Purpose of Running Records

In the above video, a teacher discusses how important running records are in her classroom.

A running record is an assessment tool that provides information to a teacher about a child’s fluency and use of cues to figure out a word.  It was developed by Marie M. Clay (1993).  Variations of it are used in many instructional program frameworks including Boushey and Moser’s (2014) The Daily Five and Fountas and Pinnell’s Guided Reading (2016), and can help teachers make decisions about grouping students for skill and strategy instruction.

Running records can be used for screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring as they can be administered across the school year.

The possible purposes of using running records include:

• Finding an appropriate level of text for a child
• Developing flexible groups for instruction
• Documenting progress in reading fluency
• Proving insight into a child’s use of cueing systems
• Planning “next steps” for a child or group of children
• Summarizing the impact of instructional programs on reading
• Learning about the reading progress of children

In the early elementary grades, running records will typically be used with all children to assess reading levels, monitor fluency development, and provide ongoing movement between flexible groups. A teacher may complete a running record with a child every few weeks as reading development changes fast in K-2. In upper elementary grades, running records may be used less frequently as most children are fluent readers, but it may be used for diagnostic reasons with students who are struggling.

In the above video, a teacher discusses how she makes time for completing running records with her students.

To complete a running record, a child will read aloud a text that the teacher estimates to be at their independent level.  While the child reads, the teacher takes notes on the accuracy of the reading and marks down any deviations from the original text using a standard coding system. Sometimes teachers may also time the oral reading to know how many words per minute a child is reading.  Typically teachers will ask some comprehension questions to see if the child understood the text.

In the above video, you can see how teachers sit beside students with a running record form to take notes while the student is reading.

The procedure for analyzing the record will be discussed later, but there are multiple parts of the analysis – accuracy, speed, and miscues. 

After the child orally reads the text, the teacher will analyze the miscues.   When children do not read the actual word in the original text, it is called a “miscue” rather than a “mistake.”  During the analysis, teachers look at which cueing system children used to arrive at the word they actually read.  This helps teachers design instruction as they can build on the child’s existing strategies. At the upper elementary level, children can be involved in this miscue analysis to identify the cueing systems they are using and which ones they tend to not use.

Teachers may use a pre-printed set of leveled reading passages and recording forms that include the text on a student page and the words of the text on the teacher recording page.  These forms typically also provide guidance on the analysis of the running records.  Often this is used for screening and more formal progress monitoring 3-4 times a year.

However, with practice, teachers can also complete a running record with a blank sheet of paper or a blank form and use whatever text the child is currently reading.  Sitting side-by-side, the teacher can see the child’s text and take notes on the paper without pre-printed words.  These informal running records may be done more frequently and typically during independent reading time while the teacher confers with students.  It is a quick way to monitor if children are selecting books at their independent reading level.

Administering a Running Record

Determine Your Purpose

At the beginning of the year, teachers may complete a running record as a screening for determining levels of reading in their class.  Most likely the teacher will have a packet of leveled passages with scoring sheets for the grade level based on the reading program your school uses.  This standardized form of assessment requires that the teacher adheres to the directions of the packet and provides very little intervention when children don’t know a word.  There will be a student text and a separate teacher scoring sheet.  Many school districts have purchased digital forms of these assessments, so teachers record their child’s performance on the computer or iPad. 

If a teacher is using the running record as a quick check-in to ensure the child is reading an appropriate level book, the teacher would ask the child to select a current book and then ask if the child has read it before, or if it was a new-to-them book.  This is important information to write down, as a familiar text should be more fluent than a new text.

Materials Needed

• Student text of at least 100 words
• Teacher record form (or a piece of paper)
• Pencil
• Timer
• Recording device (Many new teachers like to have a backup recording to practice after the session.  However, with practice, the recording will become more automatic.)
• There are electronic apps available for taking running records.  Check with your school if they use one.

