Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Running Record

Information about how to do a Running Record:
-Teacher or student chooses a book that is at appropriate level (you may change the level after results)
-Have a sheet ready to mark what the student is reading (the reader should be sitting right next to you)
-What to look for:
- Self corrections
- Insertion of words
- Omission of words
- Repetition
- Substitutions
- Long Pauses

-Miscues (mistakes) are either:
- Meaning - uses background knowledge to identify words (semantics)
- Visual - Letter-sound smilarities
- Structure - how our language goes together (syntax)
http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us/tarwater-elementary/teacherresource/Running%20Records.htm This website helps it explain if you've never done it before

I've done a running record before but it's been awhile so I observed a teacher to refresh my memory. Running records are extremely helpful because they are quick to use and they give you results instantly. You can also use them as much as you need to. Instead of taking an assessment at the beginning of the year, and then again at end of the year, running records can be used weekly to see a student progress.
The student that was assessed with a running record was a 5th grade bilingual (English and Spanish) male. The running record was part of the DRA used. I was informed before hand that this student could read aloud very well but his comprehension could improve. The piece that he had read was a non-fiction story about storm-chasers. After marking and analyzing his performance, the student had 9 miscues, read about 82 words in a minute, and had a 96% accuracy. What surprised me was that he hit the warning area in the accuracy part. I thought 96% was a good thing.
The miscues from the student included omission and substituting. The words he omitted were oncoming, Arch, and big. I could understand that he missed "big" because it's a small word and something that he automatically knows. He could have just read too fast during that part. However, it's hard to determine why he missed "oncoming" and "Arch". These two words aren't used much in everyday language so possibily it could be a semantic mistake (doesn't have background knowledge about these words). The other words that were miscues were substitutions. These were visual miscues because the words that came out looked similar to the words on the print (i.e severe said as seven, and researchers said as reachers). This could mean that he was simply reading too fast.
For teaching points, I would have this student slow down first. I would tell him to use his eyes and to get his mouth ready. He seems to have good phonological and phonemic awareness, but his comprehension needs to be imporoved. To help him do this, I would have him stop, think, and react to what he had just read every other paragraph or so. He could also mark places that were of interest in the book.

1 comment:

  1. Emily

    I liked your idea of having the student stop and reflect on his reading. This strategy helps students to slow down, and also gives them a chance to think about what they have just read. This may be especially helpful for the boy you were working with because you said he was reading fast.

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