How to Do a Running Record

   $10 for the Running Records document.

 

How to Take and Analyze a Running Record

Running records can be used in both **guided reading** and **decodable texts**, though they are traditionally more associated with guided reading in balanced literacy approaches.

Here’s how they fit into each context:

1. **Guided Reading:**
Running records are widely used in guided reading to assess a student’s reading level, fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. The teacher observes and takes notes as a student reads a leveled text, which typically includes a mix of high-frequency words and words with varying phonetic patterns. In guided reading, running records help:
– Determine the appropriate reading level for students.
– Track progress over time.
– Identify reading behaviors (e.g., self-corrections, errors) that inform instructional focus.

2. **Decodable Texts:**
While decodable texts are more focused on phonics and decoding skills, running records can still be applied. In this context, they can:
– Help teachers assess how well students are applying specific phonics skills (e.g., decoding consonant-vowel-consonant words or more complex vowel patterns).
– Measure accuracy and fluency with controlled vocabulary that aligns with the phonics instruction the student has received.
– Provide insight into whether a student is relying on decoding strategies or guessing based on context (which would be less likely in decodable texts due to limited word patterns).

Key Difference:
In **guided reading**, the emphasis is more on a student’s ability to use a range of strategies (context clues, syntax, and visual information). In **decodable texts**, the primary focus is on phonics and decoding skills, which means the running record might capture a different set of reading behaviors focused on decoding proficiency rather than broader strategy use.

In summary, running records are versatile and applicable in both contexts, though the focus of assessment shifts depending on whether you’re using guided reading or decodable texts.

What is a running record?

A running record is a technique for capturing and recording oral reading behaviors (what a reader says and does) using a system for coding the reader’s responses. It is an observation tool ~ not a test ~ to determine what reading processes a child uses to determine instructional needs and placement purposes. It also includes a comprehension check. The term miscue is an observed response that does not match what the person listening to the reading expects to hear. Miscue Analysis involves both quantitative and qualitative components. Qualitative Analysis means looking at reading behavior for signs of strategy use.

***As a reading specialist, I have moved away from teaching using predictable texts and the Fountas and Pinnell cueing system. I am now teaching phonics and decodable texts. Look at the difference (see chart below) between decodable and predictable texts! When my students are stuck, I now ONLY say, “sound it out.” Reading is not a guessing game. Stop assigning predictable texts and asking the student, when stuck on a word, to look at the picture, look at the first letter sound, think about what would make sense, skip it/read on/go back. Please listen to the Sold a Story podcast for more information!*** 

Running Record Form

There are two parts: a running record and a comprehension check. When you perform a running record, use the symbols and marking conventions explained below to record a child’s reading. When the session is complete, calculate the accuracy, error, and self-correction rates, and enter them in the boxes at the bottom of the page. Here is a RUNNING RECORDS CALCULATOR.

Accuracy Rate  # of words in the passage – # of uncorrected miscues ~ get the answer and X 100 ~ then divide by # of words in the passage.

• For example: 218 words – 9 errors = 209, and then 209 X 100 divided by 218 = 96%

Error Rate
Error rate is expressed as a ratio and is calculated by Total words / Total errors = Error rate

• For example:
  99 / 8 = 12.38, or 12 rounded to nearest whole number
  The ratio is expressed as 1:12.
• This means that the student read approximately 12 words correctly for each error made. 

Self-Correction Rate
Self-correction rate is expressed as a ratio calculated by the number of errors + Number of self-corrections / Number of self-corrections = Self-correction rate.

• For example:
  8 + 3 / 3 = Self-correction rate 11 / 3 = 3.666, or 4 rounded to the nearest whole number. The self-correction rate is expressed as 1:4. This means that the student corrects approximately 1 out of every 4 errors.  

Independent level – 95-100% words correctly identified. No more than 1 in 20 words is difficult for the reader. The reader also has a 90% recall of information. (14-15 pts on the retelling chart below for fiction/11-12 pts on nonfiction)

Instructional level – 90% – 94% words correctly identified. No more than 1 in 10 words is difficult for the reader. Student needs teacher support. The reader also has at least 75% recall of information. (11-13 pts on retelling chart below for fiction/9-10 pts for nonfiction)

Frustration level – 89% and fewer words correctly identified. More than 1 in 10 words is difficult. STOP READING THE TEXT.

