Records of Reading Behaviour

Reading Level

Accuracy Level
Calculate the percentage of accuracy for a record of reading behaviours by dividing the number of running words by the number of errors.

For example, if a child reads 100 words and makes 10 errors, the error rate would be 1 in 10.

The conversion table provides a quick conversion of error rate to percentage accuracy score. If the error rate is 1:10, the percentage of accuracy is 90%.

Self-correction rate
Self-correcting is an important strategy. It provides useful information about the reader’s processing of printed words. Teachers can write ‘MSV’ along side the self-corrections to better understand the strategies the reader is using to read the text.

• M = meaning cue
• S = syntax cue
• V = visual cue.

The Alphakids Plus 'Records of Reading Behaviours' consists of text transcripts from the student books, and related comprehension activities.There are two text transcripts at each reading level – a fiction and a non-fiction text. The fiction text may be a recount of experiences or a narrative. The non-fiction text focuses on information.

Records of reading behaviours are taken regularly in the early years of learning to read. These records are used to monitor progress and to determine each student’s learning level. A learning level is one where the student
meets new learning challenges without being frustrated by a text that is too difficult. Teachers can select appropriate texts that are matched to each student's learning level.

The Alphakids Plus 'Records of Reading Behaviours' provides guidelines for taking a record of each student’s oral reading. There are also literal, interpretive and critical comprehension questions that relate to the student’s understanding of the text. In addition, there is analysis of a student’s retelling of a text.

Alphakids Plus

Records of

Reading

Behaviours

Guidelines for taking records of reading behaviours

A record of reading behaviours helps teachers to identify what the reader is doing when reading a text and to find books at an appropriate learning level for each student.

Records of reading behaviours are written on a text transcript and provide the teacher with a clear record of the strategies used by the reader.

Teachers can analyse the record immediately to capture real reading behaviours.The record can be placed in an assessment portfolio for later analysis and for reporting to parents.

Many teachers take a record of reading behaviours by:
• selecting a book at the reader’s learning level that the reader has not yet read
• asking the reader to read the new book orally
• marking carefully on a transcript of the same text the reader’s correct responses and miscues as she or he reads the text.

The assessment record is a summary of the student’s retelling, comprehension,reading level and an analysis of reading behaviours.

Retelling
Students can be asked to retell the text after reading it. They may wish to re-read the book again before retelling,or they can use the illustrations as a prompt. When assessing the student’s understanding of the text thet eacher may comment on how the student:
• retells the main idea
• provides supporting details
• retells a sequence of events
• refers back to the text.
A retelling provides useful information about the student’s understanding of the
characters and the events in the plot in a fiction book. Texts that are written as recounts or narratives often have a chronological sequence of events. Information texts are usually organised around one main idea and supporting details or facts. If the book is an information text, then the student can be asked to retell the important facts.

The levels are based on:
• complexity of concepts in the texts
• complexity of syntax and vocabulary
• length of text
• size and placement of text on a page
• the amount of contextual support in the illustrations.

Selecting appropriate texts

Guidelines for taking

Records of Reading behaviour

Scoring a

reader's performance

7. Compare the percentage of accuracy to the chart for defining instruction on each record of reading behaviours to determine whether the child is reading at the predicted instructional level.

8. Analyse the individual miscues to make a plan for instruction.

9. Use what you find out in steps 7 and 8 to review what the child can do successfully when reading. Teachers can then form guided reading groups in which children participate. In this way teachers can ensure that the students with similar concepts and strategies can be grouped together for guidance.

10. Place the record of reading behaviours in each child’s assessment portfolio
to use when conferencing about the child’s progress.

Teachers may use the following scoring procedure to evaluate a reader’s performance.
1. Count only the running words in a text. Running words do not include titles and subtitles, and so on.

2. Count as one error:
     • miscues
     • omissions
     • insertions
     • told words (words supplied for the reader)
     • no response
     • each word in a skipped line.

3. Count a skipped page as one error and subtract

the word count for that page from the total word count.

4. Count proper nouns read inaccurately only once.

Count other words read inaccurately each time.

5. Do not count:
     • words that the reader self-corrects
     • words that the reader repeats
     • words that are pronounced differently in the jjjjjjjireader’s dialect.

6. Calculate the percentage of accuracy for a record

by subtracting the total number of miscues from the

number of running words in the text.
Divide the answer by the number of running words

in the text and multiply by 100.

R W

JE

= 1

Comprehension
Comprehension questions may be posed to explore each student’s literal,
inferential and critical understanding of the book.

Literal Questions
Literal comprehension questions concern information that is explicit in the words and illustrations.

Inferential Questions
Inferential comprehension is reading between the lines or finding clues in the
illustrations. In inferential comprehension the meaning is implicit and not obvious in the book.

Critical Questions
Critical thinking about the book asks the reader to explore the truth and/or accuracy of the book.

A range of different comprehension questions have been selected.

Using the assessment record

100

I10

= 1:10

The self-correction rate is calculated by adding the self-corrections to the errors then dividing by the self-correction score.

Analysis of errors
The analysis of errors and self-
corrections reveals the strategies that a student is using to read. In the following example the reader is only using syntax and visual cues to make sense

of the sentence.