Professional Documents
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JRR 9.1 Konstantellou Lose
JRR 9.1 Konstantellou Lose
Clay’s revisions of the Guidebook [Literacy Lessons Designed for teaching career as a special education
that resulted in Literacy Lessons Individuals] acknowledges that teacher in New Zealand. Clay had
Designed for Individuals Part One and these things have occurred achieved success in teaching children
Part Two (Clay, 2005a & 2005b) and implies that further explo- with measured low intelligence how
have not only signaled refinements ration of working with some to read, and she reported her work
and changes in the Reading Recov- special education children is as part of her master of arts thesis,
ery teaching procedures but have appropriate. (Clay, 2005a, p. ii) Teaching of Reading to Special Class
also highlighted new possibilities Children, completed in 1948. At a
Along these lines, Clay envisioned
for applying the theory underlying time when other countries had
training for specialist teachers who
Reading Recovery instruction to documented success in teaching
want to expand their teaching rep-
the teaching of a broader spectrum mentally disabled children how to
ertoire through intensive study of
of children experiencing extraor- read at levels beyond their mental
the literacy processing theory that
dinary literacy difficulties (Doyle, age, similar outcomes for these
informs Reading Recovery. In this
2009). In fact, the change of the children had not been achieved in
article, we describe the rationale for
title of the revised guidebook from the New Zealand education system.
training Literacy Lessons interven-
Reading Recovery: A Guidebook for At the time, New Zealand education
tion specialists, the historical and
Teachers-In-Training to Literacy Les- policy promoted approaches to
theoretical frameworks for its devel-
sons Designed for Individuals was classroom instruction that valued
opment, the culture of collaboration
meant to capture Clay’s intent that individual learners in classrooms,
that optimizes learning for all chil-
many teachers of struggling literacy but failed to adequately respond to
dren in our schools, and the current
learners—beyond our set of Reading the learning needs of the lowest-per-
development of Literacy Lessons
Recovery teachers—could benefit forming children in classrooms.
intervention specialist training in the
from Reading Recovery theory and
United States. Clay attributed this lack of success
instructional procedures. So, Lit-
to late referrals to special education
eracy Lessons can serve as a valuable
classes, poor training for teachers of
resource not only for Reading The Rationale for
special children, uncertainty about
Recovery teachers but also for those Individual Interventions instructional approaches, and inap-
teachers who design individual les- Beyond Reading Recovery: propriate instructional materials. She
sons to meet the needs of the special
populations they teach. In Clay’s
What Is Possible for advocated for individualized, preven-
All Children? tive, early intervention, instructional
words,
methods and materials that would
If children require special indi- A historical note place meaning-making and language
vidual instruction, help can be Marie Clay’s commitment to a focus experience at the forefront of the
gained from Reading Recovery on the individual learner and the child’s learning, fostering change
professionals in exploratory tri- need for intervention specialist sup- over time in the child’s visual dis-
als. The new title for this book port can be traced to her earliest crimination of print, and support-
62 Journal of Reading Recovery Fall 2009 • Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America
Creating New Possibilities
ing the child’s control over his own Lessons from Reading Recovery fies those children who do not make
learning (Ballantyne, 2009, p. 11). Clay’s research into what is possible the accelerated progress necessary
In spite of these earlier recommenda- for children whose reading goes to meet grade level expectations and
tions, Clay, working as a school psy- astray in the first year of school who, therefore, require longer-term
chologist in the 1950s, observed that led to the development of Reading support for their literacy learning
10% of the referred children were Recovery as a preventive intervention needs. Clay had commented on the
placed in special classes, while 90% in literacy learning. Reading Recov- role of Reading Recovery as a pre-
of these same children remained ery serves the lowest-performing first referral intervention in her seminal
in regular classrooms without the graders excluding no child for what- article, “Learning to be Learning
essential specialist support needed to ever reason from services (Lose & Disabled” (1987): “Reading Recovery
respond to their reading difficulties. Konstantellou, 2005). Children who is a programme which should clear
have been labeled as learning dis- out of the remedial education system
Clay consistently argued that the
abled and children who are acquiring all the children who do not learn to
child challenged by literacy learning
read for many event-produced rea-
requires a skilled teacher who is pro-
sons and all the children who have
fessionally trained and who embraces
the complexity of literacy learning Clearly, throughout her organically-based reading problems…
career—from 30 years leaving a small group of children
required for supporting the range
requiring specialist attention” (p.
