For many children, the knowledgethey have in writing flows to andinforms their understandings in reading, and what they learn in read-ing can help them to learn more inwriting. Clay (1993) refers to thisflow of knowledge “as the reciprocityof the two activities that both usewritten language” (p. 44).

The American Heritage Dictionary(1983) defines reciprocity as a mutualexchange or interchange. Clay relatesthis concept to literacy in bothReading Recovery: A Guidebook forTeachers in Training (Clay, 1993) andher newest text, Literacy LessonsDesigned for Individuals, Part One:Why? When? and How? (Clay, 2005a)in sections entitled “Reciprocal gainsof reading and writing.” From thesediscussions we learn that reciprocity isa basic tenet of Clay’s theory of howchildren learn to read and write. Inreferring to teaching procedures, shereminds us that “reading and writingare interwoven throughout theReading Recovery lesson series andteaching proceeds on the assumptionthat both provide learned responsesthat facilitate new responding ineither area” (Clay, 2005a, p. 27).However, she warns us that reciprocity does not occur sponta-neously for all learners and that thesupportive knowledge interchange isnot automatic for many children whohave difficulty learning to read andwrite. For the child who appearsunaware of the reciprocity, she

challenges teachers “to help the learner use what he knows in writingto help him read in reading and viceversa” (Clay, 1993, p. 44).

In their discussion of reciprocity,Lyons, Pinnell, and DeFord (1993)create the analogy of the child havingtwo separate pools of knowledge and note that the teacher’s job is tohelp the child “dig a ditch” so theknowledge in the two separate poolsflows together.

I’ve been thinking about teaching forreciprocity from the perspectives ofClay (1993, 2005a) and Lyons,Pinnell, and DeFord (1993). In thisarticle, I share examples of whatteaching to enhance reciprocity—toconnect the pools of knowledge aboutreading and writing—looks like.Although Clay challenges teachersmany times to provide teaching thathelps the child relate these two areasof literacy learning, she provides fewexamples. For some teachers, how to

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Reciprocity: Promoting the Flowof Knowledge for Learning to Readand WriteMary D. Fried, Trainer, The Ohio State University

The pattern of movement and the attention to the sequence of letters while writinghave productive payoff in reading as well as in writing. Using writing to helplearn words during reading is one of the critical connections teachers need to establish for children early in their journey of literacy learning. Here, ReadingRecovery teacher Hana Hsu works with Sydney Pollitt at Park View ElementarySchool in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

teach for the flow of knowledgebetween reading and writing has notbeen evident or spontaneous. Thisarticle is intended to present somehelpful examples of how teaching forreciprocity might look as children’scompetencies and the teachingchange over the series of ReadingRecovery lessons.

Using Writing DuringReading in Early LessonsEarly in the series of ReadingRecovery lessons, many teachers haveexperienced the situation where a stu-dent comes across a word in readingand stops—saying nothing—as if thiswere the first time this word has everbeen seen, while at the same time theteacher knows the child has writtenthis word independently many times.Clay has provided specific teachingprocedures to help the teacher sortout this type of disconnect, and herdiscussion in the section “Suggestionsfor extending a meager knowledge ofwords” (Clay, 1993, p. 27) offersteachers guidance in how to use writing to help the child during reading. When the child stops, deadin his tracks, at a word known inwriting but with no response orseemingly no recognition of the sameword in reading, the teacher couldsay, “That’s a word you know how towrite,” or “Go to the chalkboard,write that word.” Whatever the causeof the initial disconnect, helping thechild understand that what he knowsin writing will help him in his reading is important.

Writing during familiar reading wasused to help sort out confusions forMaddy, who was often thrown into aswirl of “w” words while reading. The following example shows howthe teacher used her word writingknowledge to address her confusion.

Familiar Reading: The Red Rose(Level 7)The text is “Gone, said the caterpillar,and it went back home.”

Maddy: Gone, said the cater-pillar, and it was…(Maddy stopped andlooked up.)

Teacher: (putting a white boardand pen in front ofMaddy) You can writethat word. Write it.

Maddy: (quickly writes w-e-n-t)

Teacher: What did you write?

