By Different Paths to Common Outcomes: Literacy Learning and Teaching

“This book captures the essence of Marie’s work. It is fundamentally practical and theoretically rich. Marie is revered for her contributions to the field of literacy and for her wisdom and deep commitment to children and their teachers. That wisdom and commitment is evident everywhere in this book. Savor it.”
—Peter Johnston, author of Choice Words

Not all children walk the same path towards literacy.

Discerning teachers recognize one destination, but many differing journeys. “If we notice children taking different paths,” writes Marie Clay, “we can interact with their different journeys just as we would alter our talking to adapt to our listeners, and in about three years expect them to arrive at common outcomes.”

Teacher-centered, practical, and research-based, this collection of articles by Marie draws on her lifelong passion for children’s literacy and teacher education. She demonstrates:

• how understanding what children know becomes the key to effective teaching
• how teachers need to look at early literacy learning through children’s eyes, and to listen to children as they converse
• how writing should be the powerful partner of reading.

In these pages, teachers and educators of teachers will find:

• research evidence to raise their awareness of how young minds learn to work with
• the printed word
• help to observe and build on what children already know before they first enter
• school
• how to focus on and interact with what each child can do (not what they can’t )
• how to set each individual learner on their own pathway to literary success, so there need be no wasted time, no discouragement for teacher or student.

Above all, diversity is to be welcomed and accommodated, and independence fostered.

Marie Clay’s classic text has stood the test of time. In this new edition its central message lives on as an aid and inspiration for today’s generation of early literacy teachers everywhere. It supports best literacy practice.

Start reading now!

Marie Clay, FRSNZ, FNZPsS, FNZEI(Hon),Emeritus Professor, taught in primary schools and then at the University of Auckland where, for the next 30 years she introduced educational psychologists to ways of preventing psychological problems. She did post-graduate study in Developmental Psychology at the University of Minnesota on a Fulbright Scholarship and completed her doctorate at the University of Auckland with a thesis entitled "Emergent Literacy." Her 'Reading (and writing) Recovery' is an early literacy intervention, which is now implemented in five countries, and three languages. Literacy Lessons Designed For Individuals integrates what has been learned from that innovation with new research and theoretical advocacies. Shifts in early literacy learning can be monitored by teachers using her Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement in English, Spanish and French. A series of individual lessons can be delivered in those languages to about 150,000 children worldwide annually using a guidebook called Reading Recovery: Guidelines for Teachers in Training. Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals is a similar guidebook which aims to make accelerated progress possible for a wider range of problems. Marie Clay was past-President of the International Reading Association, served on the editorial committees of professional journals, was a research consultant at home and abroad including UNESCO, chaired a Social Science Research Committee advising government on policies and research allocations, and worked internationally with problem-solving related to early intervention research and practice.