Accuracy refers to the percentage of words that a student can read correctly compared to the entire text. We assess a student's accuracy at the same time that we assess their reading rate.
Students with poor accuracy usually need help decoding words. The most important decoding strategy when tackling fourth grade texts is breaking a word into its different parts. For example, a student looking at the word "earthquake" should immediately notice two words, "earth" and "quake." This decoding strategy is far faster than sounding the word out letter by letter. In another example, students' eyes should automatically break apart the word "unwrapped" into its three parts: the base word "wrap," the prefix "un" and the suffix "ed." When students train their eyes and brains to look at words this way, they will improve their decoding speed. And of course, the more they do it, the easier it will be!
Another common problem is that students decode the beginning of a word, make a guess, and keep reading. This strategy can be very useful, especially when a student is trying to improve his or her speed, but it has a negative side. In order to make an intelligent guess at a word, the student must be thinking about what he or she is reading. The word must make sense in the sentence, and it must make sense at that part of the text. For example, a student may start read the following sentence: "Jo loved feeling imp-" and then guess that the word is "impossible." This word is not a good guess, even though it starts with "imp." "Jo loved feeling important; he enjoyed being the center of everyone's attention." The word "impossible" didn't make sense in that sentence. The student should notice that it didn't make sense, read the sentence again, look at the word more carefully, and make a better word choice.
A third very common mistake happens with students who read quickly. These students decode multi-syllable words well and breeze through their sentences. The errors these students make frequently involve little words: articles, pronouns and prepositions such as "of," "or," "he," and so on. Consider these two sentences:
He burst through the door and rushed to the nearest window.
The burst though the door and rushed to the nearest window.
Only one word changed, "He," yet it changed the whole sentence. Small words can alter the meaning and syntax very easily, and students who rush through stories may get confused by the substitutions. The best thing to do is to go back and try to read more slowly, thinking about the sentence and noticing if it makes sense or not. Even experienced readers make this mistake sometimes; I know I do! The key is to pay attention. If something isn't making sense, figure it out before moving on.