School district focusing on Reading Recovery program

Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of occasional articles on the Aiken County School District's expansion of a multifaceted literacy initiative.

In May 2008 a Greendale Elementary School teacher specialist, Caroline Thompson, was joined in her small office by a student named Kemar Bartley for a demonstration.

She gave the boy a fourth-grade story and, carefully and accurately, Kemar softly read the first paragraph. Thompson wiped tears away and for good reason.

Kemar was still in the first grade at the time and, at the beginning of the school term, had tested essentially as a non-reader. Through the efforts of his classroom teacher and the pull-out instruction of Reading Recovery specialist Thompson, Kemar went far beyond everybody's expectations.

Thompson's goal was to get him to grade level but, to her surprise, the youngster soon gained confidence. When he realized he was learning to read, he blossomed.

"What's so unusual is that he has a feel for structure, how a sentence should read and how the words should sound," Thompson said then. "Kemar just beams now. He knows he's got it."

Reading Recovery is a formal program in which specialists work one-on-one with struggling first-graders. It also drives many people nuts, Aiken associate superintendent Dr. Kevin O'Gorman readily acknowledged recently. It's relatively expensive in terms of the number of kids it serves. Yet Reading Recovery addresses all areas of literacy and gets high marks from educators nationwide, said O'Gorman.

The school district has used federal stimulus funds directed at low-income schools and special education programs to create 41 reading intervention specialist positions. All who haven't already been trained in Reading Recovery began that training earlier this month and will continue throughout the year in after-school sessions.

Greendale principal Becky Koelker ardently supports the concept and gave a passionate presentation on Reading Recovery to the Board of Education last year. The program is not expensive if one compares its cost to grade retention and school dropouts, she said.

"It's not a remedial program but is instead an accelerated short-term series of sessions," Koelker said. "We take our most at-risk kids and get them reading. This year 98 percent of the children beginning second grade were reading above grade level."

Greendale also has Laura Coakley, a Reading Recovery teacher for the past five years. The school has a resource teacher who is trained in the program and is getting another literacy specialist - partner-teacher Tomiko Smalls.

Coakley spent about nine years as a classroom teacher before agreeing to Koelker's request to take the Reading Recovery training.

"It's one of the best things I've ever done professionally," said Coakley. "What makes it so special is that we actually see the impact training has on the students. Teachers can be in tune to what a particular child needs. It's not just a curriculum doled out to a child."

Children in Reading Recovery usually get about 22 sessions over 15 weeks, focusing on a child's strengths. The students' rapid progress is phenomenal, Coakley said.

The district administration's support for the program "speaks volumes about what they're trying to do with this literacy initiative," she said. "I feel blessed to do what I do every day. We're changing lives."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.