Reading Recovery Research Articles

Early reading intervention can be effective and cost‐effective

Aims. To develop and evaluate an intervention strategy for children at risk of reading failure in their first year at school.Samples. Classes in four UK infant schools with different demographic characteristics were screened to identify children most at risk of reading failure (62 in total, mean initial age 6.0 years). Control children, matched overall for age and reading performance, were selected from comparable schools.Methods. The selected children were given an individually adaptive, curriculum‐based, support programme with the emphasis on word building and phonics skills in the broad reading context. The programme was administered to children in groups of four for two half‐hour sessions per week for 10 weeks.Results. The intervention group improved significantly in mean reading standard score (from 89.0 to 92.8), whereas the control group made no overall improvement. The intervention proved cost‐effective, with mean ‘effect size’ comparable to those reported for Reading Recovery, yet with only 10% of the costs. Despite the clear progress of the intervention group overall, 25% remained ‘problem readers' (with reading still at least 6 months behind). Of these problem readers 88% had initial ‘at risk’ or ‘borderline risk’ scores on the DEST screening test, compared with only 28% of the ‘recovered readers’.Conclusions. The following three‐stage intervention strategy is promising: (i) children at risk of reading difficulties are identified before 6 years; (ii) at risk children are given a small‐group intervention programme for 3‐4 months; (iii) children still failing to make progress may then be given continuing targeted additional support.

Dyslexia: a practitioner's handbook

About the Author. Other Books by Gavin Reid. Foreword. Preface. Chapter 1 Defining Dyslexia. Defining Dyslexia. Purpose of Definitions. How Should We Define Dyslexia? Definitions. Barriers to Implementing Policy. Rose Review and Dyslexia. Education for Learners with Dyslexia. Different Perspectives and Agenda. Chapter 2 Explaining Dyslexia: The Range of Research. Causal Modelling Framework. Genetic Factors. Neurobiological Factors. Visual and Temporal Processing. Magnocellular Visual System. Procedural Timing. Hemispheric Symmetry. Processing Speed. Phonological Processing. Phonological Awareness and Multisensory Programmes. Morphological Processing. Glue Ear. Cognitive Skills. Metacognition. Environmental Factors. Additional Language Learning. Dyslexia in Different Orthographies. Self-disclosure in Adults. Chapter 3 Assessment: Issues and Considerations. Points to Consider. Discrepancy Criteria. Listening Comprehension. Componential Model of Reading. Curriculum Focus. Why an Assessment? How-the Assessment Process. Effect of an Assessment. Assessment-Points to Consider. Some Other Considerations. Assessment and Inclusion. The Bilingual Learner. Chapter 4 Identifying Needs. Factors that can Prompt Concern. Linking Assessment with the Planning of Intervention. Comorbidity. Assessing Performances. Criteria: Summary. Whose Responsibility. Early Identification. Models of Identification. Expert/Intervention-Attainment. Barriers to Learning. Whole-school Involvement. Chapter 5 Assessment: Approaches and Resources. The Use of Tests-Points to Ponder. Cognitive Measures. Assessment of Processing Skills. Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP). Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests. Gray Oral Reading Tests (Gort-4). Standardised/Psychometric Criteria. Standardisation. Psychometric. Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT). Comment. Phonological Representation and Assessment. Screening. Curriculum Assessment. Miscue Analysis. Assessment in Context. Metacognitive Assessment. Multiple Intelligences Approaches. A Components Approach. Observational Assessment. Observational Framework. Systematic Observation. Summary. Chapter 6 Reading-Social, Cultural and Government Perspectives. The Social Context for Literacy. Literacy and Culture. Defining Literacy. Critical Literacy. Challenging Assumptions. Government Initiatives. Literacy Standards and International Comparisons. Pisa Study. Literacy Initiatives. Chapter 7 The Acquisition of Literacy. What is Reading? Factors to Consider. Reading as a Process. Reading Skills. Reading Practice. Developing Reading Skills. Key Factors. The Development of Reading. Stages of Reading Development. Limitations of the Stage Model of Reading. Reading and Memory. Relationship between Phonology and Orthography. Dyslexia and Different Orthographies. Chapter 8 Reading Models and Methods. Bottom-Up and Top Down Models. Connectionist Models. Balance Model of Reading. Method of Teaching Reading. Developing Reading Skills. Teaching Reading-the Debate. Reading Interventions. Methodological Issues in Reading Intervention Research. Factors to Consider in Developing and Using Reading Approaches. The Literacy Experience. Framework for Teaching. Summary. Chapter 9 The Acquisition of Literacy: Spelling. Why is Spelling Difficult? Systems Involved in Spelling. Spelling Skills. Spelling Development. Spelling Policy. Spelling Strategies. Spelling Materials. Chapter 10 Expressive Writing. The Importance of Writing. Relationship between Writing and Spelling. Expressive Writing: The Process. Cognitive Skills Associated with Writing. Writing in the Curriculum. Developing Metacognitive Skills through Writing. Metacognitive Strategies for Writing. Strategies for Writing. Motivation and Writing. Planning. Pre-writing Framework. Developing Ideas. Handwriting. Summary. Chapter 11 Teaching Approaches: Points to Consider. The Context. Assessment and the Curriculum. The Learner. Programmes and Approaches-Some Considerations. Over-learning. Principles. Issues. Chapter 12 Supporting Literacy: Individualised Programmes. Criteria for Selection. Alpha to Omega. Orton-Gillingham. Procedure. The Hickey Multisensory Language Course. Bangor Dyslexia Teaching System. Tackling Dyslexia. Alphabetic Phonics. The Slingerland Programme. Letterland. Reading Recovery. Toe By Toe: Multisensory Manual for Teachers and Parents. Comment-Issues to Consider. Chapter 13 Supporting Literacy: Approaches and Strategies. Phonics Instructional Approaches. Language Experience. Other Support Approaches. Phonological Approaches. High-interest Books-History. Start to Finish Books. Differentiated Texts. Visual Factors. Motor Aspects. Assisted Learning. Summary. Chapter 14 Supporting Learning. Effective Learning. Key Points About Learning. The Learning Process. Realising Potential. Zone of Proximal Development. Developing Learning Skills. Learning Strategies. Multiple Intelligences. Study Skills. Set Goals. Feedback. Memory-Some Strategies. The Role of Self-esteem. Creativity and the 'Gifted' Dyslexic Student. Summary. Chapter 15 Inclusion: Curriculum Access. The Context. Responding to the Diverse Needs of Students. The Challenges. Meeting Curriculum Objectives. Index for Inclusion. Tensions and Contradictions. Assessment, Need and Accountability. Removing Barriers to Achievement. Interventions and Inclusion. Making the School Inclusive. Equity. Principles of Inclusion. An Inclusive School. Healthy Schools. Supporting Inclusion. Staff Support and Training. Student Advocacy. Dyslexia and Self-advocacy. Staff Support. Key Factors. Chapter 16 Inclusion in Secondary Education: Accessing the Curriculum. Responsibility. Features of Secondary Schools. Differentiation and Curricular Development. Differentiation and Assessment. Subject Areas. Multiple Intelligences in Secondary Schools. Physical Education. Staff Development. Challenges: Key Areas. Chapter 17 Inclusion: Further and Higher Education and the Workplace. Further and Higher Education. The Workplace. Concluding Comment. Chapter 18 Issues and Concerns. Issue 1. Multilingualism. Issue 2. The Use of Computers and Technology. Issue 3. Overlap, Continuum and Intervention. Issue 4. Alternative Therapies. Issue 5. Training and Professional Development. Comment on Issues. Chapter 19 The Role of Parents. Parental Concerns. Parental Support. Parents' Challenges. Parents as Partners. Appendix 1 Some Tests for Dyslexia that Can Be Used by Teachers. Appendix 2 Further Contacts. References. Index.

