Blog #7 - Miscue Analysis

L, a Spanish speaking student has been in ELL for four years and shows much improvement according to the ELL teacher. She struggles in the Fall after speaking Spanish all summer in Mexico but comes around with some practice and support. L did a first read of a piece and read well. Her reading lacked much inflection and pauses at the end of sentences and commas were almost non-existent. As far as miscues go, she had a couple that did not change the meaning of the text. One miscue she reread correctly. L said "d" for "th" which is typical of her native Spanish. This does not affect meaning or syntax.

With this student, I would work on fluency and inflection. She read quickly and accurately but with little inflection. I would have her read familiar passages, possibly record her so she can hear her reading; then I would model what it would sound like if read with inflection and emotion. Another teaching point would be focusing on the main idea and comprehension. Although she answered the comprehension questions accurately, her answers were superficial and did not reflect deep thought of what was read.

M, is a kindergarten student who speaks English fluently and yet is in ELL for additional support. He read a pre-primer text which was difficult for him. There were several miscues which affected meaning significantly. Of the seven sentences he read, there were five significant miscues such as replacing words and mispronouncing words to the point of changing them with similar words that may have been more familiar to him. No syntax errors were noted and although there was a picture with the text, it was not enough to give significant clues.

With M, I would start with much simpler text and give him the support he needs in order to read the text correctly. Giving him an opportunity to read silently first or read after the instructor has read would help with decoding errors. Recording M's reading would help him hear the errors he is making; reading with and to him as well as having him read to an instructor will help him correct his decoding errors. What M needs most is practice with text that gives him the opportunity to be successful and grow in his reading and decoding skills. Classroom observations show that M is able to read fluently when given the opportunity to pre-read, this needs to be a part of any instructional strategy.