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Reading Recovery:
Part of a Comprehensive
Literacy Plan
Reading Recovery: Part of a Comprehensive Literacy Plan
What does a comprehensive literacy plan accomplish?
A comprehensive literacy plan is key to improving literacy
achievement for all children. It addresses the quality of classroom
instruction and attends to necessary extra intervention for learners
who need additional support. Essential components include
professional development for teachers, collaborative problem
solving, and effective use of assessment.
What are the characteristics of a comprehensive literacy plan?
Professional Development is central to improved student
performance. Effective staff development must be tied to student
achievement, be ongoing and intensive, and include coaching and
support for classroom teachers. Successful professional developers
promote teacher ownership for the comprehensive literacy plan and
the sharing of instructional ideas and collaborative problem solving
within and across grade meetings.
Research-based instructional approaches must be included at
all grade levels. Explicit instruction, which includes teacher
modeling and student opportunities to practice in authentic
contexts, is an important characteristic of research-based
approaches. The effectiveness of research-based instructional
approaches needs to be monitored with appropriate assessment tools.
Instructional approaches may need to be modified to produce better
results with the student population of each particular school.
Excellent classroom instruction provides in-depth learning
opportunities for diverse learners. Developing relationships and
respect for individual students, setting high expectations for all
learners, and providing learning opportunities within meaningful
contexts are important characteristics of effective classrooms.
Sufficient time to provide uninterrupted blocks of literacy
instruction as well as a rich supply of high-quality books and
materials are necessary for excellent classroom instruction.
Literacy assessment at all grade levels employs a variety of
informal and formal measures of phonemic awareness, phonics,
comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and the development of each
student's reading process. Classroom teachers use continuous
assessment to address student learning as well as their own
teaching. Data are used schoolwide for collaborative problem solving
for individuals and for the evaluation of the comprehensive literacy
plan.
Reading Recovery school teams provide for shared
responsibility for the lowest-achieving readers and writers in the
school. Although students are in first grade when they receive the
Reading Recovery intervention, all of the educators in the building
are responsible for the instructional decisions of these students.
The school team takes responsibility for monitoring the progress of
the lowest-achieving students, making decisions about selection of
students for the intervention, problem-solving students who do not
respond adequately to the intervention, and monitoring the progress
of students after the intervention. Team members include the
principal, teachers representing all grade levels, resource
teachers, and other instructional support personnel.
Levels of intervention need to be available, based on the
student need. All students deserve to have excellent classroom
instruction. A few students will not make adequate progress, even
with this excellent instruction. For those children who do not
respond to classroom instruction after 1 year at school, Reading
Recovery provides specialized instruction tailored to the needs and
strengths of each child. Most children who receive Reading Recovery
instruction accelerate their learning so that they are then able to
profit from excellent classroom instruction. For the small number of
children who continue to need instructional support after receiving
the Reading Recovery intervention, the school team needs to
determine the long-term support that is most appropriate and
effective for each child.
Key Questions
What staff development plan do you have that supports learning
to implement research-based instruction?
What safety nets are in place for children who need support beyond
excellent classroom instruction?
Do you have a school team that includes the principal and that
closely monitors the progress of the lowest-achieving readers and
writers and makes informed instructional decisions?
Are assessment data used to inform instruction and to monitor
student progress?
Does the climate in your school promote collaborative planning and
problem solving?
For Further Information
Allington, R.L. (2001). What really matters for struggling
readers: Designing research-based programs. New York: Longman.
Smith-Burke, M., Pinnell, G.S., Jackson, M., Wey, S., Askew, B.J., &
Hambright-Brown, E. (2002). A principal's guide to Reading
Recovery. Columbus, OH: Reading Recovery Council of North
America.
Askew, B.J., Kaye, E., Frasier, D.F., Mobasher, M., Anderson, N., &
Rodriguez, Y.G. (2003). Making a case for prevention in education.
In S. Forbes & C. Briggs (Eds.), Research in Reading Recovery,
volume two (pp. 113-158). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Dorn, L.J. & Soffos, C. (2001). Shaping literate minds:
Developing self-regulated learners. Portland, ME: Stenhouse
Publishers.
Jackson, M., Duvall, C., Ford, R., Frasier, D., Newman, C., &
Salinas, K. (2004). Building ownership for Reading
Recovery/Descubriendo la Lectura with school teams. Journal of
Reading Recovery, 3(2) 44-51.
Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. (2001). Guided reading.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. (2001). Guiding readers and writers,
grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Lyon, A. & Moore, P. (2003). Sound systems: explicit, systematic
phonics in early literacy contexts. Portland, ME: Stenhouse
Publishers.
Pinnell, G.S. (2000). Reading Recovery: An analysis of a
research-based reading intervention. Columbus, OH: Reading
Recovery Council of North America.
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