A Little About Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery is a highly effective short-term intervention of one-on-one tutoring
for low-achieving first graders. The intervention is most effective when it is available to all students who need it
and is used as a supplement to good classroom teaching. In Reading Recovery, individual students receive a half-hour
lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher. As soon as students can
read within the average range of their class and demonstrate that they can continue to achieve, their lessons are discontinued,
and new students begin individual instruction.
A Little History about Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery was developed by New Zealand educator and researcher Dr. Marie M.
Clay. Dr Clay conducted observational research in the mid-1960s that enabled her to design ways to detect children's
early reading difficulties. In the mid-1970s, she developed Reading Recovery procedures with teachers and tested the
program in New Zealand. Since its success in New Zealand, Reading Recovery has spread to Australia, the United States,
Canada, and Great Britain. Over the 15 years of Recovery in the United States, more than 700,000 first graders have
participated in lessons.
20 Years of Research
•Provides a one-to-one tutoring program for first graders
who are having difficulty learning to read and write.
•Provides an intensive, year-long teacher education program that involves analysis of behavior and
teaching for expert decision making.
•Provides ongoing professional development for teachers.
•Provides
intervention at a critical time--before the cycle of failure begins.
•Provides
a safety net for low achieving children as a supplement to a good classroom program.
•Provides short term intervention--12 to 20 weeks.
•Provides 30 minutes daily of extra instruction.
•Provides
reading, writing, and attention to letters, sounds, and words.
•Provides
children the chance to become independent readers and writers.
•Provides
an opportunity for accelerated progress.
•Provides lessons
in either English or Spanish, depending on the language of instruction in the classroom.
