According to Theurer (2011), miscue analysis is based on the early work of Ken and Yetta Goodman. This method of assessment strategy assists teachers to develop a rich understanding of the reading process of English language learners. A miscue is an unexpected response tat occurs when the reader’s knowledge of language and concepts of the world fails to match the text he or she is reading. This paper will aim to (a) summarize the articles describing retrospective miscue analysis; (b) analyze and critique the articles and the retrospective miscue analysis strategy and (c) implications for English language instructions as per the retrospective miscue analysis strategy.
Under the RMA assessment strategy, readers use a number of cueing systems including semantic (meaning), syntactic (grammar) and grapho-phonic (sound/symbol), collaboratively to construct meaning as they transact with text (Theurer, 2011). There are many benefits of using the RMA assessment strategy, however the main drawbacks of this strategy are that it can be time consuming and it does not give a complete picture of the student’s literacy skills and strategies and it can give misleading information when used with English language learners.
A study conducted by Almazroui (2007) clearly showed that the RMA process enables readers to discuss the underlying logic of their miscues. Moreover, the RMA approach allows readers the opportunity to reflect on their own reading process. Additionally, reading is an active process and employing the RMA approach sheds light on the dynamic nature of the reader’s construction of meaning (Ferguson, Harding, Helmer and Suh, 2012).
A study conducted by Almazroui (2007) was effective as the RMA discussions were one-on-one and enabled ...
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... to find out more about his or her reader and is better able to support the reader during the reading process. Miscues offer a window into the child’s thoughts.
From my prior experience as an educator, the collaboration between a teacher and a student is evident in retrospective miscue analysis discussions as it results in a dynamic instructional intervention. As a future TESOL educator, I will employ retrospective miscue analysis approach in my classroom with my English language learners and also use this approach to support students with diverse learning styles, including students with learning disabilities. Hence, through RMA assessment approach and discussions, aspects of metacognitive discussions, motivation and revaluing are intertwined and iterative thereby building understanding about reading in helping students become more effective and efficient readers.
As students read, the teacher makes notes focusing on the words they struggle with. The teacher indicates which words the student has substituted, repeated, mispronounced, or doesn’t know. These words are called miscues. After the miscues are marked they are classified. “Only the words that students mispronounce or substitute can be analyzed; repetitions and omissions aren’t calculated’ (Tompkins p.85). Once the miscues have been evaluated, the miscue analysis will indicate which cues the reader over relies on and which they need to further develop. Running Records also helps calculate the percentage of miscues to determine whether or not the book is at the students reading level. The goal is to give students appropriate books for their reading levels. After the running record and miscue analysis, the teacher can analyze this information to introduce personalized strategies and lessons to develop a more fluent
In the essay, “On the Presumption of Knowing How to Read”, by John Guilliory, He emphasizes the lack of articulation on reading in college. Guillory states “Upward of forty percent of college freshmen are directed to remedial classes of some kind in their first year” (qtd by Guillory 8). He claims that freshmen in college are put in remedial class for writing because the lack of understanding of what they are reading. He also states that many students that are not in remedial classes may also lack the interpretive skill. He has seen many students just be able to paraphrase and give an unobjectionable comprehension of the reading. Guillory states that not being able to move beyond simple understanding seems as if there is a resistance to reading. Guillory suggests that we need to learn the conceptual break in reading.
The Running Records assignment from Developing Lang and Literacy class at Leeward Community College provides evidence that I have completed the HTSB Standard 6: Assessment. For this assignment, I volunteered for ten hours in an elementary school and performed the running records assessment on a student. The point of the running records assessment is to determine students’ level of proficiency with literacy materials. This is done by checking if students self-corrected themselves, and if they can recognize and gather meaning from the text, not just decode it.
I performed a miscue analysis for Student A in order to determine her strengths and weaknesses as a reader. Student A was able to self correct while reading when something didn’t sound correct to her, she was also able to recall key details about the reading. Student A read too fast to pause at punctuation and she also had trouble making inferences about a text after reading.
Haas and Flower created an interesting point when I read “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning “. In the reading, Haas and Flower, provided multiple propositions to apply, however a key one certainly caught my eye. Haas and Flower proposed various arguments, yet their main idea implied that there needs to be an increase in rhetorical reading. I came to the conclusion that increasing rhetorical reading was their main point due to a statement in the text. “We would like to help extend this constructive, rhetorical view of reading, which we share with others in the field…” [Haas and Flower, 167] the following statement blandly states their intention to spread an important strategy, reading rhetorically, among community.