QUICK RULE OF THUMB

Types of Miscues and What They Mean

**Miscues are words read that are not exactly accurate but are “cued” by the thought and language of the reader as he attempts to follow what the author is saying.**

Self-Correction:  **Not an error, only an error if s/c to a wrong word!**
During the oral reading, the child realizes they have made an error (or feels he has made an error) and rereads the section/word without prompting. Self-correction is good! We want readers to do this if they are correcting an error; however, is the reader reading too fast? Is the reader “correcting” correct words? If so, the reader is unsure of himself.

Repetition:  **Not an error**
A child repeats a word or portion of the text. Lots of repetition may mean that the text level is too difficult. Sometimes readers repeat when they’re uncertain and will repeat the word(s) to make sense of the passage.

Insertion:
As the child is reading, they will insert a word or two. Does the inserted word change the meaning? If not, it may just mean the reader is making sense but also inserts. The reader may also be reading too fast. This should be addressed if the insertion is like adding a suffix, such as finished for finish.

Omission: During the oral reading, the child leaves out a word(s.) When words are omitted, it may mean weaker visual tracking. Determine if the meaning of the passage is impacted or not. If not, omissions can also result from not focusing or reading too fast. It may also mean the sight vocabulary is weaker.

Reversal: A child will reverse the print or word order. Watch for altered meaning. Many reversals happen with young readers with high-frequency words.

Substitution:
Instead of reading a specific word, the child inserts a different word. Sometimes a child will use a substitution because they don’t understand the word being read. Does the substitution make sense in the passage? Is it a logical substitution?

Has To Be Told A Word: Child can not move on their own. Depending on the circumstances, “What good reader strategy could you try here?” 

Pauses: **Not an error**  Draw // to indicate pauses. You might also want to get into timing the student. If the student spends excessive time reading the passage, they will lose meaning.

Total Confusion: The child gets totally confused on an entire line of text and cannot get back on track; say, “try it again,” which is counted as one error. Each error counts as a separate miscue on the second attempt.

Check out this FANTASTIC website about types of errors:  Right Track Reading

Words per minute by month and grade level

To calculate WPM:

___words read aloud divided by ___SECONDS it took to read X 60 = __WPM

For example, say there are 207 words in a book. The child read it in 3 min. 25 seconds, which is 205 seconds. 207 divided by 205 is approximately 1.0 words per second x 60 = 60 WPM!

This table is from the DRA2 manual and shows the MINIMUM amount of words per minute acceptable to proceed to the next level.

This table shows approximate percentile ranks for correct words per minute at 3 points during the school year!

2017 Hasbrouck & Tindal Oral Reading Fluency Data

Grade	%ile	Fall WCPM*	Winter WCPM*	Spring WCPM*
1	90		97	116
	75		59	91
	50		29	60
	25		16	34
	10		9	18
2	90	111	131	148
	75	84	109	124
	50	50	84	100
	25	36	59	72
	10	23	35	43
3	90	134	161	166
	75	104	137	139
	50	83	97	112
	25	59	79	91
	10	40	62	63
4	90	153	168	184
	75	125	143	160
	50	94	120	133
	25	75	95	105
	10	60	71	83
5	90	179	183	195
	75	153	160	169
	50	121	133	146
	25	87	109	119
	10	64	84	102
6	90	185	195	204
	75	159	166	173
	50	132	145	146
	25	112	116	122
	10	89	91	91

WCPM is words correct per minute.

Analyzing Miscues

Marking M, S, and V on a Running Record

Now, to analyze your running record. Miscue Analysis is diagnosing a child’s oral reading based on analyzing the errors a child makes. YOU ARE LOOKING FOR ERROR PATTERNS. Miscue Analysis originated from research done by Dr. K. S. Goodman. During the oral reading, a teacher can learn whether the child is making sense of what is being read by looking closely at the child’s types of errors. By analyzing miscues, a teacher can assist those who experience difficulty. Reading tests can’t give you this type of information.

Self-correction occurs when a child realizes their error and corrects it. When a child makes a self-correction, the previous substitution is not scored as an error unless the child “self-corrects” to an incorrect word.

Meaning (M)
Meaning is part of the cueing system in which the child takes their cue to make sense of the text by thinking about the story’s background, information from pictures, or the meaning of a sentence. These cues assist in the reading of a word or phrase. Did the miscue retain the meaning intended by the author? If “Yes,” then circle M. The reader used the meaning or semantics cues. If “No,” then don’t circle the M.

Structure (S)
Structure refers to language and is often referred to as syntax. Implicit structure knowledge helps the reader know if what they read sounds correct. Syntax is language structure. Did the miscue retain grammatical correctness? Does the language pattern of the miscue sound right? If “Yes,” circle S.   If “No,” don’t. Consider the language pattern only, not whether it retains the intended meaning.

