So, if you're like me, you probably just did about a million assessments. Assessments are like a necessary evil. Something you love to hate. Am I wrong?
Ok, but seriously. When I collapsed sat down on Friday and looked at all my data, I was seriously able to see a TON of growth in my children!! Don't you love seeing growth in your students? It's the most rewarding part of our job, because let's face it, we don't do this job for the money.
My school (and state) does Read 3D testing. Are you familiar? It has 2 parts basically, a skills based part called Dibels and then the TRC (Text Reading Comprehension) which is the reading assessment. This is the first time we've had to switch kids with another teacher to ensure "fidelity" with our assessments. We only had to do this for the TRC though. Having our students read many books can be exhausting, so I provided the other teacher with a list of each student's name and an approximate reading level. So how do I know their approximate reading level?? Running records!
Thoughts on Running Records? Love them, hate them? Do you know what one is? We do these at the beginning of every reading group on one child. (Sometimes I have to do 2 children if a group has 6 in it.) Each child gets 1 running record per week and they are stored in a huge notebook under a tab with each child's name. These are done on a warm read or something we've read 1 time before, never a new book. I have a specific day for each child and they know their day and they sit in a specific seat on that day so I have easy access to them. During that time, the other students are rereading other books and completing other activities so they aren't off task.
As they are reading, I check off the words they read and note mistakes they made if any. I make notes at the bottom and ask comprehension questions.
Questions I ask for Comprehension:
What was the story about?
Start at the beginning and tell me what happened.
What is the setting of the story?
Did you like the story? Why/Why Not?
How can you relate this story to your life?
These questions come straight from our Read 3D progress monitoring and I want them to be able to answer these questions during that test.
So, how is it scored?
I use this conversion table to get my percentage and these rubrics to figure out fluency and comprehension. Students need to score 95% or above with a 3 or a 4 on fluency and comprehension to be independent. We want to figure out their instructional level so we can plan our lessons. We DO NOT want them to be frustrated!
I actually don't score it when they are sitting there. I stick it to the side when I'm done with it and score it/analyze it later on. I want to get on with my lesson!
I created this simple running record form because after chatting with some coworkers, we decided that if the Running Record form had lines it would be easier for us. I wanted a form that had everything I needed on it and the one being provided for us did not.
If you like what you see, this one is totally free and you can head on over to TpT and grab it and get starting doing your running records!
The Conversion Chart is based on Marie Clay's conversion chart. Fluency and Comprehension Rubrics are based on Fountas and Pinnell's Fluency and Comprehension Rubrics.
Do you find Running Records helpful in planning instruction? How often do you do them?
Until next time!
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