Reading Recovery is designed to serve as a safety net for grade one students finding the transition to literacy difficult. The intervention works alongside the classroom program, complementing the rich experiences offered in the classroom environment.
Reading Recovery has one clear goal, to “drastically reduce the number of children experiencing literacy difficulties.”
Children are selected for Reading Recovery on the basis of the classroom teacher’s recommendations and the results of systematic observation. These observation tasks include: text reading, letter identification, word reading, concepts about print, writing vocabulary and hearing and recording sounds in words.
Key features of Reading Recovery include:

• An early literacy intervention for Grade 1 students who require additional support learning to read and write.
  
• An intensive, individually planned lesson series delivered on a daily basis.
  
• A short-term intervention, approximately 12-20 weeks.
  
• A supplement to good classroom instruction.