Module 4 - Videos

Running Records Videos

The Running Records video demonstrated how to record Running Records. These videos would be great for a brand new teacher or someone that has never taken Running Records. I take Running Records daily with my students. I use Running Records to determine a student’s reading level and overall fluency level. However, I do not mark my Running Records the same as the teacher demonstrated on these videos. I feel that a lot of teachers find what works best for them on Running Records and stick with those marks. I use similar markings to what the teacher demonstrated. However, I do not use tick marks (checks) above the correctly pronounced words with my fourth graders because there are more words in our passages and sometimes they read faster where I cannot possibly check above each word they read. I tend to use editing marks on my Running Records because they make sense to me. For example, I use a caret and write the word that a child incorrectly inserts above the caret. Also, I circle the word and draw a curly arrow (similar to the proofreaders’ “delete” editing mark) when a student omits a word. I write s/c when a child self-corrects themselves and I do not count those toward their miscues since they were able to self-correct without any teacher prompting. If a child says a different word than what was written, I put one slash mark through the written word and write the word they said above the text. I think Running Records are helpful but every teacher has to find their own writing marks that will work for his/her teaching style and students.

Analysis with Running Records

I enjoyed how the student knew his reading goals and what he is currently working on. Students should always know what they need to work on, especially older students. I also make sure I do this with my students. All students need to learn how to assess their own fluency and comprehension in an effort to become stronger readers.  I also like to show my students where their miscues occur and re-examine their miscues. Students often do not see their miscues while they’re reading, so it is important to draw attention to their miscues so they can work on monitoring their own comprehension and fluency. I often ask my students, “Did that make sense?” This allows them to stop and think about their miscues and self-correct them instead of me saying the correct word. If they are unaware of the new word, I ask if it looks like another word that they already know or if they can they sound it out. My tutee and I are jotting down difficult words on a sticky note and then analyzing what they mean using context clues or the dictionary. This will help build his vocabulary and overall fluency/comprehension levels while reading. Also, I looked around the www.litdiet.org website and really enjoyed the word work video where the teacher played “Wheel of Fortunate” with new vocabulary. The teacher introduced new words for the word wall and math word wall in a “Wheel of Fortunate” and “Hangman” style where the students took educated guesses to find out the new words. I want to try this out in my classroom because I have a word wall that includes all academic words. This would help my tutee and other students since they could refer back to this word wall throughout the school year.