Three years ago, I hired a consultant to make some recommendations for literacy programming. Our consultant believed that the Reading Foundation had one of the best literacy programs in North America. At this point, my department hired Dr. Truch and the Reading Foundation to train the staff at the school site. Over the course of the last two years, Dr. Truch and his team of specialists worked closely with the Stoney Education Authority and the staff of this school systems. The Reading Foundation team is made up of highly skilled dedicated educators who believe all children can be literate.
We used the Discover Reading program in one school site and had excellent results. This year we are expanding this Literacy Project to include all three sites. Dr. Truch and the Reading Foundation have always gone the extra mile to ensure smooth program delivery. We have seen tremendous progress in the students involved with this program and hope to implement this across our education system.
It is indeed a great honor to recommend Dr. Truch and the Reading Foundation. They have interacted with our education system using integrity and cultural sensitivity. I believe the programs designed by Dr. Truch and the Reading Foundation will have a positive long term impact on our students and our communities.
I met you several years ago in Winnipeg at a MASP convention somewhere between 1992 to 1994. I had read your book "The Missing Parts of Whole Language" and was quite impressed. I remember trying to convince the MASP executive to hire you to speak about your ideas. Other members said I would offend the Reading Clinicians and that I had no business learning about new ideas in reading. I persisted however, and the workshop turned out to be one of the most successful they had ever had.
At the time, Whole Language was adhered to like a religion for helping children learn to read. You told the audience that you weren't trying to do away with Whole Language. Instead, you were sharing information about an essential set of skills that some students could not acquire on their own. These were the phonemic processing skills. At first, Reading Clinicians were shocked and offended that their recommended methods might be incomplete or neglectful for dyslexic (i.e., those with decoding / spelling weakness) students. One woman almost cried at the microphone. Afterwards, some told me that your ideas were too simple, and could not offer a real solution. They had been told by educational leaders such as Dr. Frank Smith (U. of B.C.) that decoding wasn't even necessary. He said that we had an unlimited capacity for memorizing words as a whole. Nevertheless, Speech / Language Pathologists jumped on the idea of phonological awareness and have developed a number of programs and materials.
My, how things have changed. My wife is a teacher of Nursery and Kindergarten children in Winnipeg School Division. Now, as part of "Balanced Literacy" all the children get direct instruction in phonemic processing skills. Congratulations on starting a revolution! By the way, I also enjoyed your book, "The WISC-R Companion." I know you also wrote one about the WISC-III. Will you be writing one about the WISC-IV?
Ron Teffaine, M.Ed. School Psychologist Hanover School Division
Here is a letter sent to us from the parents of a 10 year old girl. We picked this letter because it exemplifies the experience that is typical of so many parents who come here:
Dear Dr. Truch and Staff:
The Hutchinson family has had some excitement over the past week. Cheryl brought home her first report card after completing all eight weeks of therapy at The Reading Foundation. You will never guess the results!. 3 A's, 2 B's and 1 C. She got a B in reading.
This is without doubt the best report card Cheryl has ever achieved! And is she ever excited and proud of herself. Probably even more importantly, Cheryl is now enjoying reading. She reads every night and begs me to let her read more when I tell her it is bedtime and to turn off the light. As you know this is quite a switch from 9 months ago when she would never (and I mean never) pick up a book or anything - to read. Remember the chore it used to be for her? She would practically break out into a sweat trying to read a paragraph or a page. Now she is zipping along, reading with great expression and enjoying what she is reading.
I can't help feeling that the worst is finally behind us. I think Cheryl can only get better and better. She talks fondly and proudly of the work she did at the Reading Foundation - even admitting that the comprehension was tough. We are still working on that part and her new teachers are so supportive of her. We want to sincerely thank the clinicians who worked patiently with Cheryl and want them to know that she'll probably never forget them. We plan on bringing Cheryl to Calgary for a follow-up assessment sometime in the new year.
Again, many thanks to all of you. You truly are people who care about these kids!!!
"Shaun had difficulty making friends and concentrating in school. The comprehension program at The Reading Foundation, which Shaun took over a year ago, changed all that. His marks have gone up and his anger has disappeared."
"As Anne's parents, we were concerned with her slow progress in reading from early on in grade one. Reading quickly became a source of frustration for her as she found herself lagging behind her classmates. Nothing seemed to work for her, including tutoring. She now approaches reading with much more confidence. Her spelling skills have improved considerably as has her comprehension. Her self-esteem and attitude to school is much improved. We are very grateful to the staff at The Reading Foundation. They are skilled and special people and they do make the difference."
I will miss you guys, but I left these cookies for you. I hope you enjoy the cookies. I will use all the lessons that you taught me, and I will send you guys letters to tell you how school is going. I hope you have a fun summer, and not too boring.
"I did the VV (Visualization and Verbalization) program at The Reading Foundation. This is a program for reading comprehension. I had to go over Christmas holidays so I wasn’t too excited, but when I met all the wonderful staff and people at The Reading Foundation, I was sad to leave! They didn’t only help me make images when I read, but also to know who I was. It was an awesome program and I enjoy reading a lot more." top
Chris, age 15
"I would like to take a moment to thank you for your very important role in Chris' recent successes. Since Chris has studied at The Reading Foundation, he has seen a significant rise in his grades and scored in the range of excellence on the recent grade nine provincial exams. We are also pleased that he has been accepted at West Island College. Chris was very influenced by your positive and supportive programs and staff, and it is without a doubt the turning point of his academic success, and his self-image which has also made him a confident and eager learner. Thank-you for your commitment to Chris and may your good works continue to touch the lives of children."
