After reading about how to do Running Records, I remember why I was discouraged and overwhelmed about doing them. In the schools I've taught in, RR isn't used as an assessment tool. I realize that I'm not good at doing reading assessments and this class will ensure that I'll get better at it! The types of assessments I've done are the canned ones from the reading program, dibels and my own notes when I've worked in small groups. When I've had serious concerns about a student, I've relied on Reading Tosa's to do additional tests. Although RR will require a working knowledge of the abbreviations, it should be a good tool to use once I understand how to use the data. I'm looking forward to learning how to give assessments and understanding how it will drive instruction.
The article I selected, "Reading Is Your Thing" is about teaching students to read different types of texts. We tend to rely heavily on fiction as the standard for teaching about reading although so many children love to read about nature or how things work. This past year, I taught science and social studies and I quickly discovered that students didn't know how to "read to understand" the texts. The step-by-step model the author discusses builds on what the students should know about reading fiction works; what is the main idea, background knowledge, making inferences, answering questions, and monitoring comprehension to name a few.
Running Records is all about the practice. If it makes you feel any better, I'm horrible at it. Too many checkmarks for me. I do know several primary teachers, however, that swear by it. It's just that the kiddos I serve are fairly fluent, and move too fast for me. Despite what Clay says, record your session and then go back after the initial record to see what you missed. It will help, trust me.
ReplyDeleteMost of us grew up in a system where most of our educational reading centered around fictional text, and yet 75% of what we read as adults is non-fiction. How that got by us as educators for so many years, I'll never know. I recommend you check out Janet Allen's work. She has a couple of books out that specifically deal with reading non-fiction text and strategies for helping kids.