What is Reading Recovery?
- Reading Recovery is a short-term literacy intervention for the lowest literacy attaining pupils aged between 5 years 9months and 6 years 6 months who have completed three terms in school.
- The duration of Intervention is from 12 to 20 weeks.
- 30 minutes of 1 to 1 individualised lessons per day is given to each child.
- Every child who participates in the programme is assessed before they begin, when they complete the programme, and at the end of their school year. This helps teachers track each child’s progress throughout the programme.
What children should avail of the programme?
- The four lowest achieving pupils as identified by the assessments administered within the age criteria.
- The intervention is suitable for all children once they have the linguistic or cognitive ability to understand and engage with the instructions in the assessments.
- EAL children are often taught in Reading Recovery even though their needs may be in language rather than literacy acquisition.
- Children with needs such as ADHD, ASD, Dyspraxia, etc. will all benefit from the structure and one to one nature of a Reading Recovery intervention.
Is Reading Recovery Effective?
The Reading Recovery programme has proven to be a very effective way to help children overcome their reading and writing difficulties. Approximately three-quarters of the children who complete the 12-20 week programme are able to meet or exceed their class-level reading expectations. Research has shown that these children tend to continue to improve upon these skills and perform well on standardised tests in later years.
Trajectory of Progress
Cork 2022
Progress made during Reading Recovery:
Average Book Level at entry to Reading Recovery: 1
Average Book Level on exit for discontinued children: 18
Average Book Level on exit for referred children: 10
The Anatomy of a Reading Recovery Lesson
- Re-reading two or three familiar books
- Re-reading yesterday’s new book (running record).
- Letter and sound work