Running Records

Objectives• To review the components of the reading

process

• To promote participant awareness of Running Records as an assessment tool

• To provide an opportunity to practice using Running Records

• To facilitate discussion and reflection on the use of Running Records

Components of the Reading Process

Wide variety of texts

Attitude/ Motivation

Reading Fluency

ComprehensionVocabulary

Phonological Awareness/

Phonics

PDST:2013

Key Messages • Running Records are an effective tool for

assessing a child’s reading level

• Running Records can be used for grouping

children according to their instructional

reading levels

• Running Records are taken to guide teaching

• Running Records are taken to capture progress

Guided Reading

“Guided reading is a procedure that enables

teachers to support small groups of students who

use similar reading strategies and who are able to

read texts at a similar level”

(First Steps Reading Resource Book pg. 20 – 22)

What is a Running Record?

• An assessment of the child’s reading ability using an

appropriately selected piece of text

• A Running Record gives you evidence of what the

child is able to do, ready to learn and learning over a

period of time

• It requires observing and recording all behaviours to

help determine the “thinking process” children are

using to read a piece of text

(Assessment in the Primary School Curriculum, NCCA, 2007)

Assessment in the Primary School Curriculum: Guidelines for Schools (2007)

A broad range of assessment data

How to take a Running Record

• Sit the child beside you at a table

• Choose a piece of text appropriate for the child’s

reading ability approximately 150 words long*

• Observe the reading behaviours the child displays as

he/she is reading

• Do not teach during the Running Record

• Praise the child for their reading

Errors -V- Behaviours

• Appeal

• Try that again

• Repetition

• Self Correction

• Substitution • Insertion• Omission• Told

• Accurate reading

• Substitution went want

• Repetition (R) R

• Self-correction (SC) went sc

• Omission

very

How to take a Running Record

want

• Insertion little-

• Appeal Asometimes

• Told (T) thought T

• Try That Again [ TTA]

How to take a Running Record

11

Accurate Reading

Substitution

Self Correction

Omission & Insertion

black-

four

early--

long--

two

-

Sounding Out

Appeal

AMugs

Aeyes

Atwitch

Alicks

Avelvet

Teacher Told

_____ tail T

_____twitch T

____________ breakfast T

__________favourite T

Mugs T

Try That Again

b-i-gbig

√ √ √

Repetition

____R_big

_____R_eyes

_____R_hair

__________R_breakfast

Give it a go!

Scoring a Running Record

1. Count the number of words read

2. Count the number of errors made

3. Divide the number of words read by the errors

made to give you a ratio

4. Convert this to a percentage to find out the child’s

reading level

Reading Level

• 95% - 100% Easy

• 90% - 94% Instructional

•

Brainstorm the Practical Application of a Running Record

Interpreting Reading Errors

• Readers use three different cues when reading

1. Meaning Cues (Does it make sense?)

2. Visual Cues (Does is look right?)

3. Structural Cues (Does is sound right?)

Meaning Cues

• This refers to the child’s ability to make sense of a book at

the text, content and word level

• The child brings prior knowledge to every book they read

• If they are making meaning of the text, they think and

evaluate what they read

• If a child’s error makes sense in light of the background of

the story, information from pictures and meaning in the

sentence then the child is using a Meaning Cue (M)

Visual Cues

• Visual information is the way letters and words ‘look’.

• Readers connect how words and letters look to the

sound of words and letters, when they are reading

• If the child’s attempt resembles the word in the text

at all, they are using some component of a Visual

Cue (V)

Structural Cues

• Children who use structural cues are relying on their

knowledge of grammar and structure of language to

make the text sound right

• Using this knowledge, readers check whether or not

the word or sentence sounds right

• If the error made makes sense structurally then the

child is using Structural Cue (S)

Give it a go!

• Analyse the running record you have completed for

meaning, structural and visual cues

Planning for the Classroom

• Who?

• How?

• How often?

• What children?

• Consider the purpose?

Key Messages • Running Records are an effective tool for

assessing a child’s reading level

• Running Records can be used for grouping

children according to their instructional

reading levels

• Running Records are taken to guide teaching

• Running Records are taken to capture progress