Observing The Reading

Process
Abstract
Reading is one of the most complex and difficult process a person
will learn in their lifetime, and yet is one of the most important and
necessary in a persons success. (Bransford, Brown, Cocking,
Donovan, & Pellegrino, 2000)
Most often children are taught, at a very young age, to begin
learning to read, usually when beginning school, and sometimes
before. Many methods are used to teach and assist in teaching
students to read easily and well, with one of the most credible and
comprehensive being the Running Record.
A method used in schools to analyse childrens reading, and the
progress they make is a Running Record. These records are used to
analyse childrens reading, and the progress they make, and include
many factors such as the rate at which a child makes errors, and is
able to correct these themselves, as well as the cues they use to
correct and improve fluency and word recognition.
The following report will provide an in depth view of an analysis of
the observational records of Christophers oral reading and literacy
behaviours.

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1

Student Profile
Name: Christopher
Age: 5.9 Years Old
First Language: English
Family: 6 Members, Mother, Father and 3 Older Sisters
Lives: Rural NSW
Class: K1H (Miss Horton)

Interests

Computer Games Crash Bandicoot

Movies Happy Feet & The Land Before Time
Music The Wiggles & Aussie Songs CD
Dinosaurs
Sports Football & Cricket

Reading

PMReaders
Grandpa and Thomas & The Green Umbrella Pamela Allen
Fearless Colin Thompson
Kip Christina Booth
Amazing Facts About Australian Dinosaurs Steve Parish
AFL Ladder & TV Guide

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1

Miscue Analysis
The use of the audio file of Christopher reading The Baby
Duckling, as well as the Running Record Summary which coincides
with it, are an excellent source in analysing Christophers reading
abilities and word recognition skills.
Marie Clay (2013) states that to correctly attain the level
Christopher has met, in terms of these skills, the reading cues that
he has recognized and demonstrated need to be confirmed.
Christopher has drawn from many cues in his reading, and has
shown signs of awareness of how to scan text, visual details of
words, spaces, the letters, sounds that are represented, syntax and
meaning.
Christopher seems to be developing and improving his fluency and
expression, though he still speaks slightly disjointedly, with word-byword tendency.

Quantifying The Running Record

Total Number of Running Words: 201
Accuracy Rate: 100 9 / 201 x 100 / 1 = 6400 / 67 = 95.52%
Ratio of Errors to Running Words: 9 / 201 = 1:22.33
Self Correction Ratio: 13 / 19 + 13 = 13 / 22 = 1:1.69
Table 1
Total
Ratios

Errors
9
1:22.33

Self Corrections
13
1:1.69

Observational Notes
The above information shows the multiple steps, and results of
Christophers Running Record.
Christopher made 9 errors throughout the whole reading, which
from the total number of words, being 201, is quite few.
Using the quantified results, we see that Christopher made 1 error
every 22.33 words, as seen in Table 1.
Self-Corrections can be relevantly considered as potential, or
rectified errors. That being said, from 22 total errors, inclusive of
those rectified, Christopher has noticed his own mistake and solved
it to find the correct word.
To better understand why Christopher made the errors, they, and
the self-corrections need to be looked into further.
Most of Christophers errors were related to the visual text and high
frequency words. An example of this is his confusion between
ducks and ducklings, which are visually very similar words, as
well as between can not and cant, him and her and my

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1

and she, which also show his lack of knowledge of high frequency
words.
Analysing Christophers self-corrections also reflects his lack of
knowledge of high frequency words. Christopher mistakes they for
you, though was able to self-correct and find the correct word, in
this and 12 other cases.
To understand how Christopher made these corrections they must
be examined closely. Two sentences partway through the reading,
that Christopher missed completely, then realized and went back
and re-read them and the surrounding sentences to make complete
sense of the text. The same error is made towards the end of the
reading, though this time Christopher does not correct it. This could
be attributed to a lack of interest in the reading, or wanting to finish
quickly. To address this, Christopher may benefit from using his
index finger to follow the text as he reads.

Reading Development
It is clear during the audio file of Christophers reading that he uses
sounding out to assist in his self-corrections, though in some cases
he appealed to his teacher without trying to use visual cues and
sound out the word he did not know. This shows the significance of
educating Christopher about a range of solving skills, before
requesting assistance. As he predominantly uses visual cues, it
could be beneficial to motivate Christopher to think about the
syntax or meaning of the text, and ask himself whether the word
works with the rest of the sentence, page of story. Christopher does
display awareness of meaning while answering questions about the
story at the end of his reading.
According to the K 10 English Syllabus (2012), Christopher is
classes as an Early Stage 1 learning, who should demonstrate skills
and strategies to read, view and comprehend short, predictable
texts on familiar topics in different media and technologies.