Maddy: went

Teacher: Now read. (Maddygoes back to readingsuccessfully.)

The teacher skillfully interruptedMaddy’s confusion and intervenedwith an economy of words using thechild’s strength in writing a knownword. Interrupting the confusion onthis page was particularly importantbecause the next three pages contained the same refrain, and it went back home. The teacher’saction at the point of confusion prevented Maddy from practicingerror or becoming further confusedby thinking which one is it: was, we,wants, went? The writing helped hersolidify the correct response. The nextthree pages gave her the opportunityto practice fast, correct responding.

In both Clay’s Guidebook (1993, p. 27) and Literacy Lessons (2005b,p. 40) she provides teaching sugges-tions to help children build a knowl-edge base of the reading vocabularythat is used many times in storybooks at early levels. Constructingthe word with magnetic letters, tracing the word on the chalkboard,

and writing the word using differentmedia are some of the ways to helpthe child pay attention to the detailsof print and the sequence of letters inorder to learn how to learn a word.The pattern of movement and theattention to the sequence of letterswhile writing have productive payoffin reading as well as in writing. Usingwriting to help learn words duringreading is one of the critical connec-tions teachers need to establish forchildren early in their journey of liter-acy learning. The following exchangebetween William and his teacher offeran example of such a procedure.

Familiar Reading: Wake Up, Dad(Level 3)The text is “Look, mom! Look at Dad!”

William: (reading page 12)Look, mom! Look is Dad!(At the end of thisline, William looks atthe teacher.)

Teacher: Are you sure?

William: (William nods his head yes. Hecontinues readingand reads the last twopages of the booksuccessfully.)

Teacher: Dad finally woke up.Where are they allgoing to go?

William: The merry-go-round.

Teacher: I bet you’re right.Now, you know whatI noticed? When youaren’t quite sure youlook at me. You cancheck yourself. Let’smake sure you wereright on this page.You look at it.

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William: (begins reading page12) Look, mom! Lookat (William stops.)

Teacher: Was there a trickypart? (William nods.)Was that is or at?

William: Look at Dad!”

Teacher: At is an importantword. You need tolearn that word. Haveyou seen it before?

William: Yes. (He begins tospell at.)

Teacher: That was in one ofyour favoritebooks…the one aboutDanny. (Teachershows the book and

the student sees theword at.) You can readat and you can learnto write at. (Teacherand child stand. Shemakes the word at onthe white board withmagnetic letters, beingsure to move the a tothe left first.) Are youlooking? Is that whatat looks like?

William: Yes. (Teacher mixesthe letters andWilliam constructs attwo times.)

Teacher: Now you can write at.(She hands Williamthe chalk.) How manyletters?

William: Two. (writes at on thechalkboard)

Teacher: Are you right? Is thatwhat at looked likewhen you read it?

William: (nods yes)

Teacher: You are teaching your-self a new word, at.Write it again. Firstletter first. Aroundand down.

William: (writes at correctly)

Teacher: One more time. Writeit quickly. (Williamwrites at faster.) Whatword did you learnhow to write?

William: at

Teacher: Let’s make sure youcan read that word.Read this again.

William: Look, mom! Look atDad!

Teacher: Are you sure?

William: Yes!

Teachers should be aware that formany children the seemingly simpletwo-letter words are often confusing.Extra effort must be made to establishwhat this teacher demanded anddemonstrated: “first letter first.”

In my own teaching I am careful inearly lessons to stress what I call aslow check of a word when locating aword or making decisions about howthe letters of a word help us to say orconfirm an unfamiliar word whilereading. (See Clay’s comments on theleft-to-right check in Literacy Lessons,2005b, p. 12.)

The following interaction occurredduring the new book orientation for achild who was in his first week of

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Constructing words with magnetic letters is just one way to help the child payattention to the details of print and the sequence of letters, in order to learn how tolearn a word.

lessons and was going to read Tiger,Tiger (Rigby PM Collection, Level 3).

