Your School Can Implement Reading Recovery and Ensure Early Literacy Development for Each Child!
The Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery (CIRR) works with school systems across the country to implement Reading Recovery as an early intervention strategy for children in Grade 1 who are struggling to read and write.
Provincial Education Ministries or Individual School Boards determine that Reading Recovery is the Early Literacy Intervention they desire to implement and work towards fully implementing Reading Recovery according to the Standards and Guidelines. For an example of an implementation of Reading Recovery please see the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.
The Whole School Benefits from highly skilled Reading Recovery teachers
Because of their deep understanding of literacy theory and practice, Reading Recovery-trained teachers and teacher leaders become experts for their schools which benefits the whole classroom. Trained teachers work for part of the day in Reading Recovery and the other part day in another role, for example: half time grade one teachers, special education or resource teacher, library, or literacy coach.
Each year, a typical Reading Recovery-trained teacher works with 8-12 Reading Recovery students and 20 – 40 other students. Each Teacher is trained by a Teacher Leader who typically supports Reading Recovery in the entire school district or in the case of large school districts is one of a few teacher leaders training teachers.
A network of 6 Canadian Trainers provides training for personnel selected by their school board to become Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders. This training takes one year and can be completed in a training centre (Halifax, Thornhill, and Winnipeg). Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders then train Reading Recovery teachers within their school districts. This Teacher training also takes a period of one year of intensive learning. There are over 60 Teacher Leaders actively training teachers all across Canada.
Watch this short video from the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board about how the whole school can benefit from the Reading Recovery Teacher, the classroom teacher working together.
Reading Recovery Lessons
Daily 30-minute Reading Recovery lessons are tailored to meet the specific needs of the student and are delivered by specially trained teachers. Drawing on careful observation and using their knowledge of a wide range of procedures, Reading Recovery teachers give each student the support they need to make fast progress in reading and writing.
Lesson Content
Every lesson has several key components, each of which is designed to offer students opportunities for problem solving and practice. Lessons include reading familiar books, taking a running record on a book introduced in the previous lesson, working with letters and/or words using magnetic letters, writing a story, assembling a cut up story and reading a new book.
During each lesson children learn to hear and record sounds and to work with spelling patterns. Comprehension, independent problem solving and reading fluency are all included in Reading Recovery instruction.
After Completing a Series of Lessons, Students Can:
- Read increasingly more difficult texts at an instructional level, expanding their power to learn from their own efforts and solve problems as they read and write.
- Compose increasingly complex messages using resources to solve new words: students monitor and edit their work, knowing when and how to get help.
- Continue to learn with supportive classroom instruction.
Each year, the impact of Reading Recovery in Canada is documented in a National Data Report.
To find out more about implementing Reading Recovery in your school district, or to arrange to observe teacher training sessions or Reading Recovery lessons, please contact the CIRR or the Reading Recovery Trainer in your region.
Download the Reading Recovery – Frequently Asked Questions
Download the Reading Recovery Canada Brochure
An approved booklist is available for all implementations of Reading Recovery. It is updated every 3 years. Publishers can submit books to be reviewed and added to the booklist. Details for this process can be found here.
Where is Reading Recovery being implemented in Canada?
Reading Recovery teachers achieve unparalleled results because they are part of a professional learning network that includes Reading Recovery trainers, teacher leaders, and teachers. This network gathers at regular intervals to learn from each other and from experts in the field of Reading Recovery both in Canada and around the world. Each year a report is produced that outlines the achievements of Reading Recovery in Canada. You can find the 2020-21 report here.
Published Standards & Guidelines assure fidelity of the teacher leader and teacher training and high level teacher expertise for schools.
This video outlines the Reading Recovery implementation at Peguis Central School in Manitoba – part of the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre.
For more information about implementing Reading Recovery in your school please contact us at cirr@rrcanada.org or call 416 908 7711.