Text Analysis The Baby Duckling

The Baby Duckling is classified as an easy difficulty level, due to
Christopher achieving over 95% correct, reflecting his meeting the
syllabus outcomes for ES1. This text could be used in the classroom
in a variety of ways, for example as a whole class reading, or during
silent reading, or as a home-reader to use with parents, though for
Christopher to achieve optimal learning, material should be given at
the students personal instructional level. (Clay, 2013)

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1

Activities To Support Further Development

Activity 1
To target Christophers struggle with high frequency words, teaching
them in context and regularly, may assist in retaining his
knowledge.
High Frequency Words Jenga (Appendix 1), involving large Jenga
blocks, is played in pairs. Students take turns in removing one block
each from the pile, each block has a high frequency word on the end
of it. As the student removes the block, they state the word, and
their partner makes up a sentence with that word in it.

Activity 2
To improve Christophers fluency, reading The Monster at the End
of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover by Jon Stone, may
be very useful. The book is a story that has very well defined
punctuation and accentuation, and during the reading of the story,
improving fluency and expression makes the story much more
exciting and fun.
Students may read this book in pairs, as a class or as a home
reader, whichever way chosen they should be encouraged to place
as much expression into the book as possible, even if it seems
slightly silly. An online version for use on a SmartBoard can be found
at: http://smollin.com/michael/tmonstr/mon003.html

Activity 3
To continue to improve fluency the whole class should choose a
book, and read together, taking it in turns, with the teacher and
then one student reading each paragraph or page. The teacher
should encourage students to use expression in their reading, with
the teacher leading by example.
Following completion of the reading, the class should be broken into
groups and assigned a section of the book to act out what
happened. Drama is extremely beneficial for working on expression
and fluency, learning from other students in a creative way.
(Wagner, 1976)

Activity 4
To encourage Christopher to use syntax and meaning when reading,
providing him with an instructional level text may be useful.
Encouraging Christopher to think about what has happened in each
chapter and what may happen in the following chapter, so that he
thinks about the meaning of the text and takes it on board while he
is reading.

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1

Communication To Parents
Rankins Springs Public School
1323 Boree Road
Rankins Springs NSW 2666
(T) 02 6966 6021 (F) 02 6966 6921
(E) rankinsprings.primary@edu.gov.au

Mr J & Mrs R Hemsworth

Red Lands
Rankins Springs NSW 2666
Dear Jack & Rose,
I am writing to you in regards to Christophers progress in literacy, in
particular reading.
He has developed many aspects of his reading since the initial
assessments at the beginning of the year, and has shown great leaps in
his word recognition.
Your support in Christophers reading at home has played a large part in
his progress, and will continue with the further improvements to be made.
I have recently conducted a Running Record for the text The Baby
Duckling, Christopher achieved a 95.5% accuracy rate with this text, and
I have consequently moved him to a higher difficulty level in the PMReader
series. He is now reading at a level four, which you should all be extremely
proud of.
Christopher has shown an improvement in his fluency, and is reading
word-by-word. I plan to provide the class with some activities in the
coming weeks to address and assist all of them in further improvements in
this area.
This can be supported at home by continued adult supervision and
encouragement during his home reading, with particular focus on his
expression during reading, and finding meaning in the text. Christopher
often speaks of his enjoyment of reading the Steve Parish books at home,
and I am very grateful for your support and assistance in his reading
development.
Christopher shows great skills in using visual clues to decode a text, and
we will continue to foster these skills, as well as moving him to try and use
additional skills to gain further understanding of the syntax and meaning
of the text. These skills will help him as he advances to more difficult
texts, with less visual clues.
To encourage him to develop his problem solving skills at home, prompt
him to sound out words he is not sure of, rather than providing him
assistance as soon as he requests it. Using questions like Does that word
work in the sentence? or Does that work make sense in the story? will
help him to build the skills to use other clues while problem solving.
One final point that Christopher would benefit from focusing on at home is
his recognition of high frequency words, using flash cards will allow him to
practice these words, and making a speed game or competition often
encourages students to gain recognition of these words.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to call me on 0447 680
900, or visit the classroom before or after school.

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1

Kind Regards,
Isabel Horton
K1H
Rankins Springs Public School
02 6966 6021

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1

Appendix
APPENDIX 1

(Carrie, 2013)

References
Board Of Studies NSW. (2012). English K - 10 Syllabus. Retrieved
from http://syllabus.bos.nsw.edu.au/english/english-k10/
Bransford, J., Brown, A., Cocking, R., Donovan, M., & Pellegrino, J.
(2000). How People Learn. Washington: National Academy Press.
Carrie, M. (2013). High Frequency Words Jenga. Retrieved from
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/351069733424958775/
Clay, M. (2013). An Observation Survey Of Early Literacy
Achievement (Vol. 3). Auckland: Pearson.

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Assessment 1

Wagner, B. (1976). Drama As A Learning Medium. Washington:

National Education Association.

EML210 Julie King

Isabel Horton 11477162

Assessment 1