The locally produced video Reading Recovery: Every Child a Reader provides an informative overview of Reading Recovery in School District No. 59. The video was produced in 2014, with former Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, Daun Newman. Check out our Reading Recovery Video.
WHAT IS READING RECOVERY?
- Reading Recovery is a research-based, inclusive, short-term intervention of one-to-one teaching for the lowest-achieving grade one students.
- Reading Recovery, students receive 30-minute lessons each school day for 12 to 20 weeks from a specially trained literacy teacher.
- As soon as students can read and write at grade level and demonstrate that they can continue to achieve, their lessons are discontinued and new students receive individual instruction.
WHAT CAN READING RECOVERY DO FOR MY CHILD?
- A key premise of Reading Recovery is that early literacy intervention in first grade is critical. Research shows that children who fall behind in Grade 1 tend to remain below grade level in later school years.Early intervention is important because the gap between the lowest- and highest- performing children is narrow in lower grades but widens later in elementary school.
- Numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of Reading Recovery for children with literacy difficulties.
- Since 1989 when Reading Recovery began in the Canada, about 75% of students with a full series of lessons met the criteria for successful grade one reading and writing.
- Although all children progress during their Reading Recovery lessons, a few do not make the accelerated progress needed to succeed without extra help. These children may be recommended for additional evaluation.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING READING RECOVERY LESSONS?
- Acceleration, independence and the student’s use of strategic activity are the cornerstones of Reading Recovery. The aim is to establish a literacy processing system that continues to develop without additional support. Each lesson consists of authentic tasks in reading and writing continuous text.
- re-reading familiar stories,
- reading a story that was read for the first time the day before,
- working with letters and words,
- writing a story,
- assembling a cut-up story, and
- reading a new book.
- The teacher teaches, demonstrates problem-solving strategies, and provides just enough support to help the child develop effective reading and writing strategies and work as independently as possible.
- Each Reading Recovery lesson incorporates five components identified as essential in a comprehensive instructional program in reading. The five components are:
- phonemic awareness,
- phonics instruction,
- fluency instruction,
- vocabulary instruction, and
- text comprehension instruction.
- Accelerated learning is possible because Reading Recovery teachers base their instruction on carefully documented daily observations of what each child already knows about reading and writing. This is an efficient approach that allows all future instruction to work from the child’s strengths.
- There are two possible outcomes after a full series of Reading Recovery lessons, both positive:
- The child makes accelerated progress and continues to progress thereafter with classroom instruction. Nationally about 75% of children successfully complete lessons.
- Additional evaluation is recommended and further action is initiated to help the child continue making progress. This is a positive outcome, because Reading Recovery’s diagnostic teaching helps identify children who need more help and provides a documented record of the child-s knowledge and strengths as a base for future teaching.
READING RECOVERY AS PART OF OUR COMPREHENSIVE LITERACY PLAN
- Reading Recovery is implemented around the world. In Canada, Reading Recovery is available in six provinces and the Yukon territory.
- Reading Recovery is an early intervention component of a school’s comprehensive literacy program. It is not a stand-alone, isolated program.
- Positive results for Reading Recovery students require excellent instruction and a school environment that allows for smooth operations. Among the factors that affect results are:
- daily lessons for Reading Recovery students,
- scheduling for students and teachers,
- collaboration with classroom teachers,
- collaboration between home and school,
- teacher selection,
- adequate space and materials, and
- administrative support.
- One of the benefits of Reading Recovery is the professional development that creates literacy experts who share their knowledge with other staff and students outside Reading Recovery.
- In order to ensure fidelity, and consistent results for students, Reading Recovery sites and schools agree to abide by the standards set out in the Standards and Guidelines of Reading Recovery in the Canada (4th ed., 2014). The founder of Reading Recovery, Marie M. Clay, granted the trademark for Reading Recovery to Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery.
- Permission to use the trademark is granted royalty-free on an annual basis as long as the user complies with the standards and guidelines.
HOW CAN I CONTACT A READING RECOVERY TEACHER?
For more information about Reading Recovery please contact your local school to speak to a Reading Recovery teacher or to speak to the district's Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, contact Cristal Bertrand, at (250) 242-5281 or at cbertrand@sd59.bc.ca
WHAT IS OUR DISTRICT IMPLEMENTATION OF READING RECOVERY?
School District N0. 59, Peace River South has had Reading Recovery since 1997. We are part of a larger Reading Recovery site that includes our sister district, School District N0. 60, Peace River North.
WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT READING RECOVERY?
The Reading Recovery Council of North America website includes fact sheets, articles, videos and lesson overviews.
