2: How well did the programme work?
More than eight out of ten of the lowest attaining children achieved accelerated learning in Reading Recovery, reaching independent levels of literacy within the required time. This continues a steady improvement in outcomes since the introduction of Reading Recovery and first annual monitoring in 1993-94.
The achievement gap that was evident in the disproportionate numbers of boys and the over-representation of poor children among the least able, had been considerably narrowed at the end of their Reading Recovery programme. Children whose first language was not English were equally successful as their English first language peers. The timing of the intervention between the first and second years of formal schooling school had little affect on outcome, as did the interruption caused by the summer break for programmes which began in the summer term and were carried across into the new school year.
Although small group sizes mean the data should be treated cautiously, children from ethnic minority groups were very successful with more than four out of five achieving accelerated learning. Of the 59 'looked after' children who had completed their lessons by the end of the year, 48 achieved accelerated learning, as did 51 of the 57 asylum seeker or refugee children. Traveller’s children were as likely to complete the programme within the year as settled children and more than three out of four achieved accelerated progress.
3: What did children in Reading Recovery know about literacy?
The children in Reading Recovery were the lowest achieving in their class, and when they started the
programme they had learned very little about reading and writing. After at least one full year of
formal literacy teaching, the majority were non-readers, and one in three could not read
any text, in some cases not even their own name. The average text level at entry was 1.3, a short,
predictable text, with few words on the page, and just one word changed on each page, the changed word
strongly indicated by the picture (see below).
Children’s programmes are discontinued when they are judged by an independent observer to be able to
read and write independently within the average band for their class and age. On average, children whose
programmes were discontinued were able to read a level 16 text, which meant they were able to read a story
with elaborated episodes and events, extended descriptions, some literary language, full pages of print,
more unusual and challenging vocabulary and less support from illustrations (see illustration below).
Their writing vocabulary had increased from around 10 words to around 50 words written correctly within a
timed assessment. More than eight out of ten children achieved this magnitude of change.
Children who do not achieve the accelerated progress required for the programme to be discontinued are
referred back to the school for longer-term support. Just 19 in 100 children were referred, but they had
made considerable progress, reaching on average text level 9. These are simple story books with some
repetition of phrase patterns, ideas and vocabulary, several lines of text and around 20-40 words per page.
Story lines involve a number of incidents and some literary conventions are introduced (see
illustration below). These children had also increased their writing vocabulary to around 25 words.
4: What progress did children make after Reading Recovery?
After the end of their series of lessons, without further intensive teaching, children who had achieved the goals of Reading Recovery (82% of completed programmes) not only maintained the gains they had made during their programme, but continued to make normal progress gaining one month in reading age every month. These were children who, prior to Reading Recovery, had made very little progress in literacy and suggests that they had acquired independent strategies for learning more about reading and writing.
Children who were referred for longer term support (19% of completed programmes) also maintained their programme gains in the six months following the end of one to one teaching and, remarkably, these children also demonstrated a normal rate of continuing progress, gaining one month in reading age every month. These were children who had made almost no progress in literacy learning prior to Reading Recovery suggesting that, whilst they had made insufficient progress to be deemed independent readers and writers, they had nevertheless acquired some strategies for reading and writing. |
