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© Phil Builder 2003
For more background information also see the article Listening to Reading |
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Reading Tests There has always been debate about how best to assess a person's reading ability. All methods are useful at times, but each one gives different information. |
The skill is to select the appropriate method of assessment for the specific purpose. Group Reading Tests are well known and commonly used across large groups of students but they only give a 'Reading Age' score which we can compare to their current age. While this is fine for the better students, it doesn't help at all in diagnosing reading problems. Miscue Analysis on the other hand gives us a wealth of information about the individual child's oral reading skills and strategies. | |||
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Miscue Analysis
Miscue analysis is more suited to children who can already read. |
The most useful and popular of these in Australia is the Running Records assessment created by Dame Marie Clay, (1979). The assessment method described below (BRAT Informal) is also a Miscue Analysis procedure, user friendly, very much simplified, and more useful in my opinion than Running Records. | |||
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Beginning readers Beginning readers are more appropriately assessed using an Observational Method where we can observe what they know by looking at their reading behaviours. |
The best of
these is Clay's CAP (Concepts About Print) assessment. CAP is an the
starting point for Clay's Reading Recovery program, and is an essential
tool for every beginning reading teacher.
Elements of CAP are included in the Early Literacy Checklist. Checklists are easy for anyone to use, can include plenty of detail such as what needs to be learned, and are great for documenting current skills and isolating things yet to be learned. |
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Healthy Reading How can you tell healthy reading when you see it? Or hear it? We do this by listening and observing what a reader does when reading aloud. |
By hearing a person read you should be able to tell immediately whether they are reading
efficiently or not; you should observe what strategies are being used to solve
problems; and see whether these strategies will allow them to keep on
improving, or whether they are limiting their progress.
We should all recognise good reading. It is done at a conversational pace, is well expressed and easily understood, and presented confidently. It should not always be absolutely accurate, but it will sound as if it is because good readers are skilled in covering up small diversions from the original text. These mistakes or 'miscues' are normal for everyone. The proof of good reading is that the reader understands and can tell you in some detail about what they have just read. A word of caution is needed here however, as there is no guarantee that the child's oral reading behaviour is the same as their silent reading. Occasionally you will find a child whose oral reading is very poor while their silent reading is excellent. Learn how to recognise good reading using the BRAT Informal method below, and also learn how to rectify any problems. |
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Parents know their own children best Parents can tell when their children have a reading problem. |
Parents don't have to be told by the teacher. They know in several ways if there is a problem. The alarm bells ring first when anti-reading attitudes and behaviours are noticed. Things like books lost, avoiding reading, getting upset, and poor behaviour all accompany reading difficulties. These are noticed very early in the first school years, and get progressively worse over time. Interestingly, this can happen to children of all abilities, even those who are more capable. Relationships can quickly deteriorate in families where one of their children has a reading difficulty. I have worked with hundreds of such families and can tell you that there is hope. This can all change with the right approach. | |||
| Parents know their children best. They see the real impact of what happens at school every day. Parents are emotionally attached and have a personal interest in their children, and are going to be there for the long haul. Parents must know how to support their children's reading and learning. | ||||
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Assessment of Reading
BRAT (Informal) The second thing to look at are the corrections that the reader makes. Because we miscue, we need to correct the error. But again, there is a difference between what better and poorer readers do when self correcting. Therefore the two behaviours you need to know about are:
Miscues Sensible miscues (S) are changes from the text that preserve the text meaning or sound of the language in an acceptable way. S miscues are produced because Top
Nonsense miscues (N) change the text meaning, or change the sound of the language to an unacceptable degree. N miscues are totally unacceptable at any time in a child's reading development. They are produced because of one or more of the following reasons:
Self
corrections They don't detect all miscues however, because many errors that make sense are not obvious to the reader unless they see them. But we don't want readers checking the text closely for errors because this would slow down the rate at which they could process print.
