Strategic teaching and strategic learning in first grade classrooms

In this article the authors describe Reading Express, a collaborative program which brings together the expertise of first-grade teachers and Reading Recovery teachers to support all first-grade children in literacy development. In the Reading Express program, the Reading Recovery teachers spend one hour per day in each of the first grade classrooms. This time is spent in both whole class as well as small group instruction. The results of Reading Express have been positive for both first-grade children as well as teachers. End-of-year text-level scores and other data indicate that the program is having a positive impact on students\u27 literacy development. In addition, the first-grade teachers have found they are more strategic in their reading instruction and have more knowledge of their students\u27 literacy progress as a result of the collaborative planning and instruction