Running Record

Running Records

Running Records

There was much discussion about running records, PM benchmark testing kits and using seen or unseen texts at our recent Literacy Cluster meeting at Howick Primary School. In response to the discussion, here are some guidelines that we hope will prove useful for your school to review your current running record procedures.

From TKI: Moderation: Moderation Resources

“The way schools operate their running record procedures often varies from teacher to teacher and across schools. A standardised approach to running records is important so dependable teacher decisions can be used to support student learning and contribute to overall teacher judgments. The Ministry of Education’s resource, Using running records, remains the standard of how to administer a running record. The resource is no longer being produced, but it is available from libraries around New Zealand including the National Library. Information is also available in Running records for classroom teachers, Marie M. Clay, ISBN 978-0-868633-48-0”

From: Using Running Records: A Resource for New Zealand Classroom Teachers, MOE

Using Seen and Unseen Texts - Pg. 13

“The text used for a Running Record will usually be a “seen” text – one that the child has previously read. It will not, however, be a text that the child has read so often that they may have memorised the entire text.

Usually the seen text is a text that the child has previously read once only. Emergent readers however, may be given texts that they have read several times before, because this can help them feel at ease as they get used to the process of having a record of their reading taken. For example, if the teacher wants to monitor the child’s progress within the classroom, the text selected will generally be a text that the child has recently read during a guided reading lesson. The child’s familiarity with the text will support the reading by providing prior knowledge of the content and language, and so the reading is likely to be an example of the best processing that the student can do.

When the teacher wants to judge how the student will cope with more difficult material, the text may be one at the student's current instructional level (or above it) that the student has not read or heard before. Note that the difficulty of reading a particular “unseen” text will vary, depending on the amount of introduction to it that the teacher provides (for example, how much the teacher says about unusual vocabulary before taking the Running Record).

A Running Record taken on an “unseen” text often provides useful information about readers who are able to read more extensive texts confidently and well.”

So, our recommendations for school running record procedures are:

1. Keep using PM Benchmark kits if you already use them, however:

2. For Emergent (Magenta) level learners be cautious using any running record as the texts often have fewer than 100 words, and the learner usually doesn’t have one to one in place.

3. For Early (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green) level learners, running records on seen classroom instructional texts should form the core basis of your Reading OTJ, and PM benchmarks can be used if you feel you need more information.

4. For Early (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green) level learners who are below standard don’t put too much weight on comprehension and self-correction rates, as these learners need to be moved on regardless. If they have poor comprehension and/or self-correction rates continue to move them on, but address these weaknesses in future guided reading lessons.

5. For Fluent (Orange, Turquoise, Purple, Gold, and beyond) level learners who are below standard don’t put too much weight on comprehension and self-correction rates either.

6. For learners who are at or above standard, then poor comprehension or self-correction rate is a good reason to hold them at that level and address these weaknesses in future guided reading lessons.

7. When making OTJs or entering summative data on your school database, PM benchmarks should not be relied on solely. They are a useful tool to complement in-class running records and teacher observations.