Speeding Records

For those of you working with Kindergarten, I must really commend your hard work. Doing a running record is a fairly easy process to do, but if a child is struggling to make sense of the words he/she is trying to read can pose as more of a problem than someone who can read but misses a few words here and there. For one thing, now you must think critically about how to help the child to say the words (not that you wouldn't for any other-aged child). Secondly, now you must think of back up plans for back up plans when your idea doesn't work. As for me, I am experiencing something much more different. So far in my fifth-grade class, the students that I've done running records with have been pretty darn good readers. The challenge for me is to find something that can be done better. Whether it be in the student's reading or my own style of a running record.
An actual problem that I did come across is when a child was reading to fast. It was so fast that when there was a mistake I didn't know if I should stop and write down the error or to continue along. I was thinking if I stop and write the word that was mispronounced, I'm going to lose the child's place in the reading. So, I tried to just remember what the student read, but it happened about three or four times and I wasn't going to remember everything. When I asked Greg about it, he said to just write the word and try and catch up. That's what I'll be doing next time. One thing that I got out of this experience is that we all including myself have got to remember that this is our first time doing anything like this.