Colour wheel and Running Records

Tom Nicholson

Ready to Read Colour Chart

Reading Level Colour5-5½ Magenta

Red

Yellow

5½ - 6 Dark blue

Green

6-6½ Orange

6½ - 7 Light blue/Turquoise

7 – 7½ Purple

7½ - 8 Dark yellow/gold

8-8 ½ Emerald (PM series is Silver)

8 ½ - 9 White

Reading levels for older pupils

Reading Level School Journals

8-8½ Part 1

8½ - 9 Parts 1-3

10-11 Part 4

Note: Junior Journals are supposed to be from 6-8 years

Basic scoring codesAccurate reading√ = correct

When the reader is reading accurately a tick is used to represent each word correctly read

Substitutions When the reader substitutes another word for the word in text, the reader's response is recorded above a horizontal line with the text beneath

Omission When the reader misses out a word a dash is placed above the horizontal line and the word in text below the line

Self Correction SC = self-correction

When reader initially makes an incorrect response but then corrects the response, SC is placed above the horizontal line after the child's initial response.

Teacher tells the wordT = teacher tells the word

When observer tells reader a word without request or after use of ‘you try it'. Recorded by a capital T being next to the horizontal line. Avoid telling the word except you can tell the name of a person e.g., “Susan”.

Old TuataraBy Joy Cowley

2. Old tuatara sat in the sun.

3. He sat and sat and sat.

4. “Asleep,” said the fantail.

5. “Asleep,” said the gull.

6. “Asleep,” said the frog.

7. “Asleep,” said the fly.

8. “Not asleep,” said Old Tuatara.

Running record scoring codes

V = Visual = Does pupil use visual information from the letters and words?

M = Meaning = Does the pupil miscue make sense even if inaccurate?

S = Structure = Is the miscue possible in an English sentence – is it syntactically appropriate?

A miscue might be coded as one or more of V, S, or MCircle V or S or M if you think these cues were used – the

uncircled letters show the cues that were not used

Other codes:R = rerunApp = pupil asks for help

Critiques of running records (Blaiklock, 2003)

• The reading levels assigned in the colour chart may not be accurate – there is no research to be sure that these levels are correct – so it is difficult to know that the colour assigned is the correct one

• Some teachers let the pupils read the text first, and then reread it – this can give inflated scores

• Running records do not assess comprehension – teachers need to ask additional questions to verify comprehension

• Self-correction as a strategy has been questioned – good readers are supposed to correct one in three miscues but poor readers may not be able to do this because they make so many more miscues than do good readers

• Some miscues can throw out the reading level, e.g., if the pupil makes the same miscue a number of times

• It is difficult to be sure when the reader is using decoding strategies, especially if they only focus on the first or last letters

• Meaningful miscues are more likely when the text is at the right level for the pupil, i.e., 95% accuracy or better – loss of meaning when the text is hard does not mean the pupil can’t read for meaning, only that there are not enough context cues to make meaningful responses – sometimes poor readers appear not to be reading for meaning but this may only be because they are making too many miscues to make meaning