Examples of miscues and
self corrections |
| Reading Types, Miscues and Self Corrections | ||||
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Reader |
The
actual text used for this example says: The examples below demonstrate various mis-readings by children Misreadings |
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Explanation |
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| 1 | The boy rode his pony down his street. | S | üüü |
These are
three separate miscues (substitutions)
which maintain meaning. This type of miscue is least likely to be
detected by
efficient
readers.
They probably won't be detected or corrected because it made sense to
the reader. With more experience accuracy will improve. Keep
reading. No immediate concerns here. Your response: None necessary.
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| 2 | A boy rode his house down the street. | N | ü |
An
obvious
Nonsense
miscue
which destroys sense, and should always be corrected.
In this case not. Why not? Did the reader hear it?
If so, does he know that it should be corrected? Insist that he
tries to make his reading
sound sensible by correcting himself
whenever this happens. Your response: "Did that sentence make sense to you?" or, "Read that sentence again please."
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| 3 | A bog rod his hose don the stret. | N | üüüüü |
Five Nonsense miscues!
This reader is
'barking at print' and producing absolute nonsense. Readers with this
type of strategy rarely monitor their reading
or self correct. Print Dependent! Won't improve with time.
Need to urgently change his understanding about what he's doing and
teach him strategies to make it make sense. Your response: "You have to make reading sound like talking! It must make sense to you!"
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| 4 | A boy rided his horse down the street. | S | ü |
A
Sensible
substitution
of
language
which is familiar to the reader (but
immature!).
I wouldn't expect it to be detected or corrected. As his
grammar improves he'll make better predictions. No concerns here. Your response: None necessary.
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| 5 |
A
bog....boy
rod....rode his bi ......horse down the street. |
SC | üüü |
Three
spontaneous self-corrections.
In this case it is a concern because he appears to be trying to predict
words which don't fit. It is a worry to see a reader being led by the
appearance of the print more than by the meaning. Seems to be very
dependent on the print, but there's hope! He was going to predict
'bike' which is a sensible prediction! You will need to teach him
to have confidence to do this more often. Then he will need to
scan (look) further ahead to pick up print cues a bit earlier than he is
now. Reading faster and less cautiously can help. Your response: "Look further ahead as you read, read faster, and don't worry about making mistakes."
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| 6 | A boy rode his horse up and down the street. | S | ü |
Here is an example of a
two word substitution which doesn't seriously detract from meaning.
Although two words are involved, the child's error is a single one (the
prediction of 'up'), to which 'and' is added to maintain
the flow of the phrase.
Think of this as one instance of miscuing which maintains meaning.
No concerns here. Your response: None necessary.
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| 7 | A boy rode his horse ____ the street. | N | ü |
This
omission detracts from meaning. In case the child is using a problem
solving strategy (reading past the problem to find more clues), insist
that every word be attempted, or wait to see if it is corrected later.
This one was not. Teach the reader that it is OK to guess a word
that fits, even if it doesn't begin with the same letter. I
suspect that these miscues are caused by trying to decode the word or
using initial letters to work it out. When he can't think of a
word starting like that he is lost, and he's probably lost the meaning
too. Your response: "Did that sentence make sense to you?" or, "Read that sentence again please, and this time guess, or put in a replacement word if you are not sure of it."
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| 8 | A boy rode ____ _____ down the street. | S | ü |
These omissions maintain
meaning, and again represent one instance of miscuing -
overlooking the idea 'his horse'. Record as one (S) miscue.
No concerns here if it only happens occasionally. Your response: None necessary.
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| 9 |
A boy
_____
his horse .......... rode his horse down the street. |
SC | ü |
Self-corrections are
sometimes delayed- from a few words to a page or more ahead. In this
case the word was omitted, and later self-corrected.
Indicates use of a good strategy - reading ahead for more cues. No
concerns. Should improve with experience. Your response: "Great! You read on to find more clues!"
