Running Record Comparisons

I always enjoy the opportunity to listen to children read to me.  Although it is occasionally frustrating to listen to a student struggle through a text, it is also exhilarating to listen to a student conquer a challenging text. 

For this activity, I listened to second and third grade students read to me.  At the school I have been working at, the only second language is Spanish.  I will be comparing a second grade ELL student, a third grade ELL student and a second grade student whose native language is English.  All three students were assessed using the same texts at Level J from readinga-z.com.  The Level J book is called The Laughing Lady about a lady that laughs at everyone because it is her way of showing how she cares about them. 

When looking at the second grade ELL student’s running record, I see that she made three visual errors, and a syntax error.  She said “left” for “felt”, “chenkly” for “chuckle”, and “was laughing” for “laughed”.  She read the 102 word passage in one minute and four seconds.  The third grade ELL student made two visual errors, and two meaning errors.  She missed the word “once” but did say (w).  Instead of “chuckle” she said “chokey”.  She also said “the” instead of “a” and “the” instead of “his” the other time.  She read the passage in one minute and twenty seconds.  The second grade student whose native language is English made three syntax errors and a visual error.  He started to say “giggle” instead of “chuckle”, but caught himself and self-corrected.  He said “sometimes” for “someone”, but self-corrected.  He skipped the word “and”.  He also said “more than” instead of “everyone so”.  The sentence did not quite make sense, but he did not self-correct.  He read it in one minute and thirty nine seconds. 

As I look at the errors that these students made, I do not see errors that are specifically related to learning a second language.  I would have expected to see pronunciation errors, but I did not.  The errors I saw were universal.  I saw students who need to practice reading for meaning.  They need to be constantly checking that their reading makes sense.  When the sentence does not make sense, they need to learn to go back and take another look at the text.  I also saw students who need to slow down and look more closely at the words they are reading.  I thought it was interesting that the two ELL students read the story more fluently than the native English speaking student. 

Instruction for all of these students would include teaching them to look for familiar letter chunks in unfamiliar words.  Going forward, I would also spend time practicing simple sight words, since they were substituting the word “the” for “a”, or “his”.  Students may practice reading short passages to ensure they are monitoring understanding as they read.  Although the two ELL students read the passage more fluently than the native English speaking student, it would be a good idea to set up a fluency exercise daily.  They could read the same passage all week.  They would be timed on their first read, and read it aloud at least three times before reading it for time again.  Practicing reading this way and then answering a comprehension question daily will help students read more fluently and ensure they understand what they are reading. 

All three of these students need  a routine that will help them focus on the word that is written, break unfamiliar words into familiar letter chunks, monitor understanding as they read, and make sure they read basic sight words accurately.    I believe small group instruction is the best way to provide that support.