One of our favorite stories has to do with a 15 year old boy, Michal Pawlik, who came to this clinic shortly after it opened. He was truly "reading disabled" and despite having had remedial assistance in schools and with private tutors and clinics all over the world, he was truly still a "non-reader". His parents were told all kinds of reasons why Michal couldn't read, including the fact that English was not spoken at home. He had even been placed in a class for slow learners for several years at his previous school.
When Michal was assessed, it became very apparent that he had a severe phonological processing difficulty. Treatment in the specialized program at The Reading Foundation brought him significant gains in reading and spelling for the first time in his life. Both Michal and his parents were thrilled. Michal himself was deeply moved. He was a long distance runner and a year after leaving the clinical program, got the idea that he should run across Canada in an attempt to raise funds for students like himself. He in fact did complete a cross Canada run and got some attention from CBC on Canada Day for the effort. He also got a lot of local media attention and was declared "Athlete of the Week" by a popular Calgary television station.
Today, Michal is completing his (degree in medicine) residency. top
Michal Pawlik,Update
Michal Pawlik successfully completed his post-secondary education and his medical degree. He is currently doing a family medicine residency at a hospital in Winnipeg. Michal still finds he has some difficulties with spelling, but with the support of his preceptor, he is doing well.
Michal is an outstanding example of one of many Reading Foundation alumni. top
Darryl Krawchuk, Adult Student
"It has been a year since I attended your program and my life has changed quite dramatically. I am currently reading one manual, and another book for enjoyment. In the past, I hated to read because I could not understand what I was reading or decode the words accurately. I also passed my CMA Entrance Exam. This is a great accomplishment for me as my past attempts on similar exams were far less satisfactory."
Ryan McIntosh attended The Reading Foundation in 1993. He was also the 2004 #1 draft pick for the United Hockey League expansion draft. Despite constant struggles in public and private schools, Ryan insisted that education would remain a priority in his life. He attended The Reading Foundation in order to acquire the tools he needed to be a better learner. And it worked. Ryan finished high school. Since Ryan has excelled in hockey from a young age, when the time came to make a choice on post-secondary institutions, hockey was a major part of that decision. He chose to take the route that would afford him the best chances of playing hockey, while still providing a first class education. Ryan chose Augsburg College, a private college in Minneapolis. He made All-American and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Science. He has since gone on to play professionally in the United Hockey League. Ryan continues to foster his love of learning and pass his passion on to others by tutoring. As his parents, Bob and Sandi, put it; "Although as parents it is their job to provide opportunities, such as The Reading Foundation, for their children, it is the children who must apply the effort and work to reach success." It is Ryan's passion for life which gave him the drive to overcome many obstacles, and to succeed toward all of his goals. top
Saskatchewan Rivers School Division No. 119
Bev Walker, Integrated Learning Consultant 545 11th Street East, Prince Albert SK S6V 1B1
Letter of Reference:
Saskatchewan Rivers School Division No. 119 includes Prince Albert and the surrounding rural communities. It provides a full range of K-12 programming for over 8000 students.
Provincial and division data indicated that, at all grade levels, student achievement in math was low. As a learning community, we knew we needed to intervene by looking at teacher practices around the delivery of the Math Curriculum – resources; curriculum understandings; instructional strategies; and beliefs about teaching math.
Discover Math was one of several interventions explored and adopted. Through discussions with The Reading Foundation, it became evident that Discover Math could potentially meet two goals.
These include: Teach students to understand how numbers work and therefore, improve outcomes. Teach teachers new instructional strategies.
The Reading Foundation trained four SK Rivers teachers to use Discover Math strategies. Two of the four teachers continued with more intensive training. This training enables them to provide in-service to other teachers within SK Rivers School Division.
As a system, SK Rivers School Division is only beginning to introduce Discover Math strategies to staff and students.
Our initiatives, to date, include: Two pilot classrooms Two summer Math camps for four groups of students In-service for some teachers in eight schools
Discover Math is contributing to meeting both goals. Most importantly, data is showing that the Discover Math instructional strategies work for students – improved outcomes. For teachers, however, it means re-learning or learning how to teach Math. This is a slow and costly process that needs to take place over time with a lot of support and follow-up.
Our relationship with The Reading Foundation has been outstanding. They have been very diligent in training teachers and providing teacher and student resources. Without exception, contact with The Reading Foundation is always highly professional and light-hearted.
Bev Walker, Integrated Learning Consultant Saskatchewan Rivers School Division #119
My name is Stuart and I was a student at The Reading Foundation in Calgary, Alberta. This learning facility taught me to read a book and understand what I was reading for the first time in my life. When I first went to The Reading Foundation, I was 58 years old and my reading level was at grade three. After going on and off for about a year I can now read at a grade ten level. This is changing my life.
In the beginning I thought they would tell me that it was hopeless and send me home, but that didn’t happen. They prodded and pushed and never gave up on me, and I am proof that students with a learning disability can learn with their teaching system. I had a lot of fear from teachers in my past who mocked or laughed at me when I stumbled on the words, but the teachers at this school understood my fears and helped me to overcome them. It did not take me long to realize that these teachers are more than teachers, they are angels. They know what they are doing and make a difference in people’s lives with their commitment to literacy.
