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In part one of the blog series, I described my 30-year journey as a Reading Recovery teacher and teacher leader and the impact Marie Clay had on me as an educator.  Below you will find the eight guided principles that directed my path in service of students, teachers, and administrators. 

1. All children can learn. It takes an observant and highly trained teacher to make inroads with a struggling reader and writer. The Instruction is differentiated and individualized.

“If children are apparently unable to learn, we should assume that we have not as yet found the right way to teach them.”

“Children with low literacy achievement exhibit a variety of learning profiles that require idiosyncratic instructional solutions.  Effective teachers engage these children in such a way as to support and nurture the affective and cognitive dimensions of their mind.”

“With our current understanding of the inseparable fusion between cognitive (reasoning) and emotion in the development of the mind, all children, with the exception of those with severe neurological difficulties, should be able to become readers and writers.”

2. Celebrate strengths and start where the students are in their learning. Do not deprive them of rich and meaningful literacy activities and experiences. Do not dwell on what the children cannot do, yet. 

“Teachers must take them from where they are to somewhere else.”

“If you have caught the child’s attention he will notice, learn from and soon want to engage in some of the things he sees you do. Allow him space and scope to do this.  He needs to be able to find what he already knows being used here and there in all kinds of settings.”

3. Keen observation and daily formative assessments are essential for responsive and just-in-time teaching.

“Educators have come to rely mainly on systematic testing of outcomes rather than systematic observation of learning.”

“Children move into reading by different tracks and early assessments must be wide-ranging.  If there is a single task that stands up better than any other it is the Running Record of text reading.  This a neutral observation task, able to be used in any system of reading instruction, and to record progress on whatever gradient of text difficulty has been adopted by the education system.”

4. Learning to read and write are complex and reciprocal processes.

“Reading, writing, and talking are interwoven throughout the Reading Recovery lesson series and teaching proceeds on the assumption that each produces learned responses that facilitate new responding in the other areas. Reciprocity in language learning is something the children learn to utilize in some implicit way. “

“While the child has only limited control in writing and in reading he can be encouraged to search for information in his memories of oral language, reading, and writing, establishing reciprocity between all these aspects of learning about printed language.”

5. Rigorous teacher training and on-going professional development is crucial and imperative. Being part of a learning community made up of Reading Recovery teachers, teacher leaders and University trainers is the glue that holds us together in our collective cause and work.

“Reading Recovery teachers need special training to make superb sensitive decisions about how to interact with the responses of the children finding literacy learning troublesome. “

“Reading Recovery lessons are individually designed by teachers who have additional training over and above their classroom expertise.  They can draw on a wide range of alternatives for working with the limited response repertoires of the children.”

“In Reading Recovery we are able to produce efficient results for a diverse population of learners because we can design a series of lessons for each individual child.  There are no set teaching sequences: there is no prescription to learn this before that.”

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6. Teach like you are teaching ‘Behind the Glass’ every day. Be consistent, insistent, and persistent in your expectations, instruction, and outcomes.

“And in the end it is the individual adaptation made by the expert teacher to that child’s idiosyncratic competencies and history of past experiences that starts him on the upward climb to effective literacy performance.”

“Through ongoing professional development and study, all teachers can see reading and writing as complex processes and understand literacy learning as a constructive activity. They also become expert in understanding and using techniques for observing and analyzing student behaviors and specific teaching approaches to promote optimum student learning.”

7. Collecting and analyzing data matters.

“The teacher must monitor the changes that are occurring in the individual learner if she is going to fine-tune her teaching.  Otherwise she will be holding back the fast movers or dragging along the slow movers, already out of their depth.  Low achieving children can learn well if the teacher uses individual assessments to guide her teaching interactions with a particular child.”

“Schools must create time for teachers to use assessments tasks which have sound measurement characteristics and plan for these to be used as part of instructional practice in that school.  Such tasks will produce reliable data that can be used to compare a child’s progress at different points in time, and to compare the progress of different children, in the same or different classrooms and schools.”

“Above all, schools must be prepared to allow teachers time to observe children’s literacy behaviours closely, and to work one on one with any children who are making slow progress with early literacy learning.”

8. Reading Recovery cannot work in isolation. It needs to be an integral part of a school or district’s comprehensive literacy system.

“Reading Recovery-trained teachers become leaders in their buildings and district; they serve on literacy teams, work as advocates, and participate in intervention discussions to determine the best instructional context for children who struggle to learn to read and write.  Consequently, the impact and value of training a Reading Recovery teacher goes well beyond the lowest 20% of the first grader they teach to affect classroom, school, and district.”

“Good first teaching is an essential component of a comprehensive literacy system.  It is critical in maximizing the effects of an intervention or special education to support learning.  Every student in your school should receive expert instruction every day, and to achieve that goal, all teachers need the systematic support of professional development and coaching.”

Reading Recovery is not a stand-alone intervention. It is a necessary part of a comprehensive literacy system. The Reading Recovery teachers and classroom teachers work together regularly to ensure literacy learning continues to grow and thrive within the classroom and at their school sites.  Parents are also a big part of this equation. Forging those relationships and partnerships is an essential part of our students’ success.  In addition, coordinating and collaborating with other district staff and administrators is a critical part of Reading Recovery’s implementation, sustainability, and growth.

Final Thoughts

Colleagues and friends have often asked me why I have been involved with Reading Recovery for so long.  The most obvious answer is because it works.  I have seen the transformation of struggling students into confident readers and writers. I have also seen teachers become more observant, skilled, confident, and effective in their craft time and time again.  I too have changed as a teacher and leader in countless ways.  I am a better teacher today because of the lessons I have learned from my students, as well as the teachers I have been fortunate enough to work with over the years. I have grown as a leader thanks to the talented and brilliant mentors I have had the privilege to learn from and strived to emulate.

Results matter and Reading Recovery has proven its effectiveness in the United States and throughout the world for the last 30 plus years.  What Works Clearinghouse gave Reading Recovery the highest rating to the program in English and its reconstruction in Spanish. Collectively we are building better readers and writers and that matters.

Our most struggling and marginalized students need us. We are their cheerleaders. We are their teachers.  We are their advocates. We are their voices. We can help unlock their literacy futures by continuing to participate in ongoing learning, be responsive to their needs and prevent future failure by intervening early.

I implore you to stay the course, listen to your heart and respond with compassion and action. Marie Clay’s work and legacy lives in you and lives in me and more importantly, lives in the children whose literacy and learning trajectories have been changed for the good.

References

Askew, B.J., Pinnell, G. S., & Scharer, P. L. (2014). Promising Literacy for every child: Reading Recovery and a comprehensive literacy system. Worthington, OH: Reading Recovery Council of North America.

Clay, M.M. (2016). Literacy lessons designed for individuals (2^nd ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Clay, M.M. (2019). An observation survey of early literacy achievement (4^th ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Lyons, C.A. (2003). Teaching struggling readers, how to use brain research to maximize learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann