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More than one-million school children in the United States have gone through a program called Reading Recovery. The program is for six-year-olds who are struggling to learn to read. Reading Recovery came to the United States in 1984. Education expert Marie Clay of New Zealand developed the program. A number of other countries also use this method. Programs can differ from school. The Reading Recovery Council of North America says more than 25% of the United States public schools with first grades use the program. The Reading Recovery method calls for a specially trained reading teacher to work with children one at a time. The lessons take a half hour each school day. They employ reading, writing and the study of the letters of the alphabet. Reading Recovery lessons take place for twelve to twenty weeks. During the lessons, the teacher looks for ways that the child seems to learn best. Then the teacher works to help the students develop these strategies to solve problems in reading. The idea is for the students to continue to use and extend these strategies each time they read. Reading Recovery students read many short books. Some of the books are written in a way similar to spoken language. Children alse read and write stories or messages in their own words. The material gets harder with time. The lessons end when the students’ reading ability is within the average level of the class. The Reading Recovery Council of North America says eighty percent of the students who finish the lessons can read and write within their class average. | 
