Addressing individual difficulties in reading: issues relating to Reading Recovery and Pause, Prompt, Praise

Wearmouth, Janice (2003). Addressing individual difficulties in reading: issues relating to Reading Recovery and Pause, Prompt, Praise. Literacy, 38(1) pp. 3–9.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0034-0472.2004.03801002.x

Abstract

Recently the DfES has issued guidance on ways to address the needs of students who experience difficulties in literacy through Wave Three provision in the National Literacy Strategy ( DfES, 2002). This guidance raises the issue of what kind of programmes might be initiated in mainstream schools that will improve what is available generally for pupils who experience difficulties. The original Literacy Taskforce report (1997) named Reading Recovery (RR) as one programme suitable for this purpose. It is not the only programme with 'proven' efficacy, however. This article compares RR and another New Zealand-based programme, Pause, Prompt, Praise (PPP) with which it has a number of characteristics in common, in order to examine particular issues which are important to ensure that a particular programme can meet individual children's literacy needs and also have the potential for adoption by LEAs and schools in the current national curricular context. These issues are the underpinning rationales, assumptions about the reading process and questions of resources, ownership and control ( Openshaw et al., 2002).