1998 Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts

Presents a conversation with eminent educator Dorothy Strickland, 1998 Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts. Discusses her books, being a “career mom,” her role in writing the report “Becoming a Nation of Readers,” the cycles that reading education seems to go through, professional development, “Reading Recovery,” standards, and letting the public know what education is about.

Reading Recovery: Its Effectiveness in the Long Term

The introduction of the ‘literacy hour’ into primary schools is causing concern because it is largely unresearched. Maggie Moore and Barrie Wade suggest that in the pursuit of better standards of reading a substantial body of evidence for other solutions, principally Reading Recovery, are being ignored. They detail some of the very positive results they have obtained from the Marie Clay programme in Australia and New Zealand. The government should, perhaps look more closely at existing well‐documented projects before embarking on a massive policy that may have little effect.

Reading and Comprehension: a longitudinal study of ex‐Reading Recovery students

Summary The paper reports the results of a longitudinal case study conducted in Australia and New Zealand. The study compares the reading and comprehension age of children in their fifth and sixth years in school. Reading and comprehension ages of 121 children who had Reading Recovery intervention at age 6 were compared with those of a Comparison group of 121 children, drawn from the same classes who, at age 6 years, had been better performers in literacy. Reading and comprehension assessment was conducted with the use of the Neale Analysis of Reading and analysed by means of a t‐test. Results show that the mean reading age of ex‐Reading Recovery children was nearly 12 months superior to that of the Comparison group and that the mean comprehension age was nearly 13 months superior at very highly significant levels. The results strongly suggest that Reading Recovery tuition at age 6 years enabled the 121 ex‐Reading Recovery children to make greater progress in literacy than children in the Comparison group.

Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts

Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts

Why is reading recovery successful? A Vygotskian critique of an early reading intervention

Reading Recovery is an intensive, one-to-one intervention for children experiencing reading difficulties after one year of primary school. It aims to intervene before “dysfunctional strategies” and feelings of failure take firm hold in young learners. The programme consists of daily half-hour lessons taught by a teacher trained to diagnose and support a problem-solving approach to reading texts. Lessons are planned so that the learner, no matter how inexperienced with print, is enabled to “act like a reader and writer”. Marie Clay, the founder of Reading Recovery, devised the programme on the basis of intensive work with both fluent and poor readers more than twenty years ago in New Zealand. Many years later Clay and Cazden (1990) analysed the programme from a Vygotskian viewpoint and pointed out aspects which embody Vygotskian principles, especially the notion of “scaffolding”. This paper addresses two questions: (l) which features of Reading Recovery embody Vygotskian notions? and (2) how effective is Reading Recovery at improving literacy skills and transforming children into independent problem solvers in literacy? A large national evaluation study in the U.K. showed that Reading Recovery increased reading attainment and that the gains were still apparent more than one year after the intervention. A small scale observation study demonstrated the “scaffolding” by which Reading Recovery teachers encouraged children to greater independence in reading and writing over the course of the programme. The paper ends by suggesting that future research should address the socio-cultural context of Reading Recovery instead of limiting its focus to narrow test outcomes or explicit teaching strategies aimed at skill enhancement.

Literacy education and teacher preparation: snapshots from Canada

Education is a provincial jurisdiction in Canada, and so literacy programmes vary widely among the ten provinces and two territories, despite some recent efforts to promote common goals for English/language arts curricula through regional consortia and pressures from a national sample of reading and writing skills by the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada. On the primary school level, a major movement towards Reading Recovery and early intervention strategies is evident in most provinces, frequently led by groups of interested teachers. Significant immigration to Vancouver and Toronto has led to large ESL programmes both at the adult and K-12 levels in these cities, but many other jurisdictions have small ESL populations. Provincial laws in Quebec dictate that all immigrants study French, so ESL programmes are negligible there. First Nations education is significant across Canada with programmes in native languages being offered at both K-12 and university levels. Adult education, however, remains peripheral to teacher education programmes. The Province of New Brunswick has appointed a Minister of State for Literacy, the only province to demonstrate a commitment to literacy at this level. With downsizing at all levels of government from the federal government through to locally appointed school boards, the current economic climate does not bode well for new literacy initiatives.

Reading Recovery: Long-Term Progress After Three Cohorts

The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) in Raleigh, North Carolina, has had Reading Recovery (RR) programs in place since 1990. A longitudinal study of the effectiveness of RR examined retention, special education, and Chapter 1 service rates, as well as third-grade North Carolina End-of-Grade (EOG) test scores for students involved from 1990 through 1994. The results showed that RR students scored significantly higher on the Clay Diagnostic Survey than a control group. However, success rates declined in later years, and long-term results were not as positive. Compared to similar students, inconsistent benefits were found after 1 year, and no significant differences were found in retention, special education, Chapter 1 service rates, or North Carolina EOG test scores after 2 years. Several factors may have contributed to these results, including less than full implementation of the program in WCPSS, RR staff decisions on the number of lessons to provide, and subsequent reading instruction after first grade.

The use of a structured literacy program to facilitate the inclusion of marginal and special education students into regular classes

A preliminary study was carried out to evaluate the use of a whole class early literacy program with disadvantaged and at risk children. This program, Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy (SWELL) is based on an interactive-compensatory theory of literacy acquisition. Results indicated that by the end of kindergarten, children in SWELL schools outperformed their counterparts in control schools on tests measuring reading connected text but not on other early literacy measures. In addition, marginal children in the mainstream, including those targeted as having mild intellectual disability, were able to master partial phonetic cue reading, in contrast to marginal students in control schools who did not attain this skill. Follow-up studies indicated that by the end of Year 1, all children in SWELL schools outperformed their counterparts in control schools on four early literacy tests, but the effect of the fifth, reading connected text, was only evident in large disadvantaged schools. Marginal students who had received individualised Reading Recovery outperformed marginal students in SWELL schools and control schools who had received small group intervention on reading connected text and on reading pseudowords, but not on tests of segmentation, spelling and writing. No children classified as developmentally delayed received individualised Reading Recovery, but were included in both SWELL small class and control schools small group intervention. Further follow-up mid-way through Year 2, on marginal children only, no longer indicated any differences among the individualised Reading Recovery, SWELL small class or control schools small group. The implications of the use of a structured program such as SWELL, as a whole-class program and the most effective individualised program for inclusion of at risk students are discussed.

