Amanda Allen

ELD 395
Dr. Casey
October 23, 2014
Running Records
For my running records, I observed a 7th grader from Klockner Middle School in the
Hamilton school district. I used the hand out I received in class to begin my observations with. I
had a copy and I gave the student their own copy. I explained to the student that all she had to do
was read me the short passage on the page I handed to her. What I was looking for was any
errors in her accuracy, if she self-corrected any words, substitution of words, refusal to
pronounce total word, insertion of words, omission of any words, repetition, reversal, and appeal
for help. Since the passage on the handout had few errors, I also had my copy of The Outsiders
with me and had her read a passage from there and there were a few more errors.
The first passage I gave Grace* was on the handout from class. Most of the words were
simple and the sentences were short. I started with this one just to see where Grace stood. She
was able to pronounce all of the words with help of sounding out or breaking it into syllables.
But this didnt slow down her accuracy while reading. I found that she self-corrected herself
when reading the word Snakey at first she said Snarky by adding the letter r in the word
snakey. It was a simple correction because she knew that the boy was acting like a snake so she
immediately replaced it with snakey instead of snarky. She also self-corrected herself when she
said others instead of other. Other mistakes were repetition, but this isnt considered an error.
She repeated words such as so, she, but. Grace was at 95-100% accuracy which I felt that
she should have been at the 7th grade level reading this passage as an average reader.
Since the pervious passage was simple for Grace I decided to pick the first page from The
Outsiders. Grace still had only a few errors, but she did struggle more on words such as

*name changed

squared and bothered. It wasnt that she had errors on them, they were just harder to
pronounce. She had to sound out more and pay more attention to the passage. Over all her
accuracy was still high. The words that she struggled on are words that she normally wouldnt
see and use every day, or they might have looked like other words. Just like in the simpler
passage when she said snarky instead of snakey, in The Outsiders passage she said brother
instead of bother. She didnt give up on attempting to correct herself, she seemed apprehensive
but she still did it herself. After she was reading it, I had her retell what she thought this passage
was about she said it was about a boy who went to the movies, who has light brown/red and
longer hair, and he is a greaser. She didnt know who this boy was or what a greaser is because
she didnt read this book, but she was able to understand that this passage is an introduction to a
boy.
What I learned from observing Graces oral reading behavior and how running records
can help me in the class room is that it allows the teacher to gain knowledge on where the
student stands. It can help the teacher see if their lessons are effective and if their reading tips are
useful for the students. It can help the teacher choose books for the class by reading ability, or it
can help the teacher separate the students into reading groups. It also tell the teacher if the
students are able to comprehend what they are reading. This is important because if student are
having a hard comprehending or reading a passage, it will create an effect on their writing and
long term reading habits.