Rosemary's Reflection on R3

Rosemary Johnson – Year 4 Classroom Teacher and R3 Facilitator
Chisholm Catholic Primary School Bligh Park

I was asked to run the R3 program in our school last year when I was in  Learning Support.  I relished the chance to be part of a pilot program that was  supporting children in Stage 3 in the area of Literacy, in particular in the area of Reading and Comprehension.

The program targets children in Stage 3 who are challenged in the areas of Reading and Comprehension.  The children were chosen based on their Pat-R and Naplan results and in consultation with the Year 5 classroom teachers.  The first step was to look at these results and assess what areas of concern there were and the areas of strength.  After careful scrutiny of the data the children were given further tests to assess their reading and comprehension levels.  These included the ‘Reading Interview’, ‘Running Records’, ‘Read and Retell’, ‘Reading Mindmap’ and ‘Burt’.

The four children I am working with begun the program a little bit reserved, as did I.  Being an intensive program the expectations were high and it took some time to get into the groove of what we all needed to do.  During this time of transition the children and I were supported by Kathy Ferrari and given direction through discussions and mentoring.  Kathy willingly led sessions and explained in depth what the expectations and mechanics of the program were.  We also had collegial sessions with the support of the Lead Educators of Literacy from the CEO who assisted us in moving forward with the program.

Now that the program has been running for 18 weeks there have been significant changes in the way these children read, comprehend and critique a variety of texts from the fiction and non-fiction genres.  Their confidence and abilities have certainly grown.  The children are becoming critical readers who can effectively predict, visualise, clarify, retell, summarise and read a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts.  Their responses, discussions and reflections during daily sessions have become more detailed and in-depth.   There has been continuing assessment completed during the 18 weeks that attest to the growth of the children’s abilities.

The program has also assisted me in being an effective classroom teacher as I have implemented some of the practices used in the R3 program.  The program has helped these children to address some of the challenges they have had in the area of Reading and Comprehension and shown them that they are capable learners.