Running Records are a very important tool for teacher to check on and monitor a child's reading.
These days most Running Records are complete as part of a PM Running Record kit and things have been simplified but may also be too simplified -for example teachers often use a RR from the kit that if the child has been on the same level for a while then they have seen had a go at the passage and questions before and can pass and be moved to the next level off familiarity with the text not due to their reading ability.
It is also common for teacher to test a student on material that they have read before -to build a students confidence. I would suggest that if you want to build their confidence then you need to test them on unsighted material to ensure they are not moved up to a new level before they are ready!
It is also a good idea to ask additional questions when using the PM RR Kit.
If a student has done well in reading unsighted well levelled material (PM Readers) and yet does not do well in a RR it is a good idea to try another book as sometimes a child may not be familiar with the contect of the reader, thus facing unfamiliar vocabulary or understandings.
Generally, a RR is more to analyse what is happening when the student reads and hearing the student read well levelled material still gives a clear indication of whether the student is ready to progress to a new level. If they are able to read several new unsighted readers at a given level with little or no errors and good fluency and flow - then they are ready to move up levels.
Within a RR the teacher will be looking to see:
- Decoding strategies used
- Level of Self-correcting
- If an error is syntactic or semantic
- And the flow of the movement through the text.
Here is an example of the coding used in a RR:
Marking a Running Record Form
Several terms are used when marking a running record form. You should become familiar with these terms by reviewing the explanations below.
- Substitutes another word for a word in the text
- Omits a word
- Inserts a word
- Has to be told a word
There are two steps to marking a running record. Step 1 involves marking the text on the running record form as the student reads from the benchmark book. Before taking your first running record, become familiar with the symbols used to mark a running record form.
Errors (E)--Errors are tallied during the reading whenever a child does any of the following:
- Self-correction (SC)--Self-correction occurs when a child realizes her or his error and corrects it. When a child makes a self-correction, the previous substitution is not scored as an error.
- Meaning (M)--Meaning is part of the cueing system in which the child takes her or his cue to make sense of text by thinking about the story background, information from pictures, or the meaning of a sentence. These cues assist in the reading of a word or phrase.
- Structure (S)--Structure refers to the structure of language and is often referred to as syntax. Implicit knowledge of structure helps the reader know if what she or he reads sounds correct.
- Visual (V)--Visual information is related to the look of the letters in a word and the word itself. A reader uses visual information when she or he studies the beginning sound, word length, familiar word chunks, and so forth.
Once the student has read all the text on the running record form and you have recorded their reading behavior, you can complete Step 2. In Step 2 you fill in the boxes to the right of the lines of text you have marked. Begin by looking at any error the student has made in the first line. Mark the number of errors made in the first box to the right of the line. If the student self corrected any of these errors, mark the number of self-corrections in the second box to the right of the line. Next determine whether the errors and self-corrections were made as a result of meaning, structure, or visual cueing. For a description of each of these cues, review the explanations provided above. Write MSV in each box for each error and a self-correction made and circle the appropriate letter for the cue used by the student. After completing step two you should total the number of errors and self-corrections and write each total in the box at the bottom of the appropriate column.
Scoring and Analyzing a Running Record.
Next calculate the student's:
- Error rate (ratio: Total words / Total errors = Error rate),
- Accuracy rate ( % correct),
- and self-correction rate (again a Ratio of Self correction to errors),
