Running Records

Running Records. This is a reading tool to use to find the instructional level of your students. I have used these with my tutoring student. I chose two books, Don't Eat the Teacher and Today I Feel Silly, for my student to read. As she read I made notes in the shorthand developed for the Running Records. I was not allowed to help unless the student asked for it, and in asking I had to mark it as an error. Other errors include omissions, substitutions, insertions, and reversals. I then scored the records and found my student's instructional level. I understand that we do this to learn strategies and other things that will help us teach later. However, I want to be able to tutor the student and help with fluency. I feel as if the student needs help, not more tests. In my opinion,the students get tested too much. I want to help, not create more stress by asking the student to participate in more testing. I hope that soon I will be able to do more teaching and less testing.