I administered two running records on two third grade ELL students who are currently reading below grade level. Unfortunately, the records themselves did not scan in correctly, however, the descriptions of the miscues are described below.
The first student, Jawad, used mostly visual cues to decode unfamiliar words, but some of his miscues showed that he was also reading for meaning and structure. In the following sets of words, the first word is the word that was in the text. The second word is what Jawad said in place of the correct word. Following each set of words, there is a quick explanation as to what strategy or strategies that Jawad was using to decode the words.
“fear”- “fer” - This does not sound right or make sense, so this was a visual miscue.
“don’t”- “do not”- Here, Jawad used meaning, structure, and visual to decode this word. It looks right, makes sense, and sounds right.
“harmless”- “harm”- This was a visual error. It doesn’t sound right or make sense, but visually it is correct. He just left off the suffix.
“bite”- “bit”- Jawad used meaning, structure, and visual cues to decode this word. It sounds right, makes sense, and visually, it is correct. This might be an indication that he does not understand the long “e” rule.
Jawad omitted the word, “venom” altogether.
“fangs”- “figgers” - Jawad did not use meaning or syntax here. “Figgers” isn’t even a word, so this was completely visual.
“30,000” – “300”- This indicates that Jawad may not know how to read numbers correctly. Here, he used all three strategies. It still made sense, was visually correct, and it sounded right.
“bodies”- “buddies” – This word was part of the sentence, “But some have bodies…” The word, “buddies”, could make sense here, it is visually correct, and it sounds right.
“length”- “lots”- Jawad used just his visual strategy here. The word, “lots” does not make sense in this sentence or sound correct.
“spreading”- “spiding”- Jawad was clearly using his visual strategy here, as “spiding” is not a word, it doesn’t sound right, and it does not make sense.
“plants”- “planets”- This miscue occurred in the sentence, “They live on the ground, on planets…” Jawad used meaning, structure, and visual to decode this word. It looks right, makes sense, and sounds right.
“burrows” – “brows” – Even though “brows” is a word, it does not make sense or sound correct in this sentence. Jawad was using his visual cues to decode this word.
“and”- “of”- This is the first miscue Jawad made where he DIDN’T use visual cues. The word, “of”, looks nothing like “and”, yet this word sounds right and could make sense in the sentence.
“ery” – “carry”- Jawad realized after he said “ery” that it didn’t sound right, and it didn’t make sense in the sentence. He made a self correction by using his meaning and syntax strategies.
“bodies”- “body”- Jawad used meaning, structure, and visual to decode this word. It looks right, makes sense, and sounds right.
“cocoons”- “cockoons”- This is not a real word, so in this example, Jawad was using strictly visual cues to decode this unfamiliar word.
“hunt”- “hurt”- The sentence, “They run across the water when they hurt.”, does make sense. Therefore, Jawad included all three strategies when he said “hurt”. He used meaning, structure, and visual.
I administered the second running record on a girl named Arianna. She is an ELL student, and she is also reading below grade level.
“help”- “harmless”- Arianna corrected this mistake by using all three strategies. She used meaning, visual, and structure to replace “help” with the correct word, “harmless”.
“every”- “even”- When Arianna read the sentence, “Every if spiders…” , she immediately self corrected herself using meaning, structure, and visual cues.
“bite”- “bit”- The sentence, “Even if spiders bit…” does sound right, it looks right, and it does make sense. She used all three strategies to decode this word.
“venom”- “ven-umous”- Arianna added an ending to this word, but it still makes sense and looks and sounds right.
“strong”- “strrrrrr”- This word stumped Arianna, but by using her visual, structure, and meaning strategies, she was able to self correct herself.
“enough”- “any”- This miscue was made without using any visual , syntax or visual cues. She also inserted the word “people”, which shows she is thinking about the syntax and meaning of the sentence as she is reading.
“spiders”- “insects”- Arianna replaced the word “insects” with “spiders”. This clearly shows that she is using syntax and meaning to make sense of the passage.
“it” – “they”- This error made complete sense and sounded right. However, the word, “they” does not look like “it”, so she was not using her visual cues to decode this word.
“30,000”- “3,000”- This error did not effect the meaning of the sentence. It sounds right and it looks right.
“kinds”- “kids”- Because this error occurred in the sentence, “There are more than 30,000 kids….”, this shows that Arianna was using meaning, syntax, and visual strategies to decode. This sentence makes sense up until the error.
“quite”- “less” - Here, Arianna used both syntax and meaning to decode. She did not use visual, however, because these words do not look the same.
"centimeter" - "cantaller" - Arianna used visual cues to come up with this word, but she did not use meaning or structure, because it is a made up word.
"bodies"- "bones"- Arianna used all three strategies to decode this word. "But some have bones..." sounds right and makes sense. It also starts with the same letters.
"centimeters" - "cantons" - Arianna used visual cues to come up with this word, but she did not use meaning or structure, because, it is another made up word.
"in." - "in"- Arianna said the word "in" because she did not recognize the appreviation for "inches". She was stumped on the word, " length", but self corrected herself when she thought about what word would make the most sense inserted in the sentence.
"legs"- "eggs" - Arianna used meaning and syntax to decode this word, but because "eggs" does not look like "legs", I do not believe that Arianna was using a visual cue.
"spreading" - "spiders" - Even though "spiders" resembles "spreading", it does make sense in the sentence or sound correct. Arianna was using strictly visual cues in this sentence.
"plants" - "places" - Arianna replaced "plants" with "places", and because it makes sense in the sentence, sounds right, and looks like the word. Arinna was again using all three strategies to decode.
"burrows" - "boston" - This word makes sense in the sentence, sounds right, and looks like the word. Arianna was again using all three strategies to decode.
"on" - "the" - This word makes sense in the sentence, sounds right, but does not look like the word. Arianna two of the three strategies to decode. (meaning and syntax)
"bodies" - "bubbles" - I found this to be a unique substitution, but in the sentence, it does make sense. It also looks right visually and sounds right.
"build"- blood" - This word makes sense in the sentence, sounds right, and looks like the word. Arianna was again using all three strategies to decode.
"cocoons" - "come" - This word makes sense in the sentence, sounds right, and looks like the word. Arianna was again using all three strategies to decode.
"store" - "short" - This word makes sense in the sentence, sounds right, and looks like the word. Arianna was again using all three strategies to decode.
"when" - "then"- This word makes sense in the sentence, sounds right, but it doesn't look like the word. Arianna was using two of the three strategies to decode.
