Running Record/Miscue Analysis The purpose of using a running record/miscue assessment is to determine the reading level of the students.

This way teachers can help their students become proficient readers, who read for multiple reasons. We want our students to be excited about reading and to do that they need to read books that are not too easy or too hard. So finding their reading level is a fantastic way to learn what a particular student should be reading. The assessment I used was the Development Reading Assessment (DRA). It assesses a students performance in reading engagement, oral reading fluency, and comprehension. The three areas that are assessed are all important qualities for great readers to have. It is one thing to be able to read the words on the page, but it is another thing to be able to understand what the words mean all together. This assessment was given at Wicoff School to a student in Mr. Jones third grade class. Originally, Mr. Jones picked the student for me to assess for both the spelling inventory assessment and the running record. The student he picked was a nine-year-old girl named Sainthavi, however Sainthavi was absent on the day planned to do the running record. Mr. Jones then picked Mishal, another nine-year-old girl in his class. Mr. Jones gave me a Level 40 book to have Mishal read to me. Level 40 books are benchmark books for third graders who are reading on the fourth-grade level. The book was titled A Journey to Freedom; a historical fiction story about a mother and son who are slaves in the mid-1800s that touches on the Underground Railroad and the freedom of slaves. To conduct this assessment Mishal, Mr. Jones, and I went into the hallway. Mr. Jones explained to Mishal that she was doing this to help me and she was willing to help me. Mr. Jones gave me the sheet to record and I read the directions to Mishal. I instructed her to read the first two pages aloud to Mr. Jones and me and then stop. Mishal read aloud the first two pages while I marked her progress on the attached paper and also timed her. When she finished reading I told her that she had done well and then gave her a worksheet where she would answer two questions about prediction. When she finished that I gave her A Journey to Freedom back and had her read it to herself and when she finished to come find Mr. Jones or me. After she finished reading the book, we gave her the next worksheet. She had to write a summary and answer questions using literal comprehension, interpretation, reflection, and metacognitive

awareness. Once, she finished the worksheet she brought it back to me and I thanked Mishal for helping me out for my school. During the running record part of this assessment, Mishal had three errors out of the 253 words we asked her to read aloud. One of her errors was when she wasnt sure how to say the name Boyd and I had to tell her. The name Boyd came up a couple more times in her reading and she did not struggle to say the name again. Her second error was when she added a word and did not self-correct. Her final error was when she substituted a word. The word she was supposed to read was his and instead she said this. None of her errors, however, interfered with her reading. Using the formula, words divided by total seconds all multiplied by 60, I calculated Mishals words per minute. Her total words per minute were 112 words. I then took her words per minute and total number of miscues and looked at the chart to determine what level, based off her oral reading she is at. According to the chart, Mishal is at the advanced level based off her number of miscues and is at the independent level based off her words per minute. I then looked at how Mishal comprehended the story. I read all her responses before coming to any conclusions about her comprehension skills. Then I went back through each section to see what I could learn about Mishal. When it comes to her questioning/prediction skills, I would put her at the instructional level. Only some of her predictions made sense. There were a couple points where I had to question what she was trying to say. However, after reading the rest of her written work it became clear that she had a good understanding of the story. Her summary of the story was in her own words and included important facts of the story with detail. I would put her at the independent level because she did not give specific details and include all of the important events in her summary. I decided this using the rubric from the Developmental Reading Assessment. For the other components, literal comprehension, interpretation, reflection, and metacognitive awareness I also put her in the independent reading level. She was missing some of the specifics in her answers and did not demonstrate higherlevel thinking. Overall, Mishal is a fantastic reader. She reads at a steady pace and only made three errors in her read aloud. I was very impressed with her abilities. If I was her teacher I would make sure that all of her just-right books she has in her bin and still

good for her level of reading. She is also at a great level in terms of reading engagement, oral reading fluency, and comprehension. After that I would want to think about how I could make Mishal an even better reader. Because she is already on the independent reading level for after reading, I would want to bring her before reading and during reading processes. I would want to make sure that all three parts of reading are all equally on the same level before working on moving Mishal to the advanced level of reading. I do not want her to succeed in one area and then struggle in another. I want everything to be equal. Therefore, I would work with her to make better predictions about books. I would encourage her to use her prior knowledge to answer any questions she may have or predict what could happen in the story prior to actually reading it. Then, while she reads I would stop her at certain parts to have her tell if any of her predictions are being confirmed and if she wants to make any new predications. I think that encouraging her to continuously make predictions about a certain text will help her when she reads without any support. After working with Mishal on making predictions for a while, I would do another running record with a different book and see if she has improved and if she is ready to start learning more advanced methods for reading.