The use of a structured literacy program to facilitate the inclusion of marginal and special education students into regular classes

A preliminary study was carried out to evaluate the use of a whole class early literacy program with disadvantaged and at risk children. This program, School wide Early Language and Literacy (SWELL) is based on an interactive‐compensatory theory of literacy acquisition. Results indicated that by the end of kindergarten, children in SWELL schools outperformed their counterparts in control schools on tests measuring reading connected text but not on other early literacy measures. In addition, marginal children in the mainstream, including those targeted as having mild intellectual disability, were able to master partial phonetic cue reading, in contrast to marginal students in control schools who did not attain this skill. Follow‐up studies indicated that by the end of Year 1, all children in SWELL schools outperformed their counterparts in control schools on four early literacy tests, but the effect of the fifth, reading connected text, was only evident in large disadvantaged schools. Marginal students who had received individualised Reading Recovery outperformed marginal students in SWELL schools and control schools who had received small group intervention on reading connected text and on reading pseudowords, but not on tests of segmentation, spelling and writing. No children classified as developmentally delayed received individualised Reading Recovery, but were included in both SWELL small class and control schools small group intervention. Further follow‐up mid‐way through Year 2, on marginal children only, no longer indicated any differences among the individualised Reading Recovery, SWELL small class or control schools small group. The implications of the use of a structured program such as SWELL, as a whole‐class program and the most effective individualised program for inclusion of at risk students are discussed.

Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery

Response: Response to Hiebert: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make?

Response: Response to Hiebert: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make?

Revisiting the Question: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make to an Age Cohort?

Revisiting the Question: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make to an Age Cohort?

Rejoinder: Revisiting the Question: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make to an Age Cohort?

Rejoinder: Revisiting the Question: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make to an Age Cohort?

Response to Hiebert: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make?

Response to Hiebert: What Difference Does Reading Recovery Make?

Scaffolding in Reading Recovery

Abstract Reading Recovery is a one‐to‐one intervention for children having difficulty reading after one year at school. It consists of daily half‐hour lessons taught by a teacher trained to diagnose and support children's problem‐solving approach to reading. Each lesson is organised so that the pupil, no matter how inexperienced with print, is enabled to ‘act like a reader and writer’. The parts of the lesson remain constant each day although the particular books read, the messages written, and the interactions the teacher has with the pupil are individually crafted for each child. Marie Clay, founder of the programme, claims it is consistent with the principles of Vygotsky's theory on the acquisition of cultural tools. More specifically Clay and Cazden (1990) have shown how the features of Reading Recovery lessons exemplify the scaffolding of learning based on assessment of each child's current reading strategies and techniques for moving the child towards independence in reading and writing. In this stu...

What is so special about Reading Recovery?

ABSTRACTReading Recovery is a highly successful and widely used intervention for children with reading difficulties. However, it is an intensive intervention and some have argued that it is for this reason alone that it is effective. This argument is examined but found to be unsound. The central features of Reading Recovery are then described under the headings of assessment, curriculum and instruction, and the empirical evidence of their value reviewed. Using this method to analyse Reading Recovery as a case‐study of successful intervention certain key elements are revealed. The intensity of the intervention is identified as a necessary but not sufficient ingredient for effective remediation. Other factors of importance are the rigour and focus of assessment, the breadth of the curriculum which includes writing as well as reading, and the quality of instruction.

Increasing the Academic Success of Disadvantaged Children: An Examination of Alternative Early Intervention Programs

In recent years, two programs have gained national attention for producing significant and sustained effects on the reading performance of at-risk children. One is Reading Recovery which uses highly trained teachers and a systematic set of procedures to tutor first graders who are having difficulty learning to read. The other is Success for All which uses research-based beginning and intermediate reading programs, one-to-one tutoring, family support, and other elements to provide support for all students in the targeted elementary school. The present research examined the processes and outcomes associated with the implementation of these approaches in comparable first grade classes during one school year. Results showed that Reading Recovery strongly benefited tutored students, particularly on passage comprehension. Success for All was more beneficial for special education students and for students who were not tutored, especially on word attack measures. School climate and teacher attitude results also showed advantages of Success for All’s comprehensive approach in integrating the reading curriculum with family support and schoolwide restructuring.

Reading Recovery ‐ German style

ABSTRACT The purpose of this short report is to provide an insight into a Reading Recovery programme which has been developed and implemented in Kiel, northern Germany. The author outlines the basic principles behind the approach and shares impressions gained from observation of the ‘method in action’.