of diversity among literacy learners. prior to the development 169). It was with these children and
She reiterated this view in a paper on of Reading Recovery to their specialist teachers in mind that
learning disorders written in 1972:
the recent provision Clay envisioned instruction based
For older children, the magic of Literacy Lessons on her theory of literacy learning
is to individualize instruction through adaptations of the Reading
and to motivate the child to
innovations—Clay Recovery training and implemen-
re-enter the area of previous called for appropriately tation. Clay expressed clearly her
difficulty and try again. Given intensive instruction thinking regarding the teaching of
these conditions, the chances of within education struggling readers needing long-term
success are increased by having specialist help in Change Over Time
well-trained, sensitive teachers
systems in support of
in Children’s Literacy Development.
with a respect for the complex- the individual learner.
If a policy of mainstreaming or
ity of psychological functioning
inclusion for children with pro-
and for the diversity of paths
nounced handicaps is operated
which can lead to the same English are among those who have
and a specialist report is avail-
achievement. This eschews a responded successfully to Reading
able, special conditions may be
misplaced faith in one type of Recovery because teaching is tailored
arranged, over and above the
program and one theoretical to their individual needs, and the
normal preventive thrust of the
explanation for the disorder. instructional procedures allow for
early intervention using the
(Clay, 1982, p. 166) accelerated progress in literacy learn-
same theoretical and instruc-
ing. As Clay has emphatically stated,
Clearly, throughout her career—from tional model, under a label
“It is because these procedures are
30 years prior to the development like ‘literacy processing theory’
designed for adapting the instruction
of Reading Recovery to the recent but not labelled as RR. Work
to the learning needs of individual
provision of Literacy Lessons innova- with such children proceeds
children that they can be applied
tions—Clay called for appropriately for longer according to need
to many beginning readers who are
intensive instruction within educa- with different rules for imple-
in some kind of special education”
tion systems in support of the indi- mentation and delivery, and
(2005a, p. i).
vidual learner. the lower outcomes predicted
Reading Recovery also serves as a are accepted as worthwhile.
diagnostic intervention that identi- This then becomes a treatment
Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America • Fall 2009 Journal of Reading Recovery 63
Creating New Possibilities
intervention for individuals, not tion provided additional one-to-one various challenges and are receiving
a preventive intervention which intensive literacy instruction by special education services:
is adopted by an education system Reading Recovery professionals for a
Children who are profoundly
[Clay’s emphasis]; it involves longer period of time, following the
deaf, or have cerebral palsy, or
longer-term treatments deliv- completion of the Reading Recovery
other severe handicaps affecting
ered to individuals but it uses series of lessons.
eyesight, hand movements or
the same literacy processing
In addition to the children who language performance, could
theory as RR to guide instruc-
have received Reading Recovery and probably benefit from Reading
tion for individuals who have a
require longer-term specialist support Recovery instruction but they
cluster of individual handicaps.
are other learners who will benefit would be ideally served by a
(Clay, 2001, p. 218)
from the intensive treatment pro- teacher with special training
Thus, Clay suggested that children vided by a specialist teacher trained for the child’s condition [Clay’s
who are in need of long-term services in Literacy Lessons. These include emphasis] and additionally
require instruction as robust and children who may have been identi- trained in Reading Recovery.
