Beyond Decoding: The Imperative for Holistic Reading Instruction in Kamloops Schools

Introduction

If you're a parent or educator in Kamloops, you've probably noticed something both encouraging and puzzling in the recent literacy assessments from Kamloops School District 73. Our youngest students are doing wonderfully—Grade 1 proficiency has jumped from 62% to 73% by Grade 3, which is genuinely exciting! Our intermediate students in Grades 4-7 continue to shine, outperforming their provincial peers.

Students at First Baptist Classical Academy enjoy reading and love to spend time in a good book together!

But here's where things get complicated: by high school, many of these same students aren't maintaining those early gains. It's like watching a promising young athlete lose momentum halfway through the race. What's happening? The answer reveals something important about how we're teaching reading—and what might be missing.

The truth is, our teachers have done excellent work teaching students to decode text (turning those squiggles on the page into sounds and words). But the deeper skills that transform someone who can read words into someone who truly understands and enjoys what they're reading? Those haven't received the same attention. And our kids are paying the price as they move through school.

The 2024-2025 data tells a concerning story. Grade 4 proficiency dropped from 83% to just 64% over four years, while Grade 7 fell from 79% to 70%. Grade 10 students have hovered around 68%—below the provincial average. Yes, the pandemic disrupted learning, but these numbers point to something deeper: a mismatch between how we teach early reading and what students actually need to succeed as mature readers.

Why Decoding Alone Isn't Enough

Let's be clear: decoding is absolutely essential. If a child can't turn written symbols into sounds, they can't access text at all. Kamloops School District 73 has invested wisely in phonics instruction, with resources like The Phonics Companion and differentiated reading strategies. The results speak for themselves—our primary students are successfully learning to sound out words. We should celebrate this achievement!

But here's the thing: decoding is only the entrance to literacy, not the destination. Imagine a student who can correctly pronounce every single word in a passage but has no idea what they just read. They're not really reading—they're just making sounds. Unfortunately, this is the trap Kamloops SD73 seems to be falling into. Early success with basic decoding skills can mask the failure to develop the more sophisticated abilities that true reading requires.

Look at the pattern in the data. Students perform strongly in early grades when tests focus on word recognition and basic accuracy. But as they advance and encounter texts requiring deeper thinking—understanding what an author really means, connecting ideas across paragraphs, evaluating arguments—their performance levels off and then declines. By high school, when students face complex texts in science, history, and literature, too many simply don't have the tools they need to succeed.

Fluency: The Missing Bridge

Reading fluency is the critical middle stage that often gets overlooked when we focus heavily on early phonics and later comprehension. Think of fluency as having three parts: accuracy (recognizing words correctly), automaticity (reading at a natural pace without struggling over every word), and prosody (reading with expression and appropriate rhythm).

When students read fluently, something magical happens: their brains are freed up from the mechanics of figuring out words, and they can focus on actually understanding what they're reading. A struggling reader who must decode each word laboriously has little mental energy left for comprehension. By the time they reach the end of a sentence, they've forgotten how it began! In contrast, a fluent reader glides through text smoothly, with plenty of mental space for understanding, analyzing, and making connections.

The literacy decline between grades 7 and 12 in Kamloops SD73 suggests many students never fully develop this automaticity. They remain "word callers"—technically able to decode but doing it so slowly and effortfully that truly understanding complex material becomes nearly impossible. Without explicit teaching of fluency through practices like repeated reading and guided oral reading, students increasingly struggle as texts get longer and more demanding.

Prosody: Reading With Meaning

Prosody—the melody and rhythm of reading—is probably the most overlooked element of reading instruction, yet it's incredibly important. When students read with appropriate expression, pausing at commas, emphasizing important words, and varying their tone to reflect meaning, they're showing you they understand what they're reading. Flat, robotic, word-by-word reading? That's a red flag that comprehension isn't happening.

But here's what's really interesting: prosody doesn't just reflect understanding—it actually helps create it. When students group words into meaningful phrases, respect punctuation, and read dialogue with expression, they're forced to process text as ideas rather than isolated words. Teaching kids to "make it sound like talking" requires them to think about what the text means while they're reading it.

For Kamloops SD73, where our intermediate students perform well but high schoolers struggle, prosody instruction could potentially be a game-changer. A seventh grader who still sounds choppy and expressionless when reading aloud is revealing incomplete literacy development, even if they can decode accurately. Simple activities like modeled reading, choral reading, and reader's theater can help students move beyond mechanical decoding toward genuine engagement with text.

Comprehension: What Reading Is Really About

At the end of the day, all reading instruction must serve one purpose: comprehension—actually understanding what you read. Comprehension isn't just one skill; it's a complex dance of multiple abilities: connecting to what you already know, making predictions, visualizing, asking questions, figuring out what's most important, reading between the lines, and pulling ideas together. These strategies need to be explicitly taught, demonstrated, and practiced year after year.

