Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 10, 1994 TAG: 9402100276
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Before Alicia started school, she loved to have her mother read stories to her. She couldn't wait until she would learn to read on her very own.
But once she started school and was introduced to reading and writing, it wasn't that simple.
Alicia "loved reading but would make up stories instead of learning the words," said her mother. "She wasn't in first grade yet; I didn't think there was a problem" that she didn't know how to spell.
But, there was a problem.
Seven-year-old Alicia, now a first-grader at Christiansburg Elementary School, was in the lowest 20 percent of her class in reading comprehension and needed additional help to gain the basics that would enable her to become a successful reader.
That's when Reading Recovery came into the picture. The program helps first-graders who have difficulty reading overcome their problem. It is different than other reading programs because it catches children at a young age, before they adopt improper reading habits that are impossible to change. Supporters say "Reading Recovery intervenes; not remediates."
Now, Alicia spends a half-hour every school day with a Reading Recovery specialist. She reads books, writes sentences and learns words.
Alicia doesn't use traditional methods like "rote" memorization or sounding out each letter to learn her words.
What works is teaching the child how to find his or her own mistakes, using pictures to serve as clues to words, and "chunking" - saying the words out loud, syllable by syllable.
"Sounding out letters is ineffective for this group of children," said Donna Pero, the Reading Recovery teacher-leader for the area. "We want children to learn reading is not sounding out letters; and you don't just teach words, you teach how words work."
Alicia has been in the Reading Recovery program since October 1993. Her mother said "she went from knowing about five words to at least 100," and her willingness to learn has doubled.
"The more words she learns, the more she wants to read," her mother said. "She literally reads around the clock, bringing home three to six books a night."
Success stories like these are happening throughout Montgomery County. All but one elementary school has at least one Reading Recovery teacher.
At Shawsville Elementary School, Reading Recovery teacher Ruth Gregory was told to expect about a 50 percent success rate with her pupils. Now, with an additional Reading Recovery teacher at the school, they are hoping for even better results.
"The key to Reading Recovery is that I, as a reading specialist, teach the child that you can't teach learning," said Rachel Parker, the new Reading Recovery teacher-in-training at Shawsville. "We provide the information, materials and direction, but the [children] must learn themselves to form their own strategies."
"You have to observe what a child does - looking at the pictures in a book, trying to sound out the words," Parker said.
When the child makes a mistake, Parker says, she must redirect the child by saying something like, "Are you sure that's the right word?" or "Try that again."
"The simple, but often hard act of biting one's tongue teaches the child to find his own mistakes."
Another tough part of teaching Reading Recovery, Parker says, is learning to concentrate on one problem at a time. Often, she will be reading with a child who makes many mistakes for several different reasons, but you must choose one teaching point per day, she said.
And thirdly, she said, it takes a lot of time to teach only a few pupils. Reading Recovery teachers can take only four children at a time. She hopes she and Gregory will be able to put 20 first-graders through the program by the end of the year, depending on how much success they have.
After the child completes the program, you still have to monitor that child, Parker said. Pero said progress reports are done every now and then throughout the child's elementary years.
So far, the program has received rave reviews. Lauree Hinshelwood of the county Chapter I program said every comment that has come into their office regarding Reading Recovery has been positive, and that "teachers and parents of children in the program seem pleased."
There are 18 Reading Recovery teachers in Montgomery County, and, because of the program's huge success, the Salem and Roanoke systems are interested in learning the concepts. As the area's only teacher-leader, Pero is the one who will teach them.
In Roanoke, Reading Recovery is being taught with a twist at Forest Park New American School.
"We have the benefit of not only having Reading Recovery, but also we have trained Reading Recovery teachers who are sharing their strategies in the regular classrooms," said principal Judy Gorham. "It's made an amazing difference in [the first-graders'] writing, reading and their motivation."
The best part of Reading Recovery, Gorham said, is that it is both "diagnostic and prescriptive."
"If there is a particular problem you see, you teach it right then, while it is the center of the child's attention," she said.
Reading Recovery "graduates" not only are catching up with their classmates, they are surpassing them, Gorham said. Because of this, Gorham hopes Reading Recovery will expand to other classrooms, as it does at her school.
Parker feels fortunate that Montgomery County accepted Reading Recovery, especially because on paper it seems expensive. There is an initial investment of $1,500 for reading materials and supplies, as well as the cost of the teachers' salaries for working with only a small number of students at a time.
But when you see the benefits, as last year's first-graders have shown, the money is well spent, she says. Last year, 26 of the 35 Montgomery County first-graders (74 percent) in Reading Recovery were successful. In Roanoke, eight of 12 at-risk first-graders (67 percent) learned to read.
"With more and more teachers being trained, we are meeting a very great need for these children," Pero said. "It is extremely important to work with these children now and get them off on the right track."
As far as Alicia's future is concerned, her mother is pleased.
"A few months ago, [Alicia] would tell people she couldn't read," she said. "She can't say that now."
by CNB