supportive as the short-term early fied as having special needs before The question of time in the
intervention previously provided, but first grade, children who do not have program could be handled by
with longer treatment based on the access to Reading Recovery during this specialist teacher, and the
diagnostic information gathered dur- their first-grade year, and elementary resourcing of standard Reading
ing the intervention period and with children beyond the first grade. Clay Recovery would not be affected
further adaptations based on the has commented on the appropriate- by this. (New Zealand Reading
child’s unique needs. ness of designing individual lessons Recovery, 2004, p. 2)
utilizing Reading Recovery teaching
The training of specialist teachers Indeed, there have been remark-
procedures for children who face
in Literacy Lessons would further able results with utilizing such an
enhance what is known as the second
positive outcome of Reading Recov-
ery (Jones et al., 2005), namely that
Reading Recovery serves as a diag-
nostic intervention for those children
who do not make accelerated prog-
ress. With the availability of Literacy
Lessons training for teachers, many
of these children will receive longer-
term support from professionals who
share a common theoretical founda-
tion about literacy learning with their
Reading Recovery colleagues. An
early example of an innovation which
demonstrated the potential of such
an approach was the work of Phil-
lips and Smith (1997), known as the
third chance intervention for children
who while they made some progress,
did not reach within-average perfor-
mance levels during their Reading
Recovery lessons and subsequently Marie Halpin, special education teacher at Doherty Elementary in the West
were referred for further specialist Bloomfield School District in Michigan, works with first-grade student Jordan.
support. The third chance interven- Marie is training as a Literacy Lessons intervention specialist this year.
64 Journal of Reading Recovery Fall 2009 • Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America
Creating New Possibilities
Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America • Fall 2009 Journal of Reading Recovery 65
Creating New Possibilities
A Systemic Approach to Recovery, the same tenets of imple- Instead, allocate resources to
mentation apply to the development provide appropriately inten-
Literacy Teaching and
of Literacy Lessons innovations for sive, one-to-one, early treat-
Learning: Building a identified exceptional learners. ment at the first sign of dif-
Culture of Collaboration These successful implementations ficulty for the most struggling
Between Reading would build on a culture of col- literacy learners and build on
Recovery and Other laboration within schools that offer their strengths as the founda-
Reading Recovery and Literacy tion for subsequent learning.
Literacy Professionals Lessons professional development for
The Reading Recovery intervention • Systematizing a comprehen-
teachers to support comprehensive
has been successful in a wide variety sive approach to literacy with
literacy efforts.
of educational contexts. In part, this proven interventions. Provide
success has resulted from its flexible To optimize learning for all children, Reading Recovery on entry
problem-solving approach to the all members of the school team— to first grade for the young-
multifaceted challenge of responding administrators, classroom teachers, est literacy learners need-
early to the literacy learning needs specialist educators, Reading Recov- ing individual support and
of the lowest-performing children in ery teachers, and Literacy Lessons provide one-to-one Literacy
their second year of formal school- intervention specialists—would Lessons instruction for identi-
ing. Clay placed problem-solving adopt this culture of collaboration fied special needs children
responsibility for children’s literacy and the following associated features: for longer periods, e.g., both
learning squarely within the educa- in the first grade and in sub-
• Abandoning the assumption
tion systems in which these children sequent elementary grades.
that a lower performing child
are educated: “I know that the lit- Additional support can be
is a ‘slow learner’ or lacks
eracy processing systems constructed provided to less intensively
ability to achieve literacy.
by learners during beginning literacy
are massively influenced by expecta-
tions and opportunities of the school
curriculum and by the teaching
practices of their schools” (Clay,
2005a, p. 3).
To assure its replication in a variety
of systems, Clay conceptualized the
implementation of Reading Recovery
across three concentric circles: imple-
menting, teaching, and learning. The
outer circle, implementation, would
ask whether an education system
could put the innovation into place.
The middle circle, teaching, would
determine whether teachers could be
trained to respond to the broad range
of diverse learners. The inner circle,
learning, would apply the theoretical
foundation that informs the instruc-
tion that would support children’s
learning (Clay, 1997). Drawing Northwest Area Education Agency teachers in Iowa go the extra mile for Gabriela.
on the proven success of Reading She is supported by a group of dedicated professionals including her Reading
Recovery teacher, classroom teachers, and other specialist teachers.