Visual (V)
Visual information is related to the look of the letter in a word and the word itself. A reader uses visual information when studying the beginning sound, word length, familiar word chunks, etc. Grapho-phonics – visual. Does the miscue show that the student has used visual cues? If the miscue is at least 50% visually correct, circle V.

By working out % scores, you will get an indication of which cues the student is relying on. For example, the final scores may look like this:  Meaning = 85% Visual = 30% Syntax = 75%. Your conclusion will be: The student uses context and language structure but needs visual skills.

Sample Errors

That evening the boy went for a walk. (The child read “night” instead of evening.)   Meaning and syntax have been retained, so circle M, S.  No visual correlation.

I’m wearing shorts and a bush shirt. (The child read “brush” instead of bush.)  Circle V and S.  Visually more than 50%. Syntactically OK, but the meaning has changed.

Nobody tries out concoctions on themselves. (The child read “congcontcong” instead of concoctions.)   Relying on visual cues. The nonsense word means meaning and syntax are not being used, so circle only V.

Not only was it bright purple …  (The child inserted an “a” after it.)  Meaning and syntax were retained, so circle M and S, but not V.  Visually, it was incorrect.

No blade of grass grew in all its concrete playground. (The child read “concentrate” instead of concrete.)  Only visual cues were used, so just circle V.  Meaning lost. Syntactically it doesn’t work.

• When a child makes an error in a line of text, record the source(s) of information used by the child in the second column from the right on the running record form. Next, write M, S, and V in that column to the right of the sentence. Then circle M, S, and/or V, depending on the source(s) of information the child used.
• If the child self-corrects an error in a line of text, use the far right-hand column to record this information. Write M, S, and V to the right of the sentence in that column. Circle the source(s) of information the child used for the self-correction.
• You may choose to administer a running record assessment without recording your observations regarding the child’s use of meaning (M), structure (S), and visual (V) cues. Even without recording this information on the form, you can still use the information on error, self-correction, and accuracy rates to place the child at a given reading level.

Retelling Rubric from the Waltham Public Schools

Rules

• Tell the child the purpose of the activity ~ that you want to observe their reading and how they make sense of it. Tell them you are looking for good reader strategies and briefly review these.
• Use unfamiliar text, not something the child knows from memory, approximately 100 words in length. Talk about the title and author with the child. Have the child do a picture walk to make some predictions. If you are doing a running record on an older child with a chapter book, have them briefly summarize what he has already read first.
• Remind the child they will retell what he has read immediately following.
• When the child is finished reading orally, say thank you and compliment. Have the child retell, and YOU record the retelling. Then discuss what you saw, compliment good reader strategies observed, offer suggestions, and set goals.
• Do not use miscue analysis on beginner readers.
• Give the student some choice in the reading selection.
• You will need a quiet place without interruptions. It can be convenient to record the child to allow you to listen to the passage more than once.
• Photocopy the selection the student will read and use this to record the miscues.
• Record each miscue in full for an accurate picture.
• The teacher’s role is a neutral observer.
• If a child makes the same miscue on a proper noun every time it appears, for example, Mario for Maria, then it is counted only as 1 error. However, if the child changes it (Mario, Mary, Matt), each is counted as an error.
• There is no penalty for attempts that lead to a correct answer.
• There is no penalty for broken words, such as a-way.
• If a child skips a line of text, each word missed is an error, but those missed words do not count as errors if pages are stuck together.
• Record body movements, comments, attitude, and demeanor ~ see Observations to Record (above).
• Collect running records over time to note patterns in reading.

To Summarize
Miscue analysis is an essential diagnostic tool that should be done every other week* to see how the reader improves in the strategies. Since we read to comprehend, have questions on the text prepared, or have the child retell the passage using the retelling rubric above. Miscues may range from an unimportant change of a word that does not interfere with meaning to a total breakdown in understanding demonstrated by the readers’ miscues bearing little relationship to the original text. Analyzing and making sense of the miscues can help teachers plan the following steps to improve a child’s reading. 

*Reading A-Z suggests this frequency: 

Early Emergent Readers	Levels aa-C	every 2 to 4 weeks
Emergent Readers	Levels D-J	every 4 to 6 weeks
Early Fluent Readers	Levels K-P	every 6 to 8 weeks
Fluent Readers	Levels Q-Z	every 8 to 10 weeks

Copyright 11/07/2012

Edited on 04/30/2023

References

“About Running Records.” Reading A-Z. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2017. <http://www.readinga-z.com/assess/runrec.html>.

Fountas and Pinnell,  1996

 Copyscape alerts me to duplicate content. Please respect my work.