Teacher: In this story the Tigeris asleep. When Tigerwakes up he is hungryand he goes lookingfor something to eat.Let’s see what happens. (page 2) There’s Tiger.Tiger is asleep.(page 4–5) There’sMother Monkey andBaby Monkey. Arethey asleep too?

Motasa: Yes.

Teacher: (page 6) Look, BabyMonkey wakes up.What letter do youexpect to see first forwakes?

Motasa: w

Teacher: Find wakes in thestory.

Motasa: (locates wakes bypointing under theword and quicklylooking up at theteacher)

Teacher: When you find theword you have tocheck it like this.(Teacher demonstratesby putting her fingerunder the first letterand moving her fingerleft to right under-neath the word whilesaying wakes slowly.The student is thenasked to do the samething, keeping his eyeson the word as he saysit slowly, while mov-ing his finger underthe word left to right.)

Motasa had a second chance to practice this slow-checking procedurewhen the teacher asked him to predict the first letter and locate theword safe on the last page of thebook. You can guess the rest of thestory: Motasa was successful in locating and checking safe independ-ently—and Baby Monkey was noteaten by Tiger!

This slow check helps to establish not only the left-to-right directionalmovement across the word but alsodirects the visual perceptual move-ment across the word. The slow checkhelps the child develop concepts ofwhat is the first letter and how thesounds he is saying relate to the letters he is seeing. This is similar tothe left-to-right sequential analysistask using Elkonin boxes in writing.An important caution is not to con-tinue the slow check beyond its early

usefulness because soon the childmust make more advanced, rapidchecks and have fast recognition ofwords. However, during early lessonsthe child must gain consistency indirectional movement and securitywith the serial order concepts ofEnglish if he is to be successful.

These concepts are supported anddemanded as the child writes messages and stories and should alsobe promoted by the teacher whilereading. Inconsistencies in directionalmovement across a word may lead towhat Clay calls “a haphazardapproach to print which can be amajor roadblock to learning to read”(Clay 1993, p. 53). Further discus-sion of this problem, “Teaching for asequencing problem,” is presented inClay’s Literacy Lessons, Part Two(2005b, pp. 164–165).

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Elkonian boxes, an essential and extremely powerful procedure used many times in Reading Recovery lessons, provide a visible framework for more abstract soundanalysis. Into boxes drawn by the teacher for each sound heard in a word, Sydneypushes counters or her finger into the boxes in sequence as she says the word slowly.

A similar slow check across a wordcan be used when the child makes ameaningful substitution by reading aword that does not look right. Thefollowing interaction took place during Motasa’s first reading of thestory introduced above.

The text is “Baby Monkey is safe.

Motasa: Baby Monkey is OK.

Teacher: Yes, the Baby Monkeygot back with hismother. Check to seeif it says OK or safe.

Motasa: Safe! (with his fingermoving under theword)

Teacher: You’re right. Now itlooks right and youkept your eyes downwhen you checked.

Again, the slow checking across aword would be done very deliberatelyin early learning and advance tospeeded checking and recognitionsoon. The left-to-right visual analysisof a word to confirm that it looksright is highly productive when reading or writing.

After students have made progress inlearning the task of Hearing andRecording Sounds in Words, which istaught during the writing portion ofthe Reading Recovery lesson, they areready to tap into another productivepool of literacy knowledge.

Using Strengths of Hearingand Recording Sounds inWords During ReadingSome children respond quite easily tothe sound analysis, or phonemicanalysis, of words by using Elkoninboxes. Students are taught to usethese boxes to provide a visible framework for the more abstract

sound analysis. Early on in this procedure, the teacher draws a boxfor each sound heard in a word ofthree or four distinct sounds. Thechild pushes counters or his fingerinto the boxes in sequence as he saysthe word slowly. This is an essentialand extremely powerful procedureused many times in most ReadingRecovery lessons. In this procedure,the child is learning to connect thesounds of spoken language to the letters of written language. I haveoften called this procedure the“Rosetta Stone” of the ReadingRecovery lesson. For some children,when they learn to do the Hearingand Recording Sounds in Words tasksuccessfully, it is like a “Eureka”moment!

