For Candice Malia, a 14-year-experienced kindergarten teacher at Lockwood Primary, finding the right approach to early reading instruction was a persistent challenge. Her school's reading curriculum emphasized letter names before sounds, a sequence that didn't align with her teaching philosophy.

"The sounds are so much more important when it comes to reading," Candice explains. "I was always trying to supplement to work more on letter sounds, and it was taking a lot of extra time to find and plan lessons."