The child under this report is a grade D pupil named John* with profound difficulty in fluency in reading. Having been in this school for the last two terms of study, I realized John had general difficulty in fluency with particular reference to Meaning, Structure, and Visual information of words. Under close review, I did observe that John had also problems with word omission, word insertion, and word substitution.
Reading Behavior
John’s accurate word reading behavior was below average. In the running record symbols and marking conventions, John had profound difficulty in reading some words in the record sheet. According to reading a-z.com (2009) “Be sure to pay attention to the reader’s behavior as he or she read and ask relevant questions such as: is the child using meaning (M), structural (S), and visual (V) cues to read words and gather meaning”
The average accurate word reading was 37%. Substitution word behavior in the case in which word is not self-corrected was well done. This information gathered was used to determine the levels of word reading accuracy, percentage of error, and rates that apply to self-correction. The reading behavior on error rate in John’s case was reached by dividing the total number of words John was able to read by the total number of errors incurred in reading these words.
- Total words/total errors
- In johns running record, TW/E = 140/7 = 20
- The calculation for the rate of accuracy was arrived at by calculating the (TW-E)/TW× 100
- (120-7)/140× 100
Statistics on word omissions and word insertions were used to tabulate the rates of John’s error in these reading behaviors. Repetition of one word and repetition of a phrase had zero error. This was commendable in the fact that John was able to read the words without the problem of repetitions. The statistics on interventions and the inability to try reading the words again was zero in that John, being a jovial boy was able to try reading the words by himself.
Qualitative analysis is the best method to be put under the application in this area and was thus affectively used during the running record. It involves deeply observing, recording, and analyzing how the child makes extensive uses of Structures (S), Visual (V), and Meaning (M) in aiding the reading to John. Qualitative analysis also involves giving enough due attention to areas of phrasing the words, sound intonation, and the problems of fluency. The recorded statistics on the response to prompts given to the child were used qualitatively to determine the overall reading error. This method of analysis gives the true picture of a child’s reading development.
This experience offered to provide them a good indicator of John’s rate of reading development and give vital statistics that can be applied to improve the reading behavior of children with a similar problem. The most interesting part in the development of this report was the period under which the child was put to read under the camera. The level of determination put forward by John when reading by himself was more fascinating in that John was able to read the words more than once without supervision.
References
Reading A-Z.COM (2009). Fluency teaching tips. Web.