Digital Running Records
on Raz-Plus
With our online running record tool, Raz-Plus members can:
- Assign a Benchmark Book from Levels aa-G
- Assign a Benchmark Passage from Levels aa-Z
- Listen to students' recordings from reading aloud a book or passage
- Score all student recordings using an online running-record tool
- Listen to students' recordings of retellings
- Score retellings using an online rubric
- See quiz questions missed and a report on which comprehension skills to support or re-teach with each student
- Reward students' progress through awarding stars to spend in the RAZ Rocket
- Track your students' progress over time
Marking a Running Record
Several terms are used when marking a running record form. You should become familiar with these terms by reviewing the explanations below.
- Errors (E) — Errors are tallied during the reading whenever a child does any of the following:
Substitutes another word for a word in the text
Omits a word
Inserts a word
Has to be told a word
Mispronounces a word (not a result of dialect; creates a nonword) - Self-correction (SC) — Self-correction occurs when a child realizes her or his error and corrects it. When a child makes a self-correction, the previous substitution is not scored as an error.
- Meaning (M) — Meaning is part of the cueing system in which the child takes her or his cue to make sense of text by thinking about the story background, information from pictures, or the meaning of a sentence. These cues assist in the reading of a word or phrase.
- Structure (S) — -Structure refers to the structure of language and is often referred to as syntax. Implicit knowledge of structure helps the reader know if what she or he reads sounds correct.
- Visual (V) — Visual information is related to the look of the letters in a word and the word itself. A reader uses visual information when she or he studies the beginning sound, word length, familiar word chunks, and so forth.
Two-Step Process
Step 1
Mark the text on the running record form as the student reads from the Benchmark Passage or Benchmark Book. Before taking your first running record, become familiar with the symbols used to mark a running record form. These symbols are found in Table 1. Also review the Sample Running Record to see how a completed form looks. It also is a good idea to take a few practice running records by role-playing with a fellow teacher as she/he plays the role of a developing reader, intentionally making errors for you to record.
Once the student has read all the text on the running record form and you have recorded their reading behavior, you can complete Step 2.
Step 2
Fill in the boxes to the right of the lines of text you have marked. Begin by looking at any error the student has made in the first line. Mark the number of errors made in the first box to the right of the line. If the student self corrected any of these errors, mark the number of self-corrections in the second box to the right of the line. Next determine whether the errors and self-corrections were made as a result of meaning, structure, or visual cueing. For a description of each of these cues, review the explanations provided above. Write MSV in each box for each error and a self-correction made and circle the appropriate letter for the cue used by the student.
After completing step 2 you should total the number of errors and self-corrections and write each total in the box at the bottom of the appropriate column. Next calculate the student's error rate, accuracy rate, and self-correction rate, found in the next section Scoring and Analyzing a Running Record.
You do not have to mark the MSV cueing portion of the running record form. It is simply used to help you further analyze a student's reading behavior and provide deeper insight into a student's possible reading deficiencies. You can still use the information on error, self-correction, and accuracy rates to place the student at the developmentally appropriate instructional level.
Sample Running Record