Charlie was trying to write the wordmake in his story: “I am going tomake a card for my mom for herbirthday.” When Charlie said, “Idon’t know how to write make,” theteacher drew three connected boxesand gave him three colored counters.They had practiced this activity several times before, but this was the first time they were using it while writing a story. After Charliepushed in the counters as he said theword slowly, he wrote m–a–k insequence in the boxes. The teacheradded the e and said, “That’s howyou write the word make.” Charliesaid, “I get it. You say it and hear itso you can write it. Then I can read it!”

Charlie seemed to make the completeconnection; letters represent thesounds you can hear and the lettersgive you some of the sounds so thatyou can read the word. For him itwas as if the floodgates of the damhad been released, and the flow wasnow ready to come fast and strong.

The task of Hearing and RecordingSounds in Words, while done in thewriting portion of the ReadingRecovery lesson, also has a productivepayoff in reading. But again, this doesnot happen spontaneously for all children. Jenny is an example of alearner whose strengths in soundanalysis had little or no impact on hersuccess in learning to read until theteacher took specific action.

Jenny had made some acceleratedlearning gains in early ReadingRecovery lessons, especially in writ-ing. In fact, her scores (raw score 24,stanine 5) on the Hearing andRecording Sounds in Words part ofAn Observation Survey of EarlyLiteracy Achievement (Clay, 2002)indicate she entered her series of lessons with definite strengths inphonemic analysis. She also had afairly good score in the WritingVocabulary task, writing 12 words(stanine 4) to put her at the lowend of the average range. Jennydemonstrated definite strengths in theareas of writing which should havesupported her in learning how toread, but Jenny’s strengths in writingand sound analysis did little toimpact her success in reading.

Jenny did make early gains in movingup the gradient of difficulty of textreading, but once she reached Levels7, 8, and tried Level 9, success washard won. It was as if she had reacheda plateau and could not go much further. Her reading became a seriesof ups and downs with a barrier atLevel 9 which seemed impossible to overcome.

Jenny’s teacher, Vicki, observed thatJenny’s tendency for slow processingand lack of monitoring was one causeof frustration. In addition, her lack ofinitiative in searching for more

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information and in self-correctingerrors independently was anothersource of worry. Strong teacher support and effective prompting wasneeded to help Jenny complete thereading of any new book. “What hadhappened? How can this be?” askedVicki. “And, she is so good in writingthat I am thinking about putting herin letter boxes!”

Vicki had done a good analysis ofJenny’s problems and also recognizedthat her teaching needed to change,but she needed help. She called for aclinical visit from the teacher leaderwho arranged for a small group toobserve, analyze, and give a fresh lookat Jenny’s processing problems. (Thegroup for this clinical visit was composed of a trainer, a teacherleader-in-training, and a trained

teacher leader.) After watching thelesson, the members of the groupconfirmed Vicki’s analysis of Jenny’sslow processing and her strengths insequential, sound analysis in writing.However, they had observed Jennydisengaging many times during thefamiliar reading part of the lesson.She often looked up, or looked at theteacher, or tried to push the sleeves ofher shirt up, or twist her hair as sheread the easy, familiar books. Thereading was not difficult for her inany way, but she read with a lack ofattention and forward momentum.

It was during the first reading of thenew book that the lack of momen-tum—the processing problems of not noticing errors and not takinginitiative to problem solve unfamiliarwords at difficulty—resulted in problems that compounded. Jennymade substitutions that fit the storyand the language structure of the sentence but did not look anythinglike the words in the print. When shedid stop at a difficulty, puzzled by anunfamiliar word, her first responsewas to look at the teacher and waitfor help. She was expecting the helpto come from the knowledgeableteacher instead of problem solving onher own. The gate was closed, andshe did not appear to know how todraw on her high level of writingknowledge to help her problem solveduring reading.

