What Are Running Records?

Running records are an assessment tool that K-4 teachers utilize to learn about their students as readers. Running records assess students' accuracy, fluency and comprehension when reading a text at increasing levels of complexity. Teachers listen to students read one-on-one and capture a "record" of their reading utilizing coding for miscues, substitutions, omissions, etc. Teachers are then able to analyze a child's miscues to determine if they are overrelying on meaning/context cues or visual cues (letters) without thinking about meaning. Additionally, teachers engage with students in a comprehension conversation to learn more about their understanding of the text. These assessments provide invaluable information to teachers regarding next steps for instruction. Additionally, teachers use this information, as well as anecdotal data gained from reading conferences and small group instruction, to approximately match students to independent reading texts.

Return to the Word Wall for Literacy and navigate to the Leveled Text section to read more about how running records are utilized to match students to appropriate texts.