Abstract:
This research set out to examine two areas of one of the central features of Reading Recovery both related to the new book the child reads each day. The first is the teaching that is provided during the introduction to and the child's first reading of this new book. The second is the evidence, showing the shaping effect of that teaching, from the unsupported reading of this book the next day, the running record.
The research attempted to answer these questions; (1) do trained Reading Recovery teachers teach for all sources of information: semantics, syntactic, and visual information including letter-sound relationships during the introduction of the new book, and (2) does the teaching, questioning and prompting that Reading Recovery teachers do assists children as they are reading their books the next day.
The researcher observed 19 teachers working with 28 children (28 teacher-child pairs) in their schools during the child's thirteenth Reading Recovery session. Observation and audio taping of the teaching interaction during the introduction of the new book and the first reading of that book by the child was done by the researcher. The next day the teacher took a running record of the child's unassisted reading. This running record was faxed to the researcher who transcribed all observations and records.
The researcher found that Reading Recovery teachers not only teach for all sources of information, but they are teaching for multi sources of information with each error, or unknown word, in the text. There is evidence of a greater emphasis on teaching the child to use the meaning of the text than letter-sound relationships. Teachers are also helping the child to have more than one attempt at an unknown word, leading to independent processing. Evidence from the unsupported reading the next day, shows that the children were able to use this teaching in the way they read their books.
Further research could replicate or extend this study. Some possible areas are suggested.