After discussion confirming Vicki’sanalysis of Jenny’s strengths and problem areas, the teacher leaders andtrainer worked together to proposeseveral areas for adjustments in teaching which were expected to benefit Jenny’s learning. The first areafocused on how to get Jenny toattend more deliberately duringfamiliar reading with fluent, phrased,and yes, speeded up processing. Theteacher was simply to tell Jenny tokeep her eyes down on the book andread the whole familiar book a littlefaster without looking up even one

time. The group thought the overtbehavior of looking up would be easyto shift. They also reminded Vicki toassure Jenny they would talk aboutthe story after she read so the child’sresponses and genuine enjoyment ofthe story would not be forgotten andso it would not interrupt the flow ofthe story. She needed to build a feeling of momentum—or feed forward—for reading. Vicki had tomonitor her own behavior to makesure she didn’t interrupt Jenny’s read-ing with comments or teaching. Mostcommonly, a child stops processingthe text being read when his teachertalks to him. Conversation, of course,is encouraged, but not during thereading of the book for a child who isbreaking the habit of slow processing.

The second area of concern was howto use Jenny’s strengths in sequentialsound analysis in writing to connectto noticing errors and problem solv-ing words on the run during reading.Since this clinical visit to problemsolve Jenny’s lack of continued accelerated progress was videotaped, Ihave the following excerpt of theteaching interaction at the end of thesecond reading of the new book(teaching after taking the runningrecord) to share.

I did the teaching with Jenny as ademonstration for the group as partof the clinical visit being made. Jennywas reading Sally’s Friends (Rigby PMCollection, Level 9). After the running record, page 8 was selectedfor a teaching interaction. This interaction should not be interpretedas a demand for accuracy but ratheras an opportunity for Jenny to learnhow to use her sound analysisstrengths in writing to help her monitor and confirm during reading.

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Charlie seemed to make the complete connection; letters represent the sounds you can hear and the lettersgive you some of the sounds so that you can read theword. For him it was as if the floodgates of the damhad been released, and the flow was now ready to comefast and strong.

The text is “Sally made the cars godown the road to the tunnel.

Jenny: Sally made the cars gounder the road to thetunnel.

Teacher: (using page 8) Try thisagain. (The firstprompt is for moni-toring, finding theerror.)

Jenny: (Jenny reads the pageagain making thesame error,under/down, but thistime makes an addi-tional substitution,tunnel/road.)

Teacher: Try that again, something didn’tlook right.

Jenny: (Jenny points to theword road.) This wass’post to say road.

Teacher: Nice work. Now readit with me. (Theteacher and Jennyread up to the error,under/down, theteacher taps her pencilover the word downand doesn’t move on.)

Jenny: Oh! (Now Jennyrereads with theteacher sounding the d. This time Jenny reads the restcorrectly.)

Teacher: And is that what washappening in thestory? (sliding herpencil along the picture) Sally madethe cars go down theroad to the tunnel. Ilike the way you

found that word(road) didn’t look liketunnel, did it?

Jenny: It didn’t start with a t.It started with an r.

Teacher: Does that look likehow you would writeroad if you put it in boxes?

Jenny: (Jenny tilts her headand shrugs as if uncertain.)

Teacher: Would you put an rin the first box? Doesthat look like how youwould write road?

Jenny: (Now, Jenny nods herhead to indicate astrong yes.)

Teacher: If you were writingdown would you writea d in the first box?

Jenny: (nods yes again)

Teacher: Yes. You are very goodabout writing wordsin boxes. That mightbe a good thing tothink about when youare checking a word.That might be a verygood thing to thinkabout.

The above teaching interaction mayseem a bit long and labored, but itwas intended to have a three-foldpurpose. First, it was intended to help

Jenny use her strengths in sound-to-letter analysis used in writing totransfer and become productive whengoing from letter-to-sound analysiswhile reading. The second purposewas to serve as a demonstration forJenny’s teacher. And lastly, the teach-ing interaction was used to promote adiscussion about working for shifts inlearning for the teacher leaders whowere taking part in the clinical visit.Clay (2001) provides this addedinsight which relates to this example:

A couple of new items readcorrectly is a small gain whencompared with consolidatingthe strategy of knowing how tocross-check the letters insequential order with an analy-sis of their phonemic structure,checking each move, and allunprompted and in your head.(pp. 128, 129)

This is the understanding Jennyneeds to internalize as she taps intoher reservoir of how sounds and letters work together in both writingand reading.

