Reading Recovery

This year we are excited to have fifteen CB-VRCE teachers training in Reading Recovery Intervention. They join our existing complement of seventeen teachers providing Reading Recovery intervention to grade one students within our region! 


There are currently a total of one hundred and fourteen grade one students receiving 30 minutes of daily individualized literacy instruction, in addition to classroom instruction. 

What is Reading Recovery? 

Reading Recovery is literacy intervention for grade one students. It was developed by a New Zealand educator and psychologist Marie Clay in the 1970’s. Since 1984 Reading Recovery has been successfully implemented in several countries around the world. It was first implemented in Canada in 1993 and re-implemented in Nova Scotia in 2014.

It is a "highly effective short-term (12 - 20 weeks)  literacy intervention consisting of daily, one-on-one lessons that supplement good classroom teaching for the lowest-achieving grade one students. The goal is to dramatically reduce the number of grade one children with extreme difficulty learning to read and write and to reduce the cost of these learners to educational systems. The emphasis is on prevention of literacy failure.” (A Principal’s Guide to Reading Recovery in Canada)

Principals are instructional leaders in their schools and as such play key roles in ensuring success for Reading Recovery students and teachers. Knowledge about Reading Recovery is necessary to promote success for all students.

A student reads a book during the familiar reading portion of the Reading Recovery Lesson.

A student reassembles his cut up story during the writing portion of the Reading Recovery lesson.

The Principal's Guide to Reading Recovery in Canada includes: 

~What is Reading Recovery/IPLÉ

~Principal’s Key Role in Reading Recovery

~Key Personnel for Reading Recovery

~Professional Development and Reading Recovery

~Evaluation of Student Outcomes

~Reading Recovery/IPLÉ in your School

~Generating Support and Sustaining Reading Recovery/IPLÉ in your School

~Role of Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery, Sample Interview Questions, Working with Reading Recovery Teachers, Standards and Guidelines for Teacher Training