Setting the Stage

If the teacher is NOT using a leveled set of reading passages, and are just having the child read from a book, the teacher will need to count out the 100 words. This is useful for timing the reading passage. 

The teacher should arrange themself next to the child so they can see the text, yet take notes on their own page without distracting the child.  Many teachers use a clipboard or an electronic form of the recording sheet. 

Typically teachers will know their students, however, a teacher may need to spend a little time getting to know the child and tell them the purpose of the assessment  It is important that the child feels comfortable with the teacher and the assessment so they are not nervous.

Directions

The teacher should ask the child to read aloud the text.  If the teacher chooses to time the reading, they should let the child know this, and if the teacher will ask some questions after the reading.

Recording Accuracy

As the child is orally reading the story, the teacher will be marking down each time the child read a word correctly and any miscues the child makes. 

If the teacher does not have the text on the form, they will need to write the original word and any miscues above it.

After the student is done reading, the teacher may ask some comprehension questions. Pre-packaged, leveled forms will have the questions printed for the teacher. If the teacher is using a blank form, they should ask the child to retell the story and take notes on their retelling.

In the above video, a teacher is using informational text for a running record.  Observe how she records the student’s reading, but also uses the assessment to talk with the student about his areas of strength and ways to improve.

Scoring a Running Record

The first pieces of information that you can get from a running record are accuracy, error rate, and self-correction scores.

To be able to get these scores, the teacher first needs to know what the errors are in a running record.

To Score the Record:

1. Count only the running words in the text.  Do not include the title, subtitles, captions, etc.
2. Count the errors.
3. Count each word in a skipped line as an error.
4. Count a skipped page as one error and subtract the word count for the page from the total word count.
5. Count proper nouns (names) read inaccurately only once. Count other words read inaccurately each time.
6. Calculate: (Example – Total Words = 120    Errors= 12     Self-Corrections=6)

Accuracy Interpretation

Easy Text (95-100%)

Easy texts are wonderful for pleasure reading or to develop skills of meaning-making. There aren’t decoding challenges – good for independent reading

Appropriate Instructional Text (93-94%)

These are at the higher end of Instructional Texts (from Chapter 1) which are read with 90-94% accuracy. This would be a good choice for guided reading instruction as you would provide support for decoding and meaning-making.

Challenging Instructional Text (90-92%)

The child (or group of children) would need significant scaffolding to decode and understand this text. But, with interest, motivation, and support, children would be able to make meaning from it.  Good choice for read alouds.

Hard Texts (Below 90%)

A text that would most likely be too difficult for the child to decode and understand.

Error Ratio Interpretation

To be able to understand the cueing systems children are using, you would like to use a text that has an error rate of between 1:10-1:20. This means that for every 10 words read, there is one error.  If there are no or very few errors, you have nothing to analyze and the child should be encouraged to try more challenging text.  However, error rates higher than 1:9 would be frustrating to the child because, for every nine words read, there is an error.

Self-Correction Interpretation

In the example, the child has a self-correction rate of 1:3 which means that for every three errors made, the child self-corrects one. Excellent self-correction rates would be 1:1-1:3. Good self-correction rates are 1:4 or 1:5.  Above 1:5, most likely the child is not reading for meaning and is not recognizing errors made. If you had asked comprehension questions, the child probably would not have been able to tell you much about the story.

Miscue Analysis

When reading, fluent readers use three cueing systems together to read words – semantic, syntactic, and orthographic. Each cueing system considers an important question in trying to make meaning of the text:

1. Visual – Does it look right?
2. Structural – Does it sound right?
3. Meaning – Does it make sense?

Visual Cues – Does it look right?

Clearly, children need to decode the words on the page, which means they need to pay attention to the visual aspects of the letters and letter patterns in the word. Many children will look at the first and last letters and guess the sounds in between. It is important to prompt children to look at ALL the letters in a word. This is the work of the orthographic processing system.

Readers use their knowledge of the visual features of words and letters to recognize words.  When the child used the word “woods” rather than “forest” the child was not attending to the printed letters.

However, if the child has read “words” rather than “woods” then most likely the child was ONLY attending to the visual aspects of the word and not checking to see if it made sense.

Structural Cues – Does it sound right?

Structural or syntactical information can help children figure out an unknown word. This draws on both meaning and context processing systems as the child recognizes the grammar of the sentence.  If a child reads “word” instead of “worked” they substitute a noun for a verb, which doesn’t sound right.  Again, it is important to prompt the child to look at ALL the letters in the word AND then ask if it sounded right.

Meaning Cues  – Does it make sense?

If a child read the word “woods” rather than “forest” most likely the child is using meaning cues.  Although it would be counted as an error, when looking at it through the lens of a miscue, the word “woods” means the same as “forest” so the child is still making meaning from the text.

Children should be monitoring meaning-making as they read.  When they read a word that is not in the text, they should be prompted to ask themselves, “Does this make sense?”  This draws from the meaning and context processing systems. If it doesn’t make sense, the child should re-read the word, looking at ALL the letters, and then check that it makes sense.

Meaning, structure, and visual cues work together to figure out unknown words, but it begins with the visual.  Children need to decode the words on the page and then use their meaning and context processing systems to understand the words.  This coordinates with the Simple View of Reading where Word Reading is woven together with Language Comprehension (Burkins & Yates, 2021).

Analyzing Miscues

When analyzing the miscues within the running record, the goal is to notice the cues the child is using and which ones are not being used. In prompting children when they have miscues, they become more metacognitive about their reading. Since the purpose of reading is to make meaning, children should be checking-in with themselves as they read to see if the text is making sense. 

Most running record forms will have columns to analyze the errors made and the self-corrections separately.  You will either write the letters M, S, or V; put a checkmark or circle the letter, depending on the form.

Forms for the running records vary, but there is some additional information you may want to record:

• Reading rate (words/per minute)
• Comment on expressiveness and phrasing
• Comment on hesitancies
• Comment on confidence (think about how many appeals were made)

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

Strategic readers use strategies to recognize words and self-monitor their understanding of a text.  When you are analyzing miscues, you are identifying which strategies the reader was using or not using, which can then guide your instruction.  Some typical strategies readers use include:

• Repeating (rereading) when something doesn’t make sense.
• Employing all three cueing systems, not just one.
• Checking cueing systems against each other. (Does it sound right, look right, AND make sense?)
• Noticing when cues don’t match.
• Employing all three cueing systems, not just one.
• Reading with phrasing and fluency.

The first part of the video shows a running record.  Jump to minute 8 to hear how a teacher thinks through a RR and uses it to inform instruction.

Review and Questions to Ponder

Questions to Ponder

Some assessments, like running records, require the teacher to work one-on-one with a student but there is still a whole class of children who need to be productively working on something. Pay attention in your practicum to how your CT creates time and space for small group and individual instruction time.  What are the other children doing? How does your CT minimize interruptions during this instructional time? What happens with the other children need help?

There are many apps on the iPad to help teachers  – just search for “Running Records.” Look at some of the previews and reviews of the products.  What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using technology (like the iPad) to conduct running records? Talk with your CT (or other teachers) about this.

References

Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2014). The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades. Stenhouse Publishers.

Burkins, J., & Yates, K. (2021). Shifting the balance: 6 ways to bring the science of reading into the balanced literacy classroom. Stenhouse Publishers.

Clay, M.M. (1993). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2016). Guided reading: Responsive teaching across the grades. Portsmouth, NH: Heinmemann.

Additional Resources:

Learning at the Primary Pond – Great description with videos of how the teacher uses running records:

http://learningattheprimarypond.com/blog/how-to-analyze-running-records/

In the above video, a 6-year old boy read for a running record as the teacher marks her record form.

In the above video, the teacher explains how to analyze the running record of the 6-year old boy.