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| 10 | A b-o-y boy r-o-d rode his h-or-s horse d-ow-n down the str-ee-t street. |
This reader is sounding most words
correctly and then saying them. No miscues! Accurate! But he will
be in real trouble if this continues! He is print dependent!
Whereas he should be predicting meaning his energies are going into the
decoding of words. Stop him sounding while reading. Sound
out words at another time, but not when reading. It is a dangerous
habit which can easily be overdone, and is most difficult to change in
older children. Teach him to read for meaning, teach him to
predict words, and ban sounding out. Work on his sight vocabulary
may be helpful, but his problem is not that he doesn't recognise words,
he just needs to make his reading sound like talking and think about
making sense of it! Your response: "Stop sounding out. Lets read this together to hear what it should sound like, and then you can have another go."
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| 11 | A boy rode rode his horse horse down the street |
Repeated words are not miscues.
Your response: "Look further ahead as you read, read faster, and don't worry about making mistakes."
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The art of good preparation
(also see article on
Listening to Reading) Likewise, children are
inexperienced with text and need the opportunity to see what is in the book
to make sure that they understand all the ideas and terms used. For
instance, They need to hear the sounds and rhythm of the book's language, the way rhyming words are used, the way print is varied to give emphasis to words, and the patterns within the text or story. They need you to demonstrate the relationship between the illustrations and the text so that when they get stuck they can use the illustrations to prompt their memory. And possibly, if they are beginners they will need to memorise some or all of the words. Beginners need to memorise text before they read because this leaves them free to learn about all the other things they need to learn. These include following text left to right along lines, and then jumping off at the end and starting again one line down at the left hand side. Aha! So that's how it goes! At the same time their energies are focused on pointing to and matching words with their voice, such as sorting out that 'Once upon a time' isn't 'Once up on a time', or 'Once up ona time'. Only experience can teach this. Don't forget that they are also checking out initial sounds of words, remembering new words, and guessing the ones they don't know. There is a lot going on here so just make sure they remember the words so they can do all this other stuff. You don't want them to be worried or concerned because they can't do it! The art in preparing children for reading is to provide them with just the right amount of information for their age and experience to get them started reading successfully, so that they still have some work to do on their own. As you can see in the table below this varies enormously depending on their maturity: beginning with memorising the book for the younger ones and progressing to older children who just need time to rehearse. Preparation intensity and reader maturity
Use a
Tape Recorder at first
Book Selection
Use normal preparation or
rehearsal
Recording results
There are four main patterns that can be used to typify the extremes of reading behaviors. Compare your reader's raw scores with these patterns. Although they will not be identical, they will be similar to one or another of these samples. The raw scores of 10, 1, and 4 have been chosen because this represents the minimum scores you should achieve. |
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| Pattern 1 | The Proficient Reader |
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This pattern shows excellent reading strategies. Checking S and N we
can see that the reader's miscues maintain meaning 10 out of 11 times (91%).
Obviously reading for meaning which indicates that the reader is
understanding the text. The one N miscue is always a concern however, as
these need to be eliminated. A better score would be zero. Compare N with SC to see that out of 5 N miscues 4 have been corrected (80%). We ignore S miscues for this calculation (as we do not expect them to be detected or corrected by efficient readers). |
| Description: Children who produce these patterns are reading fluently and using excellent reading strategies. They are endeavouring to maintain meaning, using predictions based on context (meaning), language syntax and grammar. Some acceptable miscues occur but they do not detect them because they maintain meaning ...... and the reader is preoccupied with maintaining meaning and monitoring voice rather than closely examining the print. Those miscues which do not fit their expectations are detected and self corrected consistently. Because their reading strategies are well balanced they understand what they read. They will develop into very healthy adult readers provided that they continue to read for study and recreation. | |
| Pattern 2 | The Low Self Correcting Reader |
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Pattern 2 comparison of S and N shows that this reader is reading for
meaning most of the time (10:14 or 71%), but the 4 N miscues are a concern.
