Miscue Analysis

    This week I had the opportunity to work with one of my students on a miscue analysis. I have completed one of these in the past and was never very fond of it. They seemed to take a lot of work and time and not really give me the information I valued most. However for this analysis I used an over the shoulder technique and found that it takes less time and gets down to the essentials of what I was trying to get out of the miscue analysis. I think that this is really important to keep in mind for teachers. A teachers day is pretty jam packed so doing a forty five minute miscue is not really practical the over the shoulder miscue is one that a teacher could complete multiple times a day!

    The miscue for the most part went very well. The student enjoyed the book and really had a grasp on comprehending the information. By doing the miscue I was able to understand more about my student as a reader. I think it is important to get to know each and every student as a reader.

    By completing the miscue I was able to see the variety of strategies a second grader will use on a typical reading session. I was surprised to see how many different strategies were used. My student relied heavily on chunking, pictures, and context clues. All of which are great strategies for a student to be using. My reader I would say mainly focused on using chunking. He would break the word apart and then sound out each individual part then put the word back together. I think that this is an awesome strategy for students and one that I honestly still use myself! I on the other hand get weary about students relying to heavily on pictures. I think that the more strategies we can give a student the better to eliminate the crutch of using the pictures. One day those pictures will not be there and we need to arm our students with the right tools to use when the pictures disappear.

    Overall I feel that I learned a great deal by doing the miscue analysis. I think that it gave me insight to who my student is as a reader and also just as a student. I know that a miscue can take time but it is time that will not be wasted. The more a teacher can read with and learn from his or her students the better. I think that it is important to help our students in their reading and know that we want them to succeed and are going to help them do so!