Planned observations can capture evidence of early progress – Marie M. Clay
The measurement of early literacy behaviors is complex and requires a commitment to careful and systematic observation. An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (Clay, 2002, 2005, 2016) provides a systematic way of capturing early reading and writing behaviors and is the primary assessment tool used in Reading Recovery. All of the tasks were developed in research studies to assess emergent literacy in young children.
What does the Observation Survey measure?

The Observation Survey includes six literacy tasks, all of which are necessary for describing a young child’s emerging reading and writing behaviors:
- Letter Identification to determine which letters the child knows and how they identify them
- Word Test to determine if the child is building a personal resource of reading vocabulary
- Concepts About Print to determine what the child knows about the way spoken language is represented in print
- Writing Vocabulary to determine if the child is building a personal resource of known words that can be written in every detail
- Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words to assess phonemic awareness by determining how the child represents sounds in graphic form
- Text Reading to determine an appropriate level of text difficulty and to record what the child does when reading continuous text (using a running record)
THE JOURNAL OF READING RECOVERY
Spring 2023
The Science of Reading Era: Seeking the “Science” in Yet Another Anti-Teacher Movement by Paul Thomas
Understanding Marie Clay’s Perspective on Phonics by Mary Anne Doyle
Selection of Children for Reading Recovery: Challenges and Responses by Mary K. Lose and Eva Konstantellou
Let’s Talk About It: The Composing Conversation by Jamie Lipp
A Report of National Outcomes for Reading Recovery and Descubriendo la Lectura by Susan Mauck, Kate Nelson and Lisa Pinkerton