Do You Speak Reading Recovery?

While going through my files, organizing for the end of the year, ...

... I came upon the following poem.  At the end of my training year in Reading Recovery, I wrote it for our "graduation" program.  Hopefully, it will give you a grin. 

Do You Speak Reading Recovery®?

by Barb Evans

Many fields, as it’s well known,

Have alphabets all their own.

A lawyer earns a J.D.

Doctors review a C.T.,

While in football the QB

Will try to score a TD.

Now in this, my training year,

I’ve developed a new ear

For the RR alphabet.

How many of these can you get?

We teach RR (letters tall).

We take rr-s (letters small).

Each day we must M-S-V,

Decide what made them SC,

Then conduct some M & B,

And pray we’re not O-O-T.

And much to our grief and woe

It’s B. T. G. we must go.                        

We started with the O.S.S. 

Which consists of all of these tests:  

L.I.D., O.W.T.,

C.A.P., and W.V. 

Then of our students we ask

To complete the Dictation task.

They must wonder, “What could be next?”

Why, then they must read leveled text!

After that it’s R.A.T.K.

Then F.A.R.T. for one day.

Our job is to closely observe,

Then record so we can preserve

The things that the child does well.

That’s the programme – Oops!  S.O.L.

The prompts that were written by Clay

Are the things we must learn to say.

One prompt is N.R. T.T.A.

Another:  Can we say it that way?

My favorite prompt is, I confess—

G.Y.M.R.F.T.F.S. –

It really is in the Guide Book –

In italics!  It’s there, just look!

“Take your G.B. with you to bed,”

So our T.L. has often said.

And so with our spouses we plead,

“Just go to sleep, dear.  I must read!”