Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
Reading Recovery challenges beliefs about children who are failing. As an early intervention program directed towards providing intensive, individual help for children having difficulty in reading and writing after one year at school, it achieves a seemingly impos-sible task. Children with very low achievement are helped in a surprisingly short time to make rapid progress. This means that those children who have not responded to the classroom instructional program and so have not got started on efficient patterns of learning can catch up with their classmates and be-come independent learners.
While most children succeed in learning to read, some find it difficult. Most of those who find it difficult can be helped in individual lessons to learn to operate in the same way and reach the same levels of independence as proficient readers. Just improving their reading and writing is not enough. The term "recovery" implies a deliberate attempt to have children who are making unsatisfactory progress able to work at average levels in their classrooms by the end of their supplementary program, to profit from existing programs, and to continue to progress satisfactorily.
All children must have the opportunity to move into a good reading program at their own pace with sensi-tive well-trained teachers in the first year of school. Good first teaching is essential. Despite good instruc-tion in their classes, a few children remain very poor readers or non-readers. A Reading Recovery program can be thought of as a second wave of teaching effort for them. For many different reasons, the range of reading achievement in any class at any age level varies widely. Effective implementation of Reading Recovery should reduce the spread of reading achievement that any teacher has to deal with, so improving the effectiveness of most teaching in the primary school.
Reading Recovery is more than a set of procedures to be used with a child. It is a way of establishing an early intervention program in an education system. It should be seen working at several levels: with children, with teachers, in schools, and in the total education system to drastically reduce the reading problem. Reading recovery is not a classroom program for teaching beginning reading and is not used by teachers for teaching class groups. It provides a second chance. It identifies those children having difficulty early, be-fore problems become consolidated, and provides spe-cialized one-to-one assistance from a teacher trained in Reading Recovery procedures. Appropriate learning can be established in a short time. Reading Recovery is a supplementary program. it is something extra.
Reading Recovery arises out of an extensive programme of research and development carried out by Marie Clay of the University of Auckland. The project began in schools in 1978 and since 1983 has been nationally mplemented. Teacher training schemes are running in all education districts in New Zealand. The program is now fully supported by the Government with funding available to ensure continuity and expansion of the program.
The program is widely spread throughout New Zealand with large numbers of children being helped. Marie Clay writes about this in her article, "The Reading Recovery Program 1984-1988". As the program continues to expand, it is predicted that between fifteen and twenty percent of the age group could be reached.
The key features of the New Zealand Reading Recovery program are as follows:
Children entering the program in each school are those in the ordinary classroom having marked difficulty in reading after one year at school. No child is excluded, for Reading Recovery children are the lowest readers in their schools, without exception.
The program is different for every child. The child's competencies are the starting point and the program moves from these competencies towards what he or she needs to learn, respond-ing always to what the child is trying to do.
The teaching is individual, in a one-to-one set-ting. Each child has an intensive program of daily instruction which is additional to the regu-lar class reading instruction activities.
The focus is on comprehending messages (in reading) and constructing written messages (in writing), so highest priority is given to children reading many books and writing their own stories. They learn to attend to detail without losing the focus on meaning.
The training of the teachers is essential to the imple-mentation of a successful Reading Recovery program. Those undertaking the training are good, experienced junior class teachers. They are carefully guided in the use of specific Reading Recovery teaching proce-dures in the inservice program once a fortnight. Skilful selection of the activities needed by a particular child is critical. The training has a strong practical orientation, for during the year-long training course teachers are working each day with children individu-ally: This approach means there is no delay. Children having difficulty are helped as soon as the teachers begin training.
Tutors are trained by trainer/coordinators. In addition to providing the training for tutors they organize and sustain the program in the system. Reading Re-covery is coordinated across the country by this na-tional team and supported by administrators who know all about what the program is trying to achieve.
Mounting inservice courses and having teachers able to use the teaching procedures well is not all that is required to make the program successful. Reading Recovery fits into the existing school system so the effective implementation of the program in each school is crucial. The whole school must see the reduc-tion of reading failure as a challenge. Each school has to ensure that teachers are able to undertake the program consistently, daily, and over a period of years. Schools make contact with parents to inform them about the program and to ensure their sup-port. The demand for daily, individual teaching that is not interrupted for any reason is stringent and implies that children's absence from school must be minimal. It is essential that Reading Recovery be operated aS it. was designed, to ensure successful implementation and quality outcomes.
