The effects of Reading Recovery as an early instructional intervention: Eight case studies

Reading Recovery, an early intervention program, designed by Marie Clay (1991) for the New Zealand school system, accelerates the growth of at-risk grade 1 readers, enabling them to benefit from the literacy instruction in their classrooms and develop independent reading and writing strategies (Clay, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994). This research explores the effects of Reading Recovery on 4 at-risk grade 1 students and compares their Observation Survey (Clay, 1993) scores to 4 at-risk grade 1 students who did not receive Reading Recovery. The Observation Survey (Clay, 1993) was administered to both groups of children in September of grade 1 and June of grade 2.; The results showed that the Reading Recovery children scored a slight advantage in Text Reading and Writing Vocabulary. Both groups scored within the same range on the other measures (Letter Identification, Word Test, Concepts About Print and Dictation), with the exception of one child in the comparison group.; The most important questions arising from this research are: (1) Should literacy programs in Kindergarten provide more child-centred, activity-based literacy experiences to scaffold the child's transition from home-based literacy to school-based literacy? (2) Should parents receive training to help them provide their children with supportive home-based literacy events? (3) Should we delay Reading Recovery until January of grade 1 or September of grade 2 in Canada? (4) Should we consider a two-model system of intervention (Reading Recovery and small group instruction)?...