Oral Reading Record Essay

1. Explain how oral-reading records are teaching tools. Oral reading records guide the teacher’s instruction. The teacher uses oral reading records to assess the child’s reading level and to determine what strategies the child uses when he tries to figure out a word that he does not know. The reading record is also used to assess the child’s rate of accuracy to determine if he is reading books that are at the right level. The teacher uses this information along with learning about the child’s individual preferences to find books that are just right for their independent reading box.

2. Define the word “error” as it applies to assessing children’s oral reading. The word “error” is defined a miscue. The teacher analyzes the miscues to determine what strategies the child uses for unknown words. Errors in reading

Thoroughly explain the two common patterns in children’s reading that Taberski talks about in this chapter. The first pattern discussed in detail is when children use graphophonic cues and syntax cues but not semantic cues. Children who rely heavily on visual (graphophonic) cues may say a word that does not make sense within the context of the sentence. For example, the child spends time looking at the individual letters within the word and tries to sound them out so much that he does not pay attention to the meaning of the word that he pronounces. This will affect the child’s comprehension of the story. Another common pattern that emerges is when a child uses meaning and structure but does not use visual or graphophonic cues (59). A child who does not use graphophonic cues efficiently may substitute a word that makes sense in the context of the story but does not have the same beginning and ending sounds as the word that is in the text. The words may even start with a totally different letter.

6. Take note of the “Guidelines for Teaching Based on Text Accuracy” found on p. 50 in OSG. How does this apply to a “balanced approach to teaching