Johnston, Peter H. (2000)
Running Records: A Self-Tutoring Guide.
York: ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Guiding the development of reading skills in children in the
lower elementary grades is certainly one of the most challenging tasks
facing the lower-elementary teacher. The responsibility of documenting the
child’s reading processes, and assessing his progress, is no less daunting.
The author of Running Records: A Self-Tutoring Guide expresses the belief
that the taking of a running record of a child’s oral reading is the single
most useful technique for documenting early reading processes.
This book, with its accompanying cassette tape, is intended as a method for
the informed (i.e. trained professional) teacher to instruct him or herself
not only in the shorthand recording of a child’s reading errors, but in the
analysis of the child’s acquisition of reading skills. The book is divided
into two parts. In the first, negative perceptions of oral reading are
immediately addressed, as well as the idea that listening to a child read is
simply not enough; a graphic record of the child’s reading is essential.
From there, the author explains how to record oral reading, such as words
read correctly, omissions, insertions, self-corrections, etc. The tape,
which consists of numbered sample readings by several different children, is
referred to after each type of error discussed in the book. The text read
by the child on the tape is provided, followed by a depiction of what the
completed running record should have looked like. The second part of the
book devotes itself to the analysis and interpretation of the reading
record. Commentary is given on each child’s miscues, including what the
teacher may be able to interpret from the types of miscues a child makes.
Appendix A and B provide both a generic running record form and a further
sample of children’s readings (accompanying the tape) for practice.
While the step-by-step progress of the instruction may seem tedious to some,
this book in fact provides a very thorough walk through the process of
taking and analyzing a running record. The discussions as to why a child
may be making a particular type of miscue are very valuable. The tape is
easy to hear, and the children are quite engaging as they read. Especially
delightful are some of the side comments made by children as they react to
what they read; even these are analyzed as to the quality of the child’s
engagement with the text. This book and tape would be very useful to the
novice teacher, but even the seasoned professional will glean some valuable
insights as to what is happening in the mind of the young child as he reads.
