Mrs. Jean Swenson

Reading Recovery


Reading Recovery is a short-term early intervention for Grade 1 students who are struggling to learn to read and write.


  • piloted in New Zealand in 1976 by Dr. Marie Clay

  • piloted in the US in 1984

  • started Reading Recovery at Lincoln Elementary in 2001.

HOW IT WORKS

  • One-to-one for the lowest achieving first graders

  • 30-minute daily lessons

  • Results in weeks, not years

  • All students make progress

  • Two positive outcomes after intervention

What do they do in lessons?


  • Familiar reading

  • Rereading of yesterday’s book

  • Letter work and word work

  • Write a story, cut up the sentence and put it back together

  • New book to take home and practice reading

IMG_0648.MOV

In this video you can see a 1st grade student reading a story with Mrs. Swenson. Lots of great connections and practice while reading and gaining confidence.

IMG_0647.MOV

Student Reading

Letter & Word Work

Writing a Story

Cut up Sentence

IMG_0659.MOV

Writing a Story

Students create their own sentences and practice writing the words correctly. Mrs. Swenson is taking data and recording the student work throughout the lesson. If a mistake is made, she covers it with tape and they work out how to make a correction.

Mrs. Swenson keeps a record of the vocabulary words that each student uses in their reading and writing. The example above shows an example of a typical 1st grade student's vocabulary list before and after Reading Recovery.

Students work on hearing letter sounds and pairs and practice strategies to break tricky words down and figure out how to read and write them. In the image to the left a student is working on fixing the word down for her story about sledding down a snow hill. The image on the right show how a Reading Recovery student develops in their word work and sentence writing.

90% of Reading Recovery students are able to read and write at grade level at the end of their 20 week intervention. The example above shows a typical book before and after RR lessons.

Students get a take home bag at the end of the lesson. Inside the bag they have a familiar book to practice reading, a new book to learn to read, and a practice notebook with the story they wrote.

Thank you Mrs. Jean Swenson & students

I really enjoyed watching the thinking, learning and growing happening in the class. Seeing students learning to read and feel successful in their work is so satisfying to watch. Thanks again!

The goal of Reading Recovery is to dramatically reduce the number of first grade students who have extreme difficulty learning to read and write and to reduce the cost of these learners to educational systems.