Clay Chapter 5: Running Records

Running Records are a great tool to use as a classroom teacher when trying to pin-point a student's reading level, as well as a student's strengths and weaknesses when reading. When done correctly, a pattern can easily be indentified in what types of errors the students are making as well as what kind of decoding skills the student is using. I have found Running Records are extremely helpful when analayzing self corrections. Often I have been caught up in simply, counting a self correction as a correct word, without looking at what initial mistake the student was making or what clues the student used to correct.

I was surprised when reading the procedure section in Clay that Running Records are not a speed test, but simply a power, not having a set time the student has to read the passage in. It seems it would be helpful to do running records in one minute timings in order to establish the rate of words per minute and measure oral reading flunecy. For example, I have a student who I work with, who when I administer oral reading CBMs he does not error, ever. However, he self corrects A LOT and reads extremely slowly, sounding out many words. If I were to administer a Running Record to him, at first glance, he would look like he is reading at grade level, even though he is clearly not flunent. Also his gains on flunecy could not be as accurately measured because I do not have a set calculation to compare his speed, any information on that would be qualitative.