READING RECOVERY PROGRAM: STUDENTS SHOW MORE CONFIDENCE IN THE CLASSROOM

The reading recovery program is designed to help first-graders having trouble reading catch up by using one-on-one sessions with trained reading recovery teachers.

The program usually takes about 20 weeks to improve the student's reading skills to the level of their classmates.

Connie Bergerson, reading recovery teacher at May Greene School, has been with the reading program for seven years. She said the program ends when the student's classroom teacher decides the child is up to the classroom average in reading skills.

Students picked for the program were selected because their test scores weren't as high as the average and their teacher noticed difficulty with reading.

Bergerson said some might think the one-on-one session might be costly, but considering the success of the program, many children don't have to enter other programs after they've had the reading recovery program.

The materials used in the program are highly repetitive and that gives students confidence in their own reading skills soon after the program begins.

The students read for meaning first, Bergerson said. Phonics is also used as a tool to help the students read, but Bergerson stressed reading for meaning is the goal.

The approach teaches children to self-correct themselves, which makes them independent readers.

"It gives them a lot of confidence," Bergerson said.

Bergerson helps eight to 10 students a year, and, she said, the program is working.

Classroom teachers note reading recovery students show more confidence in the classroom.

"Our goal in the first grade is to get kids to finish high school. Hopefully their success here will stick with them through high school," Bergerson said.

Teachers involved with the program and the ones who have students positively affected by the program, love it and want more teachers trained in the method, Bergerson said.