During Writing, How Doesthe Teacher Help MakeConnections to Reading?I have provided examples of howteachers can help children learn moreabout printed text when reading byusing their strengths in writing, andhow strengths in writing can be madeexplicit and connected to monitoringand problem solving while reading.

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In teaching during the writing component of the lesson, as in other components, the teacher makes decisions based on observations of the learner andresponds to changes over the series of lessons.

Now let’s look at enhancing writingby applying understandings of reciprocity, and at procedures for connecting strengths and growth inreading to the child’s writing.

The writing component is part ofevery Reading Recovery lesson andhas the goal of helping children learnto compose and write stories andmessages at a level of achievementconsidered to be average for first-grade students. The writing component was not included in thelesson framework to supportaccelerated achievement in readingexclusively. Clay’s procedures focusequally on developing writing skills,as indicated by the titles in her two-volume Literacy Lessons (2005a,2005b). In teaching during the writing component of the lesson, as

in other components, the teachermakes decisions based on observa-tions of the learner and responds tochanges over the series of lessons.

An early lesson with Rachel serves asan example of how the teacher madespecific connections to reading duringthe writing of a story. Rachel hadread the book, The Baby Owl, (RigbyPM Collection, Level 4). After talking about the owl story, she composed this story: “Mother Owl iscooking mice for her babies.”

Writing about the book they havejust read is not a requirement for students, but since Rachel was alsolearning to speak English while learn-ing to read and write, she often usedthe security of the recently read storyas a basis for her composition. In the

book, the mother owl had fed thebabies a moth, so Rachel had addedher own twist to her story.

The writing of her story began:

Rachel: Mother, m—(Rachelsounded /m/ thenwrote the m. Theteacher completed theword mother.)

Rachel: w (Rachel quicklywrote a w on the storypage.)

Teacher: Try up here. (indicat-ing the work page andcovering the w writtenon the story page)

Rachel: l-w-o (Rachel quicklywrote the letters forowl left to right but inreverse order.)

Teacher: Oh! That’s interesting.You have all the let-ters. You need tomake the o first.(writes an o aboveRachel’s rendition of owl)That’s backwards.(draws a line throughl-w-o)Look at Mother Owl’sname in the story.(finds the book and apage with Mother Owlwritten on it) Look,see the o is first. Seethe word Owl.

Rachel: (looks at the book,smiles, and thenwrites owl in her story)

This beginning episode in writingoffered opportunities to help Rachelgain some connections and learnsome basic concepts about printed

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Teaching that supports the learner in using her knowledge of writing during reading and her understandings gained from reading in writing messages facilitates literacy development.

English. (Note: Her first languagewas Shona spoken in Zimbabwe.Shona is written left to right, thesame as English.) First, she seems tounderstand that talking beforewriting is one way to discover a storyto write. More importantly, she experienced that directionality matters! Writing left to right isimportant, and now perhaps she has abetter concept of first letter. Theteacher tried to help her understandthe critical concept of first letter bothon the work page and by using theactual book she had read. Clay states:“Time, exposure, construction ofwords in writing and putting this towork in reading seems to bring thechild to a knowledge of how wordsare made in English” (1993, p. 43).Rachel’s series of lessons continued tosupport her in sorting out her uniqueconfusions as she continued to compose and write some wonderfulstories. One day she spontaneouslydeclared, “I love to write the stories!”

Another example of connecting read-ing to writing happened with Sara,who was nearing the end of her seriesof lessons and was at an advancedlevel in both reading and writing. In trying to write an unfamiliar word, she now either gave it a tryindependently on the work page orthe teacher drew a series of connectedboxes for each letter to represent theactual spelling of the word. Inadvanced lessons, Sara had read a fairly long, complex version of TheThree Little Pigs (Reading UnlimitedScott Foresman, Level 13), and nowwas going to write a summary of thestory which would have a beginning,middle, and end as required by theclassroom teacher and the districtachievement standards.

Sara composed this beginning: “Themother pig told the three little pigs toget out of the house. The pigs wentdown the road and started to buildtheir house.”

