Reading Recovery™ is a key component of the Department’s Literacy Strategy. Reading Recovery™ is a trademarked early literacy intervention for Year 1 students with a set of National Standards.
Expressions of Interest for Reading Recovery Teacher Training and participation in Ongoing Professional Learning are sent to schools via Gippsmail at the commencement of term 4 each year.
Students are selected for Reading Recovery™ based on individual measures of assessment and teacher judgement. The intervention runs for twelve to twenty weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher.
Reading Recovery™ is designed for children who are the lowest achievers in the Year 1 class/age group.
The goal of Reading Recovery™ is accelerated learning. Each student is expected to make accelerated progress so that he or she can work successfully within average level of the class.
Full implementation of Reading Recovery™ requires enough Reading Recovery teaching time to ensure that all Year 1 students in need of additional assistance, a minimum of 20%, have access to Reading Recovery™. Students on the intervention should be given individual half-hour sessions, five days per week to achieve the greatest progress in the minimum number of lessons. The cost-effectiveness of the intervention is reduced if the student does not participate in daily lessons.
Implementing Reading Recovery™ in small schools has different challenges to those in larger schools. Schools with low enrolments may need to explore options such as joining with other schools to form a cluster to provide a Reading Recovery™ Intervention.
Reading Recovery Guidelines
The Guidelines document reflects the intent of the Australian National Standards and are aimed to support Reading Recovery™ effectiveness and assure provision of a quality intervention for students. The Guidelines are based on evidence-based research and current effective practice.
Reading Recovery Victoria
(www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/support.htm)
This website provides an overview of the intervention and the Guidelines, together with information regarding the online database and data collection. A parent guide and student intervention results are also available.
Links and Resources
Reading Recovery Council of North America
The Frequently Asked Questions section of the website addresses such questions as: What is the research base for Reading Recovery? Do Reading Recovery students continue to make progress in subsequent years? Is Reading Recovery expensive? What is the role of phonics in Reading Recovery? Why is Reading Recovery for individuals rather than small groups?
Issues such as phonemic awareness, phonics, text comprehension, 1:1 teaching/group work are addressed on this web page.
Reading Recovery: New South Wales
Reading Recovery: New Zealand
Reading Recovery: United Kingdom
Research
Victorian students’ results can be obtained from the Victorian Reading Recovery website.
The “Does Reading Recovery Work” link on the Reading Recovery NSW webpage outlines some relevant Australian research
Of particular interest is the recent research emanating from the United States Department of Education. In March, 2007 the What Works Clearinghouse, a branch of the USDE’s Institute of Education Sciences released a three year independent review of the experimental research on Reading Recovery. This independent assessment establishes that Reading Recovery is an effective intervention based on scientific evidence. The report acknowledges that no other intervention measures up to Reading Recovery’s high rating in all four domains – alphabetic knowledge (phonemic awareness, print awareness, letter knowledge, and phonics), fluency, comprehension and general reading achievement.
Further information regarding this research can be found at:
The Reading Recovery Council of North America website also provides information about this recent research.
The Reading Recovery United Kingdom and New Zealand web pages outline more quality research.
REFERENCES
Clay, M. (2005) Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals Parts 1 & 2. Auckland. Heinemann Education
Clay, M. (2002) An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement. 2nd Edition. Auckland. Heinemann Education
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