In Lesson One, it became apparent through questioning that Kowahi students were confident readers who could use strategies successfully to decode and summarise a text. However, their ability to connect personal opinion and knowledge was lacking, which led to them reading text as opposed to understanding the deeper meaning. Good readers simultaneously employ strategies; they decode and read for meaning at the same time (Dymock, 2007), unskilled readers “fail to monitor comprehension” (Garner, 1987, as cited in Harp, 1999).
He too quickly dismisses the idea of reading on your own to find meaning and think critically about a book. For him, Graff states that “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug.” (26) While this may have worked for Graff, not all students will “experience a personal reaction” (27) through the use of critical discussion.
Constructivism is a theory of learning that emphasizes the active construction of knowledge by individuals. Inquiry of learning is a theory developed by Dewey in which it emphasizes the development of student’s cognitive abilities such as reasoning and decision making. Inquiry theory, is reflected in reading instruction by having children choose their own vocabulary, asking their own thought provoking questions and giving them the opportunity to construct their own meaning. Schemata theory strives to explain how knowledge is created and used by the learners. In reading instruction schemata can be observe as a child tries to understand a story by using past personal experience to relate to concepts in the story. Transitional response theory is the notion that all readers have unique background schemata. In transitional theory all readers will have a different response to the text. Psycholinguistic theory is the study of the relationships between linguistic behavior and psychological processes including the process of language acquisition. In reading it helps the readers make predictions about what the text say based on their knowledge in these areas. Metacognition is the process of thinking about one’s own thinking. In reading metacognition helps reading comprehension. Engagement theory seeks to articulate the differences between engaged and disengaged readers. In reading, engagement theory is best seen when children are motivated to read and are constantly reading or
reader creates “supplementary meaning” to the text by unconsciously setting up tension, also called binary opposition. Culler describes this process in his statement “The process of thematic interpretation requires us to move from facts towards values, so we can develop each thematic complex, retaining the opposition between them” (294). Though supplementary meaning created within the text can take many forms, within V...
Reading fluency is one of the most important skill to learn and has the greatest impact on reading. This study examines three strategies: modeling, repeated reading, and writing to improve reading fluency. The first strategy is Modeling. It is used to allow the student to observe and hear what a passage should sound like when the proper word recognition, inflection of the voice, and phrasing are used correctly. The second strategy is Repeated Reading where the student will reread the passage. This strategy was conducted using Choral Reading, Pair or Partner Reading, and Recorded Reading. The last strategy used was writing where the students would elaborate on passages recently read. This study focused on struggling readers, who scored below benchmark on a previously administered DIBELS assessment. Over the course of three the students were engaged in either a reading fluency activity which integrated one of the repeated reading strategies (choral reading, pair/partner reading, self-recording or writing). At the end of each week the student was given a post-assessment to for progress
Reading and writing is a key part of everyone’s life. There has been some encouraging levels of reading development in primary school assessments. According to the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy report (2015), 95.5% of students achieve at or above the national minimum standard of reading. It is important to know effective ways to teach reading so children can become active problem solvers to enable them to read for meaning or for fun. Over the years, there has been a big amount of research into the most effective ways to teach reading skills to students. There are some systematically taught key skills and strategies that help achieve these levels of reading. Some of these skills include phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,
Such views influence both L1 and L2 reading studies. Kern (2000) explains the importance of the social and personal interpretation of reading, he says that readers have the freedom to interpret texts in any way they like if they do not deviate from the so-called interpretive constraints. In terms of fo...
Reading is an essential skill that needs to be addressed when dealing with students with disabilities. Reading is a skill that will be used for a student’s entire life. Therefore, it needs to be an important skill that is learned and used proficiently in order for a student to succeed in the real world. There are many techniques that educators can use to help improve a student’s reading comprehension. One of these skills that needs to be directly and explicitly taught is learning how to read fluently for comprehension. “To comprehend texts, the reader must be a fluent decoder and not a laborious, word-by-word reader” (Kameenui, 252). Comprehension can be difficult for students with learning disabilities because they tend to be the students that are reading below grade level. One strategy is to incorporate the student’s background knowledge into a lesson. This may require a bit of work, but it will help the students relate with the information being pres...
comprehension instruction: A comparison of instruction for strategies and content approaches ―[Electronic version]. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(3), 218–253.
Just, M.A., & Carpenter, P.A. (2010). The psychology of reading and language comprehension. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.