Book Description

BOUNDLESS HORIZONS tells the extraordinary story of Marie Clay's lifelong search for new possibilities in teaching young children to read and write. She pursued a tantalising quest: 'What is possible for children with reading problems? What would have to change?' Observing young readers in ordinary classrooms she uncovered explanations of how children take on literacy learning and how that learning changes over time. From those discoveries arose the internationally successful literacy intervention for children having temporary difficulty - Reading Recovery. This book is written for all professionals who are seeking better possibilities for children struggling to read and write. A major theme is the enduring commitment to the child becoming an independent reader and writer, but Marie Clay also extended her inquiries to teachers. She demonstrated ways in which research, theory, and practice can interact. And because her research was rooted in the real world, teachers and teacher educators will find in it new possibilities to widen the horizons of their work. Marie Clay's evidence-based research was convincing: Reading Recovery worked in New Zealand schools. Later experience showed it working with different children, in different schools, in several different countries. Contributors to this book trace the progress of Reading Recovery's expansion, looking closely at international research which has studied the outcomes for more than a generation of children helped by Reading Recovery teaching. Reprints of her early research on Reading Recovery and chapters highlighting her methodology together with subsequent international research and evaluation provide a gold standard for a new generation of researchers, administrators, and policy makers. And the story of Marie Clay's unique search for possibilities to replicate Reading Recovery implementation across international settings and cultural contexts offers a framework for educational change agents. Readers of BOUNDLESS HORIZONS will gain an understanding of the concepts and principles underlying Reading Recovery, and an insight into why this originally small, local project has taken wing to far places, in undreamed-of ways. Marie Clay has left a challenging legacy: to continue that search for possibilities, keeping to her strict standards of research, practice, and international dissemination. Her work will guide dedicated professionals who will continue to be surprised and delighted by what is possible, as the horizons ever extend.