Reading Small Groups can be overwhelming for many teachers. So let’s explore the various components of small group instruction in order to make it more fun and less intimidating! You may also be interested in finding out more in my Getting Started Guide for Small Groups, Tips for Writing Small Group Lesson Plans or Essential Tools for Small Groups.
Small Group Assessments
In this series of posts, we are looking at small group assessments you can administer during guided reading. We’ll explore running records in this post. Click below to view the other methods for collecting data on your students.
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What are Running Records?
Running Records one of the most commonly used small group assessments. They are a way of analyzing a student’s reading behaviors. As a student reads aloud, the teacher records incorrect words, omissions, decoding attempts, rereading, fluency rate, and expression. Running records can be used as a progress monitoring tool when administered regularly. For additional information, you may want to check out Marie Clay’s Running Records Book as she is the literacy expert most associated with this assessment.
When administering a running record, teachers use symbols (as shown here) to record student behaviors. Download these FREE running records forms!
Running Records Overview
Running records are NOT as intimidating as some teachers seem to think! It does not have to be a formal running record like you administer to find students’ baseline data (such as the DRA2 or Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Assessment). Some teachers think you can only administer a running record on a specific book using a specific form as they do with those assessments. While those running records are beneficial, not every running record is as formal.
You can take a running record on any book using any type of paper!
Yes, you read that correctly! You can take a running record on any book using any type of paper. Running Records do not have to be a formal assessment. Quite often I will take a quick running record on any paper that happens to be nearby including a post-it note! Here’s all that you’ll need to record:
- Student Name
- Date
- Book Title
- Book Level
- Miscues/errors
- Reading behaviors (like repetitions)
- Fluency rate
- Notes about expression
- Accuracy percentage
You can use the following formulas to further analyze students’ performance on their running records. These formulas help teachers determine if the book is at an appropriate level for the student and if they are meeting grade-level norms.
Accuracy
To calculate a student’s accuracy, you’ll first need to determine their total number of words read correctly. This can be done by subtracting the number of errors from the total number of words read.
Total # words read correctly _____ x (divide by) Total number of words read = Accuracy Rate
Use this number to determine in which accuracy range the student falls: 95%-100% independent range, 90%-94% instructional range, 89% and below frustrational range.
Fluency Rate
You’ll need to time the students as they read to determine their fluency rate.
Total # words read _____ x (multiply by) 60; ÷ (divide by) # of seconds to read passage = words per minute (wpm)
Fluency & Accuracy
You’ll first need to determine the student’s total number of words read correctly as mentioned above. Hasbrouck & Tindal’s Fluency Norm Chart determines students’ percentile ranks based on their number of correct words per minute score (cwpm).
Download these fluency quick check forms.
Total # words read correctly _____x (multiply by) 60; ÷ (divide by) # of seconds to read passage = correct words per minute (cwpm)
Tips for Administering Running Records
- Students don’t have to read the entire text! You can take a running record on a couple of pages or even a couple of paragraphs. The purpose is just to give you a quick snapshot of their reading behaviors to identify trends.
- Administer running records consistently. Decide what is realistic for you. Ideally, you should be administering a running record every day during your small groups. You’ll want to do them consistently enough for progress monitoring. Students who are below grade level should have a running record administered every 1-2 weeks. Students who are reading above grade level may only have a running record administered each quarter.
- Develop a system for running records. No matter what type of paper you use to record your notes, make sure you have a system for keeping track of the data. Whether it’s adding the paper/post-it note to a specific place in your small group lesson plan binder or typing the results into an online document afterward. Just make sure to keep it somewhere!
- Use the data! Running records are a waste of your time if you don’t analyze students’ reading behaviors to identify strengths and areas for growth.
Utilizing the Data
Marie Clay recommends using the 3 cueing systems to analyze student’s miscues: visual, meaning, syntax.
- Grapho-phonetic (visual) – Check to see if the student’s miscues look similar to the word (example “cat” for “cap” suggests the student isn’t looking at ending sounds).
- Semantic (meaning) – Determine if the word makes sense in the context of the story but is not phonetically accurate. (For example, if a student says “hat” instead of “cap” they are using meaning but not visual cues).
- Syntax (grammar structure) – Decide if the student used parts of speech. (For example, using an incorrect noun in the place of another noun versus substituting it with a verb).
Current research advises teachers against the 3 cueing systems such as this post from literacy expert Timothy Shanahan.
Teachers can use the information provided in a running record for a miscue analysis. This means analyzing students’ errors to determine specific areas of need. This may include students who consistently miss short vowel sounds or leave off endings of words. Teachers can use that knowledge about a student to plan explicit lessons targeting those skills.
Download these FREE running records forms!
Ultimately the goal of small group assessments and running records specifically is to gain additional information about a student. This data should be used to plan targeted instruction based on students’ needs as well as to progress monitoring to ensure that the instruction is effective.
How often do you administer running records? How do you utilize the data provided by them? Share with us in the comments below!
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