Reading Recovery and Every Child a Reader: History, Politics and Practice

This book describes the origins of an approach to early literacy designed to ensure that every child leaves primary school able to read. This approach called Every Child a Reader was developed from the established early literacy intervention, Reading Recovery. This book describes the main features of Reading Recovery – how it operates for each child, how the teachers are trained to teach them and the infrastructure necessary for Reading Recovery to make an effective impact on the poorest literacy learners in primary school. The story of Every Child a Reader is a model of how effective interventions need to be supported to ensure that their effectiveness is not jeopardized as they expand in scale and scope.

This book is essential reading for all those interested or involved in early literacy and the prevention of literacy failure through effective intervention; to those who have heard about Reading Recovery but are not familiar with its operation in the UK, and to those involved in managing large-scale interventions in schools.

As this treasure of chapters unfolds, readers are introduced to the potential of what can happen when research, excellent practice, and enlightened and farseeing policy are combined.

A virtual road map to educational innovation -- at least as far as early literacy is concerned. The volume is instructive, not only as an enormous case study of a massive effort to produce higher levels of literacy, but as a powerful example of the complexities of educational improvement. (Gay Su Pinnell The Journal of Reading Recovery, 13(1), 61–63 2013-11-01)

“This is a must-read book for policymakers and educators.” (Gay Su Pinnell, Professor Emeritus)

“Grounded in extensive research and deep experience, the book presents both a clear argument for the necessity of highly trained expert reading teachers in every school as well as the practical issue that need to be grappled with at every level.”
(David Reedy)

“[O]verwhelming. This accessible and powerful book should be essential reading for teachers and ministers alike.” (John Bangs, Honorary Visiting Fellow)

“Grounded in extensive research and deep experience, the book presents both a clear argument for the necessity of highly trained expert reading teachers in every school as well as the practical issue that need to be grappled with at every level.” (David Reedy)