Students in Alpine School District's Reading Recovery program, like Nikki Foster, don't really "recover" reading skills. But some of them discover skills they didn't know they already had.
When Foster's teachers at Lindon Elementary School tested the girl on her reading skills last year, they found that the first-grader had a hard time identifying certain sounds and even writing any words except for her name.Last week, with a little help from Lindon Elementary Reading Recovery teacher Venice Michaelis, Foster read "The Napping House" aloud, with no mistakes, to a room packed with Alpine School Board members and with her mother, Susy, in attendance.
Such dramatic changes are happening all the time, say teacher leaders for the program.
"Students like Nikki have done an excellent job of putting together all the skills they've learned," Lori Miller said. "When you see what Reading Recovery can do for a student who is having some problem reading, it's just a wonderful feeling."
Reading Recovery was developed and started by a New Zealand teacher and psychologist, Marie Clay. It targets beginning readers who are having problems in their first-grade classes, and uses one-on-one teaching to correct those problems.
Teachers recommend students for the program. Reading Recovery specialists then use as many as six assessment tests to find students who would benefit the most from the program.
"We try to start with the students who are having the most trouble reading, because they're the ones who really need our help," Miller said. "In a lot of the other cases, the problems may be corrected if their other teacher can just spend more time with them."The Reading Recovery teacher and student spend the first two weeks together "roaming around the known," where they discover what reading skills the student has. The rest of the instruction, 60 lessons in all, is then based on those skills.
"Once we find out what help they need, we can really take off from there," Miller said. She added that Alpine's Reading Recovery instructors worked with 242 students. After completing the program, 80 percent were able to read as well as their classmates, and in some cases, even better.
In Utah, only the Alpine and Salt Lake school districts currently have Reading Recovery programs. Miller is helping Granite School District start its own program, perhaps as soon as next year.
After four years, Alpine's program has spread to 20 of the district's 32 elementary schools. The district has 44 Reading Recovery teachers, including Miller.
"We've made it the first and foremost goal of our district to teach all of our children and youths to read," said Superintendent Steven Baugh, noting that board members are considering giving the program money to expand to as many as eight more schools next year.