Sara wrote “The mother pig” quicklyand independently. She initiatedgoing to the work page to try out theword told. After writing told she said,“That’s right!” and wrote it into herstory. She continued writing quicklyuntil she came to the word little.

Sara: I think I need boxes.

Teacher: I don’t think so. Youknow how it starts.Think about how itlooked in the storyyou just read. Youread little pigs so manytimes—how did itlook? Try it.

Sara: Oh, yes. I know now.(She confidentlywrote “Little pigs”with a capital letterfirst for “Little” just asit had appeared in thestory many times asthe first word in the sentence.)

The middle part of Sara’s episodicstory continued the next day: “Thebig bad wolf huffed and puffed toblow the first pig’s house away so hecould eat him. But the pigs got

away.” She wanted to write the wordhuffed for this part of her story.After writing wolf she stopped andlooked up.

Teacher: I’ll draw boxes forhuffed.

Sara: (h was written quicklyin the first box)a? e?

Teacher: Yes, it’s a vowel.Think what it lookedlike in the story.

Sara: u and now I know therest. Two f s!

Sara was in high gear, tapping intothe advanced skills that many adultsuse: thinking what the word lookslike when they have seen it in print,or writing down several versions todetermine the correct spelling. Yes,Sara is ready to have her series of lessons discontinued in terms of usingreading and writing together. Herknowledge base of reading and writing is now an intermingled,steady flow to support her as she continues to make progress with thesupport of classroom instruction.

In conclusion, this discussion hasfocused on a basic tenet of Clay’stheory of how children learn to readand write, that is, the reciprocity ofreading and writing during the earlystages of literacy acquisition. Theexamples were chosen to make

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“Time, exposure, construction of words in writing and putting this to work in reading seems to bring the child to a knowledge of how words are made in English.”

— Clay, 1993

teaching for the reciprocal gains ofreading and writing more explicit.Teaching that supports the learner inusing his knowledge of writing during reading and his understand-ings gained from reading in writingmessages facilitates literacy development. We are therefore moreeffective Reading Recovery teachers aswe become more skillful in observingand supporting learners in applyingthis knowledge interchange. The outcome is enhanced learning andaccelerated progress for the childrenwe teach.

Acknowledgements:The author extends appreciation toCheri Slinger, teacher leader, and toAmy Leahy and Vicki Meyer, ReadingRecovery teachers, for the excellentteaching examples which were recordedon videotape. All student names werechanged from the actual names.

ReferencesAmerican Heritage Dictionary (1983).

Second College Edition. New York:Dell Publishing Company.

Clay, M. M. (1993). Reading Recovery: Aguidebook for teachers in training.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (2001). Change over time inchildren’s literacy development.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (2002). An observation surveyof early literacy achievement.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (2005a). Literacy lessonsdesigned for individuals part one: Why?when? and how? Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (2005b). Literacy lessonsdesigned for individuals part two:Teaching procedures. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

Lyons, C., Pinnell, G. S., & DeFord, D.(1993). Partners in learning. (Chapter7). New York: Teacher’s College Press.

Children’s Books CitedCowley, J. (1990). The Red Rose. The

Wright Group.

Randell, B. (1996). Sally’s Friends. RigbyPM Library.

Randell, B. (1996). Tiger, Tiger. RigbyPM Library.

Randell, B. (1996). Wake Up, Dad. RigbyPM Library.

Randell, B. (1997). The Baby Owls. RigbyPM Library.

The Three Little Pigs. (1996). A traditionalfolk tale. Reading Unlimited: Scott,Foresman and Company.

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About the Author

Mary Fried is a ReadingRecovery trainer at The OhioState University. Formerly shewas a classroom teacher, a read-ing teacher, and a coordinatorfor the reading department ofthe Columbus, Ohio, publicschools. Trained as part the original 1984–85 pilot study ofReading Recovery in the UnitedStates, she has remained active inteaching, writing, and makingpresentations on ReadingRecovery and early literacy at thestate, national, and internationallevels. Currently she also servesas the editor and frequent authorfor the Ohio State University'sKEEP BOOK project, a schoolto home literacy project for parents and young children.