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Kirsten is an Aboriginal student in the South Western Sydney Region. She has discontinued Reading Recovery in 12 weeks, 46 lessons, moving from text level 1 to 18.

Burt Word Test grew from 2 words to 30 words, and writing vocabulary increased from 10 words to 44 words during that time.

The classroom teacher has said she has noticed Kirsten's confidence has increased and that she is much more willing to take a risk in all areas now.

Socially Kirsten is more settled and there is very little conflict between her and her friends, like there was at the beginning of the year. The other children in the class look up to Kirsten and will ask for her help when they are not sure about something.

I spoke to the Aboriginal Education Assistant who knows Kirsten's family and she mentioned that Kirsten's grandfather has said how pleased and proud he is with Kirsten's reading and writing and that her confidence in other subjects had improved.

Kirsten's father is also pleased with her progress. Below is a section of a letter I received from him.

"It’s great to see how Kirsten now reads books to me at bedtime. Kirsten will read me a story, then I will read a story back to her. I’m very proud to see how she has improved in her reading and recognizing the hard words that she couldn’t read before. I also think the Reading Recovery program has done 100% to Kirsten’s progress. Thankyou, C S"

I have noticed when monitoring Kirsten that she has maintained the skills and confidence she gained during Reading Recovery.

Kirsten said to me that she was happy with herself and that she would “easy go to Year 2 now with her good readin’ and writin’.”

Reading Recovery tutors have been conducting a series of workshops designed to assist Aboriginal Support Personnel in working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students who receive Reading Recovery instruction.

The main purpose of the workshops is to introduce support personnel to ways of supporting ATSI students that are involved in the Reading Recovery program back in the classroom.

Prior to the commencement of the workshops each tutor seeks consultation and involvement from the local Aboriginal community.

Participants observe a Reading Recovery lesson, discuss literacy activities such as sharing stories, selecting appropriate books for students to read, listening to students read, using life experiences, talking, singing, chanting, listening to and reading books and writing stories.

Sessions included practical activities for support personnel to use when working with students in the Reading Recovery program or talking with the Reading Recovery teacher.

There is also a review and discussion of ways to involve parents in providing help for their children whilst on the program.

Many participants who have been involved in the workshops have commented that they found the workshops “very helpful and useful” in assisting Reading Recovery students as well as students in the classroom.

“The practical activities”, such as demonstrations from teachers working with students and participants working with students “about all the reading and writing tasks were really good”.

If you wish to know more about the workshops contact the Reading Recovery tutor in your area.

Two trained Reading Recovery teachers, who are no longer on the program have been very successful in changing teaching practice in Kindergarten classes.

Kellie Sydney-Jones and Rachael Tuppenne were both teaching Kindergarten. Their students are using Reading Recovery strategies and principles in both reading & writing with huge success.

The students range in Instructional Levels of text from level 3 (very small group of students) to level 20+. The average levels in the two classes are Level 12-13.

Their program has been so successful that parents, students and teachers are all excited about the huge progress in student outcomes. These levels of achievement are well above the district target of instructional levels 5-8 for all Kindergarten students in 2003.

Kellie and Rachael, with support from their Assistant Principal Kim Dell (training RR teacher in 2003), have produced a video to show what is possible with kindergarten & using explicit teaching matched to instructional level text.

They have kept data to track student achievement and to plan for future directions with their students. They have a clear rationale of why this was necessary.

Kellie and Rachael presented their results at two conference days for Principals & executives in term 4 2003, in four districts, in order to show that these students need the best we can give them and that the sky is the limit even in disadvantaged areas. High expectations, explicit teaching and hard work can achieve a great deal.

Kellie & Rachael have involved the expertise of the Reading Recovery Tutor by meeting with the Tutor at least once a term to discuss, plan their program and future directions.

The Reading Recovery Guide Book, Becoming Literate, Observation Survey and Change Over Time have all been the main references to achieve this outstanding improvement in student outcomes.

The flow on has been that the Stage One teachers at the school are wanting to know more about Reading Recovery and want to ‘weave the magic’ with their students.

The Kindergarten students have overtaken the Stage One students in literacy. This is leading towards a whole school change in literacy practice.

An outstanding success story.