Instructional reading level - What is an error?

[crazydennie]

I'm trying to understand how this works. So my DD has a book with 232 words and I recorded 12 errors in her reading today. This was her second reading of the book and I allowed her to read with no interruptions from me:
4 sounded out correctly
2 misread and not corrected (but I know she knows the words)
6 self corrected

Do you count the self corrections when working out the 90-95%?
3 of the sounded out words were the names Amanda, Thelma and Sheena, while I understand that these are decodable, the benefit of learning these is lost on me. would it be blending practice?
I don't try to analyse all her books to this extent but this is a new book band and I wanted to get an understanding of where is, as the school wish to push her slightly higher.

Blimey- sounds very complicated.

what year / book band is she?? I just let DS read, no expectation that I should be counting errors. if he needed lots of help or a little or none I say so in the record book.

Chill dennie. Please.

Yes, you include the self corrections in the error total.

Just a quick question, have the school asked you to do this?

Its a method that I came across online several weeks ago but can't seem to find the link anymore.

She is only in reception and on blues (RR Level 9)but I really don't want her to move up any further as they seem to struggle to find time to hear her read. She didn't read to anyone at school for 3 weeks at one point but she reads to me every night and as I said this is the first time that I've tried to work this method out. I just don't want her pushed up any further if it is not right, so I'm trying to figure out if I should let them. There are a couple of children in the class who seem to be quite stressed out, bursting into tears at wrong answers etc, which worries me about the teaching.

Leecoakley - I know I sound so A*** Retentive!

No the school hasn't asked me to do anything. But where my daughter is concerned I just try to understand as much as possible.

PathOfLeastResitance thanks for the info on including the self corrections!

When I used to do "miscue analysis" we would aim 90 - 95% to "educational"", but it was on first reading, not second attempt.

I was going to say the same as abigail. Surely it should be on first read? You sound a bit OTT! If school want to push her on then let them. They must have a reason and if she starts struggling they can always move her down again

Blimey!

Blimey! I just get a feel for how many words DS doesn't know/needs help with and if it's stopping his enjoyment/how fast/slow he is with the book.

Tgger completely agree with you. It was school policy to do a miscue every term as part of our assessment (this is pre letters and sounds), plus if a parent requested a harder book, we had to do one as part of the assessment to see if we had the child on the right level. Thank goodness my current school doesn't use this system. Having said that I can see the logic in 90-95%-ish. Higher and it isn't really stretching the child, lower and there is a real frustration, the flow and understand (plus confidence and pleasure) can get lost.

Only a bit OTT I would have said very but that is me!! :)

As I said before it was the first time i ever did it and I did it because I don't feel she needs to be any higher than she is, i.e. the books seem difficult enough to me.

I think if there is any chance that she could be put up and then put down again I definitely wont agree to it, as that would be very upsetting for any child! I know how i would feel if that was me :(

I haven't done it for a while but when we used to do miscue analysis I thought self-correction didn't count. Unless this was a specific intervention programme I was using . And agree, it was on a first time read.

4 sounded out correctly
^2 misread and not corrected (but I know she knows the words)
6 self corrected

I don't quite understand why sounding out a word correctly constitutes an error. It's absolutely the correct thing to do if a child is unsure of a word. Nor can I see that self correction is an error. It shows that the child is attending carefully to what they are reading.

3 of the sounded out words were the names Amanda, Thelma and Sheena, while I understand that these are decodable, the benefit of learning these is lost on me. would it be blending practice?

How on earth is a child supposed to learn to read independently if they don't encounter unfamiliar words? Reading isn't a matter of 'word learning', it is about having the skills and knowledge needed to work out what any word 'says'.

Quite honestly, it sounds to me as if your DD has a better grasp of the reading process than you do (or the online 'method' that you came across) and is doing absolutely fine.

Forget about miscue analysis; it is a completely outdated and unnecessary exercise. Start worrying if she starts guessing words rather than sounding out and blending or is being given words to read which are beyond the limits of her phonic knowledge.

I know that my son is on a higher guided reading level at school than he is in with his take home books. Just carry on with letting her read a variety of material - the most important thing is that she enjoys reading & wants to read.