Although I cannot remember actually participating in running records as a younger student, I do remember seeing a second grade teacher that I would tutor for having her students do them. At first I didn't understand what the point was and how students reading a book aloud could give the teacher valuable information about their reading processes. I couldn't see what the teacher would find useful in this test other than how many errors the student makes. I used to think that many factors could change how the student reads the book, like if a student gets nervous reading aloud, how difficult the book is, how many people the student is reading in front of, etc. Reading the article on running records cleared up these misconceptions. I now understand how complex running records are, the best situations to complete running records with students, and some basis on how to interpret them to benefit the teacher's work with the students.
The main sentence that made me understand the text was, "The prime purpose of a Running Record is to understand more about how children are using what they know to get to the messages of the text, or in other words what reading processes they are using." I think this is demonstrated throughout the article and is made clear through the different examples. The way a student is reading the text aloud shows how the student is figuring out what the words are, interpreting the meaning, and how fast the student can read. I particularly liked the examples on page 5 contrasting Peter and John's running records with the same text. One can really see the difference of how students process what they are reading. If a student was sounding out a word versus coming up with a word that makes sense with the rest of the sentence, these are obvious clues about the student's thinking processes when reading.
In general, I think that running records can be very useful, especially to elementary teachers who focus on the reading process. The process that these teachers go through is very complex and detailed, but I am up to the challenge of trying to complete my own running record for a student. I think the most difficult tasks are going to be interpreting the running record, creating the analysis, and understanding how the student reads based off of the errors. It should be an interesting few weeks with running records!
I also don't remember participating in running records as a student! In reading the articles I definitely saw their purpose. I liked the quote you used, "The prime purpose of a Running Record is to understand more about how children are using what they know to get to the messages of the text, or in other words what reading processes they are using." I think that is the most important aspect in teaching a student to read because you can actually know what they are having problems with and address those specific areas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I never recall having a teacher perform a running record on me. However, this is still my first time learning about this tool. I also think that it is very valuable for elementary school teachers and I feel that they can gain a lot of insight into what comes out of a record. I also believe that it may be quite challenging interpreting them, creating the analysis, and understanding how students read based off them but hopefully after these two weeks we will become pros!
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