Comparing N and SC shows a low self correction rate of 1 out of 5 or (20%) of N miscues corrected. |
| Description: Readers producing these patterns are average readers whose comprehension is in the mid range, but they are not self correcting when unacceptable miscues occur. My research shows that their levels of comprehension are adequate despite this lack of self correcting of N miscues which appear to destroy meaning. Oral reading may not be something these children are used to doing. I believe that they do notice their oral miscues but correct the meaning in their heads because they don't like to pause to do it aloud. It's not laziness or lack of ability, but economy of performance. If they can read silently with understanding this is far more important than an oral reading performance. Check this out for yourself. If it is so, be a little concerned and monitor their oral reading occasionally, especially to see if those N miscue have been eliminated. Expect them to develop into proficient readers provided that they continue to read silently for study and recreation. For oral performances make sure that they rehearse well beforehand. | |
| Pattern 3 | The Print Dependent Reader |
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Comparing S and N shows that only 1:5 (20%) of miscues maintain meaning.
This is very poor with no understanding of what is being read. The N:SC comparison shows 10 out of 14 (71%) of N miscues corrected. At first sight this figure look good, but look at the overall pattern. Together with the poor meaning ratio this pattern is a major concern. This reader is checking for accuracy on most words, and the effort takes attention away from the purpose of creating and maintaining meaning. This pattern is characteristic of readers who are 'print dependent' and extremely nervous about making errors. |
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Description:
These children are unique because they are instantly recognised by their
close examination of the text, the halting word by word reading style, and
their constant self correcting of mistakes, and checking and repeating words
that are correct. They are so busy examining
words that they do not have the head space to also concentrate on the
meaning. By examining words closely they approach it as a word
recognition or decoding activity rather than a language-meaning creation
task. Consequently their predictions are based on their word analysis
skills and lots of silly miscues
occur. Miscues are usually corrected upon re-examination of the word just
pronounced, and then the next word is immediately examined, attempted,
re-examined, corrected, and so on. Typical miscues may be: ward
for word, bussy for busy, wat for what, com for come, etc. At the end of a session these readers can get most
words accurately, but their continued attempts at words destroy any chance
they have at understanding the meaning of the passage or becoming fluent
readers.
Be very concerned if your child is reading like this. The consequences will be that the child will eventually dislike reading, will not practise it, and will not have the ability to read at a functional level the quantity required, or at the speed required for independent study. Current habits must be changed but it will not be easy and a specialist reading professional may need to be employed. (Be cautious who you employ because there are many teachers who will not be capable of helping you because they actually promote approaches which focus entirely on word skills). You could do it yourself using the teaching guide below if you are convinced that you understand the processes involved. |
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| Pattern 4 | The Confused Reader |
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This reader is not reading for meaning as only 1
out of 11, or 9% of miscues maintain meaning.
Self Correcting is not
happening consistently either, with
only 4:14 or 29% of N miscues corrected. |
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Description:
Children who fall into this pattern type can be immediately recognised when
they read aloud by the high number of miscues which don't make sense (don't
preserve the intended meaning of the author or fit appropriate grammar),
relatively few of which are corrected by the reader. This demonstrates
their basic lack of understanding about the meaningful nature of reading,
its relationship to spoken language, and appropriate strategies to use.
It's not uncommon to have all NS miscues in a reading session and no
attempts at correction at all. On the positive side I find these children are easy to teach, with excellent results sometimes coming in minutes rather than weeks. They just need to understand how to read. These children are usually quite capable but are most often victims of poor teaching methods as well as their own Learning Style. You can help such children improve by using the BRAT Teaching Guide and following the practices outlined on this CDRom. See
Builder P, Exploring Reading, 1991
for more detailed information on charting BRAT scores. |
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The Teaching Guide below sets out these four reading types in a BRAT chart format. Match the reading style above with the same one below to find out what and how to teach your child.
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