Reading Recovery Reflections
How has Reading Recovery had an impact on your career? What learning
have you gained and how have you used it? Other thoughts? We will
post selected comments on this page and in The Journal of Reading
Recovery as space permits. Reading Recovery professionals may submit
reflections throughout the year.
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There is a practice in Zen, bare attention. With it, you bring
sustained, focused awareness to knowing what you are doing and
thinking right now. Marie Clay taught us all to bring a similar
practice into our schools to make reflective attention a necessary
part of our perceptions and beliefs about the possibility of
individual children of individual teachers, of individual schools
and school districts. Marie Clay has influenced my professional life
in that each time I am with a child, I try to remember to be as
present as I can in that moment and to be aware of seeing that
child's complex capability. I draw on the assiduous tools Marie gave
us to reflect on what I can do to help that capability flourish.
That is really the form of my professional life. Each time sitting
anew with a child, and helping other teachers to see what can happen
in doing so.
Susan O'Leary, instructional resource teacher
Madison Metropolitan School District
Madison, WI
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I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Auckland New Zealand
to train as both a Reading Recovery Teacher and Reading Recovery
Teacher Leader in one year! What a challenging journey but one that
I have no regrets about. The journey was one of the best learning
curves I have ever experienced. Reading Recovery has given me the
gift of seeing something wonderful in every child and recognition
that there is something to build on no matter how small the
fragment. Working alongside teachers, grounds me everyday in the
work we share together. I love the open door comaderies of problem
solving and knowing we must always be tentative and reflective in
what we do with children. I believe my choice in being a Reading
Recovery professional makes a difference a small miracle everyday in
the lives of children. We give them the ''gift of literacy,'' a gift
they will never return or grow weary of!
Darnell Todd Wynn
Reading Recovery teacher leader
Bermuda Ministry of Education
Hamilton, Bermuda
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Reading Recovery has proven to be the most beneficial
contribution to my professional career. Through Reading Recovery
training and the strong collegiality I experience during continuing
contact, I have grown to understand how a child transforms from a
nonreader to a reader. The road to becoming literate is full of
trial and error, and I feel that I have the most effective tools to
encourage accelerated learning in my students. Because of my Reading
Recovery training, I feel confident enough to say that I am an
effective reading teacher.
Heather Webster
Reading Recovery teacher
David O'Dodd Elementary School
Little Rock, AR
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When Reading Recovery first came to the U.S. in 1985, I had just
completed a doctorate and was beginning my career in literacy
leadership as a language arts coordinator. My interest in Reading
Recovery began because of Reading Recovery's strong theoretical
foundation in early literacy learning. The professional learning
model valued tentativeness, flexibility, and problem solving.
Learning to observe closely individual strengths and use these
strengths to contribute to a working system that results in growth
in literacy processing guides my teaching and learning daily. I have
been so fortunate to have learned from such a powerful model of
literacy learning and celebrated new understanding with wonderful
colleagues across the years. Thank you, Reading Recovery
professionals!
Anne Simpson
Professor and Reading Recovery trainer
Texas Woman's University
Denton, TX
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Last year, I was blessed with the opportunity of going through
Reading Recovery training as a veteran classroom teacher of 26
years. As I settle in to my second year of teaching Reading
Recovery, I am energized and motivated as I work with the
hardest-to-teach first graders in my school. As I reflect and plan
daily, I am amazed at the high level of “thinking” that must occur
in order for me to be successful as a Reading Recovery teacher. I am
constantly reminded of the quote from LLI, “The teacher must be able
to design a superbly sequenced series of lessons determined by the
child’s competencies, and make highly skilled decisions moment by
moment during the lesson.” What I attend to and how I interact with
the child must change across the lesson series. In order for me to
do this, I must push myself by observing, reading, studying, and
reflecting daily.
Louise Carpenter
Reading Recovery teacher
Gibbs Magnet School
Little Rock, AR
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Reading Recovery training grounded, shaped, and opened doors in my
professional career. The training I received regarding careful
observation and response to learner behaviors guides my work with
students and teachers on a daily basis. Boundless Horizons, the
recently published book in tribute of Marie Clay, aptly describes
the possibilities for my work and career. I will never be the same
because of the training, professional development, and support
within the Reading Recovery network.
Karen James
Reading Recovery teacher leader
Little Rock School District
Little Rock, AR
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