66 Journal of Reading Recovery Fall 2009 • Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America
Creating New Possibilities
1
The Literacy Lessons trademark in the United States is held by The Ohio State University.
Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America • Fall 2009 Journal of Reading Recovery 67
Creating New Possibilities
belief that if some of Clay’s theory of literacy processing Doyle, M. A. (2009). A dynamic future.
and her conviction that all children In B. Watson & B. Askew (Eds.),
children are unable Boundless horizons: Marie Clay’s search
can learn.
to learn we should for the possible in children’s literacy
continually strive to find (pp. 287–306). Portsmouth, NH:
References Heinemann.
new, innovative ways Ballantyne, A. (2009). Research origins: Fullerton, S. K. (2008). The develop-
to teach them. The historical context. In B. Watson ment of Literacy Lessons with children
& B. Askew (Eds.), Boundless hori- who are deaf. The Journal of Reading
zons: Mary Clay’s search for the pos- Recovery, 8(1), 34–42.
sible in children’s literacy (pp. 7–34).
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Jones, N., Johnson, C., Schwartz, R.,
ing of intact classes of Literacy Les-
& Zalud, G. (2005). Two posi-
sons teachers.2 Teachers who have Charlesworth, A., Charlesworth, R., tive outcomes of Reading Recovery:
participated in Literacy Lessons Raban, B., & Rickards, F. (2006). Exploring the interface between
training have reported remarkable Teaching children with hearing loss in Reading Recovery and special educa-
changes in their understandings Reading Recovery. Literacy Teaching tion. The Journal of Reading Recovery,
and practices that have had positive and Learning: An International Journal 4(3), 19–34.
effects on the learning of their spe- of Early Reading and Writing, 6(1),
21–50. Lose, M. K. (2007). A child’s response
cial education students. They have to intervention requires a respon-
also found that their school literacy Clay, M. M. (1982). Learning disorders. sive teacher of reading. The Reading
teams benefit from the shared under- In M. Clay, Observing young readers Teacher, 61(3), 276–279.
(pp. 156–166). Portsmouth, NH:
standings among all participating Lose, M. K., & Konstantellou, E. (2005).
Heinemann.
teachers regarding children’s literacy Selection of children for Reading
development. These are brief, initial Clay, M. M. (1987). Learning to be Recovery: Challenges and responses.
learning disabled. New Zealand
responses. Ongoing exploratory trials The Journal of Reading Recovery, 5(1),
Journal of Educational Studies, 22, 32–45.
will continue and findings will be
155–173. (Reprinted in The Journal of
studied to inform the development Lyons, C. A. (2003). Teaching struggling
Reading Recovery, 7(1), 54–66).
of standards and guidelines that will readers: How to use brain-based research
Clay, M. M. (1997). International per- to maximize learning. Portsmouth,
guide the training of Literacy Les-
spectives on the Reading Recovery NH: Heinemann.
sons intervention specialists and the
program. In J. Flood, S. B. Heath, &
implementation of Literacy Lessons D. Lapp (Eds.), Handbook of research McEneaney, J., Lose, M. K., & Schwartz,
innovations in our schools. on teaching literacy through the commu- R. M. (2006). A transactional per-
nicative and visual arts (pp. 655–667). spective on reading difficulties and
The collaboration of Reading response to intervention. Reading
Old Tappan, NJ: Simon and Schuster.
Recovery teachers with their Literacy Research Quarterly, 41(1), 117–128.
(Reprinted in The Journal of Reading
Lessons colleagues will help create
Recovery, 7(1), 16–34).
2
Districts and schools interested in Literacy Lessons training for specialist teachers should contact the Reading Recovery training sites
in their regions. Training sites work closely with the university training centers they are affiliated with to address issues pertaining to
the training and professional development of Literacy Lessons teachers.
68 Journal of Reading Recovery Fall 2009 • Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America
Creating New Possibilities
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Celebrating 25 Years of Reading Recovery in North America • Fall 2009 Journal of Reading Recovery 69