Reading recovery : impact of an early intervention approach

This study involved 12 participants from an elementary school in a rural district including: two classroom teachers, three randomly selected Reading Recovery students, three parents of the randomly selected Reading Recovery students, and four randomly selected non-Reading Recovery students. The primary purpose of this study was to track progress of the selected Reading Recovery students throughout the course of their program. Results indicated that the selected Reading Recovery students functioned at an average performance level at the end of their program compared to a sample of non-Reading Recovery peers who performed at a higher level. Interviews from participating classroom teachers revealed observed accelerated progress of the selected Reading Recovery students. There was an increase in their concepts about print skills, ability to compose stories, and use of reading and writing strategies. Frequent communication between classroom teachers and the Reading Recovery teachers revealed that teacher expectations of target students increased and a common language of prompts was established between the Reading Recovery and classroom teachers. Finally, feedback from participants\u27 parents was very positive. Interviews indicated that time spent reading and writing at home increased and became an integral part of the families\u27 daily routine. Recommendations include: to continue tracking of the participating Reading Recovery students throughout the elementary grades to reaffirm these findings, to improve communication between Reading Recovery and classroom teachers to support student transfer of learning in both environments, and to inservice parents to increase the quality of home support