Cory Bova

EDUC 681
Running Records

Overview:
For the purposes of this case study, I pulled three students at the end of their first, second,
and third grade year, all of which reside in the same classroom at a Montessori School.
The second grade student has been identified as an English Language Learner, and all
three students were familiar with me as my son belongs to the same classroom family.
With the exception of a second independent text, all three sources were leveled texts
derived from Reading A-Z. Aside from my ELL student, I did not necessarily have any
particular student in mind, and approached this task by individually requesting volunteers
to read to me with no indication of my analysis process. All students were pulled to a
makeshift area in the hallway and none of them were timed. The running records are
included in this document, along with their analysis and instructional plans. All Told
Words were coded as Teacher Assisted (TA).

Grade 1, Document A:

My first grade student was incredibly enthusiastic about participating in this exercise, and
indicated that she reads to her mother nightly. Her behaviors during her reading reflected
her enjoyment as she smiled throughout the process. She read a level G text titled
“Sally’s Bath” with a 96% accuracy rate and self-correction rate of 1:5, placing her in the
“easy text” range. She made one self-correction, and relied primarily on visual cues as
indicated by substituting watch for “wash,” instead for “inside,” their for “through,” and
to a lesser extent, that for “what.” Though I could make an argument for an almost equal
reliance on meaning cues, she read with such a high degree of fluency that I honestly
believe she saw similar letters within the identified words and moved on.

Recommendations for Instruction: Though I would not dedicate a tremendous amount of

time in this arena, I would review high-frequency words in order to offset some of the
student’s reliance on visual cues. In addition, I would conduct a mini lesson on utilizing
context clues, and would ultimately guide the student towards selecting a “just right” text.

Grade 2, Documents B-1 & B-2:

My second grader, an identified ELL student, who, despite the fact that she is a friend of
my son, was significantly more reluctant to participate in this exercise with me. After
only having completed 39 words of a 99-word text titled “The Treasure Map,” I made the
decision to abandon the material in favor of a book of her choosing. The initial text
weighed in at a level K, and though I was not timing the session, the student read with
several pauses between words and with low volume. She read the initial text with 85%
accuracy and no self-corrections, which indicated that the material was considered a
“hard text.” Outside of using a visual and structural cue by substituting and for “an,” and
omitting one word (treasure), her remaining four errors required a told word. The
student’s second text (document B-2) was one that she already read titled “The House in
the Night.” It consisted of 105 words, 101 of which she read correctly, giving her an
accuracy rate of 96%- an “easy text.” She relied on a visual cue by substituting burns for
“bright,” and given the context, meaning potentially plays a role as well. Her remaining
three errors required a told word, and like her initial text, she did not attempt any self-
corrections.

Recommendations for Instruction: Given her lack of cuing, I would conduct mini lessons
on all three systems- Meaning, Visual, and Structure. I would design thematic units
through the utilization of culturally responsive texts, and work on building background
knowledge through visuals while pre-teaching essential vocabulary. In order to aid in
vocabulary development, I would ensure that all essential Tier 1 words contain a
translation of their non-English equivalency, or that the student is paired with another
individual who is bilingual. As many Tier 2 words are Latin based (Tompkins, 2015, p.
188), and my student’s primary language is Spanish, I would ask her to identify whether
an unfamiliar word is similar to a word in Spanish. In addition, I would incorporate
several word study activities such as word sorts and word walls to help her deepen her
understanding of specific words.

Grade 3, Document C:

My third grader was somewhat indifferent to the process and read the material with a flat
tone while slouched over the table. He read “Running with Jennifer”, a level R text with
a word count of 156. He made 11 errors giving him an accuracy rate of 93%, indicating
that the material is at the “appropriate instructional level.” He did not attempt any self-
corrections, and had a tendency to read through punctuation, segueing one sentence into
the next. He relied primarily on visual and structural cues. For example, he substituted
phine for “phone” (V), taking for “talking” (V), rain for “running” (V), watching for
“watched” (S), their for “her” (S), and her for “their” (S).

Recommendations for Instruction: As this text was at the appropriate instructional level, I
would utilize similar texts for practice while incorporating easy texts with the intention of
building fluency. As automaticity plays a key role, I would center certain instructional
activities on high-frequency words. In order to develop speed and prosody, I would
incorporate readers theater activities along with listening centers (Tompkins, 2015, p.
168-169), ensuring that the topics are of interest and that he is able to read the text with
98 or 99% accuracy.

Reflection:

As this was my first foray into conducting running records, I found it extremely useful to
pull from a bank of leveled texts. I didn’t necessarily have a clear idea of where to start,
but instead went through the leveled texts and pulled the material that looked right based
on its associated grade-level equivalency, then adapted according to student behavior. In
this regard, I found that my familiarity with the students (and their familiarity with me)
helped foster a comfortable working environment.
 References

Tompkins, G. E. (2015). Literacy in the early grades: A successful start for prek-4
readers and writers (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson.