Running Records

Some how the work we have accomplished in 409 keeps connecting to my dyad! For example, I mentioned in class last week that my dyad teacher was teaching VC, CVC, CV patterns to her students. This was especially helpful to me, of course, since I have never learned phonics. Now this week I was excited to observe my teacher using running records to assess student reading levels. The Benchmark literacy program provides running record assessments according to reading level. The teacher times the student as they read, and then follows along on a separate page marking errors, repeats and self corrections. After a few pages the student finishes the book silently. Then the teacher reads from preselected questions to prompt the student for comprehension: "Within the Text", "Beyond the Text", and "About the Text". Overall accuracy, self corrections, fluency, reading rate, and comprehension are taken into consideration before a child is "moved up" to a new level reader. A second student was assessed on Thursday and I was able to follow along. It was difficult to keep up and remember all the symbols! Overall I find the assessment more helpful than the DIBELS assessment I completed in my main placement. There appears to be more information specific to their attributes as a reader in this assessment.