Leila's Ch. 5 Reflection

Running records provide many benefits for teachers and students compared to traditional written and oral testings. It allows a greater flexibility and opportunities for assessment because it can be taken anytime. You just sit next to a student and listen to them read for a couple of minutes each day. Using running records as a "tool for teaching", teachers can gather explicit information on their students reading such as what kind of reading strategies is he/she using? Also, teachers can discover what level is best for a student to be at. All these insights that running records provide to teachers help better the students to become stronger readers.

As easy as it may sounds, there is more than just making little check marks as the student reads. There are many notations you must learn because it represent actions the student has taken when he/she stumble across unfamiliar words. If you don't record such actions, then you won't get an accurate picture of the student's reading. It is like a doctor making a wrong diagnosis on his/her patient. The worst diagnosis that a teacher can make on a student's reading can either cause the student become frustrate with reading or provide the student with no challenge. It is important that teachers help students find that "just-right" book.