Our Kamloops SD73 data suggests comprehension instruction may be inconsistent across grade levels. When intermediate students outperform provincial peers but high schoolers underperform, it tells us students aren't developing the sophisticated strategies needed for complex reading. A ninth grader who learned to decode in first grade and read fluently in fourth grade still needs someone to teach them how to tackle a scientific article, analyze a historical document, or unpack a challenging poem. This is where a rich, classical education truly outshines the instruction in Kamloops SD73.

There's another crucial piece: comprehension depends on knowledge. We understand what we read largely because of what we already know about the topic. A comprehensive literacy program must build students' knowledge systematically across subjects, recognizing that literacy and learning content go hand in hand. A classical reading program that exposes students to many texts across different genres and historical periods provides exactly what students need to excel in reading and comprehension.

What This Means for Kamloops School District 73

Our assessment data presents both challenges and real opportunities. SD73 has proven it can teach young children to decode—that's a genuine achievement we shouldn't minimize. But the performance decline as students progress shows we're not building on that early success.

Here's what needs to happen:

First, we need to broaden our vision of literacy instruction beyond primary phonics. While continuing to strengthen foundational skills, Kamloops SD73 must invest equally in fluency and prosody instruction in grades 3-8, when these skills matter most for long-term success.

Second, comprehension strategy instruction must be systematic, explicit, and sustained across all grades and subjects. Every teacher—not just English teachers—needs to see themselves as literacy instructors who help students read and understand texts specific to their disciplines.

Third, we should examine our literacy assessments to make sure they measure not just decoding accuracy but fluency, prosody, and genuine comprehension. What gets measured gets taught—if assessments focus mainly on word recognition, that's what instruction will emphasize too.

Fourth, professional development must address the full spectrum of literacy development. Primary teachers need support teaching fluency and early comprehension strategies, not just phonics. Intermediate and secondary teachers need training in assessing fluency problems and teaching discipline-specific reading strategies.

Fifth, intervention programs for struggling readers must be comprehensive. A high school student reading below grade level needs more than phonics review—they likely need fluency practice, prosody development, comprehension strategy instruction, and content knowledge building, all tailored to their specific needs.

Looking Forward

Following the most recent Provincial Reports on literacy and numeracy, Kamloops School District 73 stands at an important crossroads. We've made real progress teaching foundational reading skills, as those improved primary grades show. But the failure to sustain those gains reveals that early success in decoding, while necessary, isn't enough for creating truly literate graduates.

The path forward requires reimagining how we think about and teach literacy. Instead of viewing reading instruction as mainly a primary-grade concern centered on phonics, Kamloops SD73 should consider embracing a developmental model that recognizes literacy as a continuum of skills that must be nurtured across all grades and woven into every academic discipline. It's time to return to a classical method of instruction.

Decoding opens the door to literacy, but fluency, prosody, and comprehension allow students to walk through that door and explore the vast, wonderful world of knowledge and ideas that lay beyond.

Our children deserve nothing less.

An Invitation from First Baptist Classical Academy

If you're a parent whose child struggles to read with deep comprehension, we'd love to share what makes our approach different. At First Baptist Classical Academy, our literacy program goes far beyond basic reading skills to cultivate truly confident, articulate readers who don't just decode words—they bring texts to life.

Yes, we build a solid foundation in phonics and decoding. But our program's real distinction lies in its robust emphasis on fluency, prosody, and deep

comprehension. Your child will learn to read with appropriate pacing, expression, and intonation, transforming written words into meaningful communication that reflects genuine understanding. Through carefully designed instruction and abundant practice with rich, challenging texts, our students develop the ability to read smoothly and expressively while simultaneously grasping nuanced meanings, making inferences, and engaging critically with what they read.

This holistic approach ensures our graduates don't simply recognize words on a page—they become eloquent, thoughtful readers who can articulate ideas clearly, discuss literature intelligently, and approach complex texts with confidence and joy. Why is this so important to us? We want our students to be able to read and treasure God's Word, the Holy Bible, across the full depths of its richness that they might know Jesus and grow deeper in their relationship with Him.

At First Baptist Classical Academy, we're not just teaching children to read. We're nurturing lifelong Christian disciples who possess both the technical skills and the intellectual depth to excel academically, to read deeply and appreciatively, and communicate powerfully in every area of life.

We'd love to talk with you about your child's reading journey. Please reach out—we're here to help.

References

• BC Ministry of Education. (2024). Enhanced School District Report for SD073.

• Fraser Institute. (2024). Report Card on British Columbia's Elementary Schools 2024.

• Kamloops-Thompson School District No. 73. (2024). District Learning Plan 2023-2024: Celebrating Success and Focusing on Equity.

• Castanet Kamloops. (2025, October 3). Pandemic a factor in declining literacy rates at Kamloops schools, across B.C.