Reading Recovery
What is Reading Recovery?
Reading Recovery is an early intervention designed to reduce literacy problems in any education system. The specially designed series of lessons, individually planned and delivered, provides intensive help for children who fail to make sufficient progress in reading and writing after one year in school.
Goal
The goal of Reading Recovery is to enable the lowest achieving children to return to working with the average band in their classes and to continue to progress successfully.
How does a school become involved in Reading Recovery?
Reading Recovery is delivered by teachers trained on a year-long Inservice basis to administer a series of tests, analyse these tests to find a starting point and then design the 30 minute daily lessons according to the needs of each child. How do teachers become trained Reading Recovery teachers? Learning Support teachers can become Reading Recovery teachers by participating in the year long Inservice training led by a recognised Teacher Leader, who has undertaken training with the International Trainers and Coordinators in the Institute of Education, London. Currently, Reading Recovery is offered to schools with Disadvantaged status and then to schools where need has been identified by schools and local Inspectorate teams.
What happens in the Training year?
The training year consists of two full training days during which the teachers are trained to become familiar with the Assessment tools and how to analyse these. The rest of the year consists of eighteen sessions usually planned at fortnightly intervals. Throughout the training, the teachers in turn, bring a child along to the Teachers Centre to be taught behind the special one-way screen. As the child is taught, the training group on the other side discuss the learning, progress and theory behind the lessons which is then fed forward to the teachers, to help them teach towards independence and shifts in the child’s understanding and ability.
Which children are chosen?
Children between the ages of five years nine months and six years and three months who indicate from the Assessment tests that they have gaps in their understanding, knowledge and ability to progress successfully and who have completed three terms at school.
Where do we find Teacher Centres with the special one-way screen?
Currently, there are seven Reading Recovery centres with eight trained Teacher Leaders operating in the following areas: Monaghan, Dublin [Marino], Dublin West, Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork and Galway. How many schools / children have been involved in Reading Recovery to date? 216 schools across the Republic of Ireland have participated in Reading Recovery with 270 teachers trained who have reached approximately 3,000 children…on an individual basis.
Predictions /dream… for end of 2010?
All DEIS schools will have access to Reading Recovery nationwide so that other schools with an identified need, can then be offered training beyond this date in a specially designed centre within reasonable travelling distance.
How successful is Reading Recovery generally?
Each year, data is collected from each school and centre, using before and after test results. The overall success rate for Republic of Ireland stands at 93%.[2005/06 data report]. Even children who do not manage to accelerate sufficiently to be acknowledged as ‘Successful’ have often soared far above their natural learning ability and continue to progress at a slower pace with the knowledge that they have become readers and writers.
Who do teachers / schools contact if interested in training in the concepts and methods of Reading Recovery?
Teachers / schools should contact their nearest centre, where the Teacher Leaders will supply all necessary information or they can contact: Rosie Hogan, Kilkenny Education Centre