LEARN NC

people reading on benches

Ongoing assessment for reading

By Jeanne Gunther

2.1 Why miscue analysis?

A holistic view of reading takes into account that “both the reader and the author are equally active in constructing or building meaning.” The text available is the “medium through which the author and reader transact.”1 Teachers who learn miscue analysis learn to build individual and personal models of reading for their students. By involving the teacher on such an individual basis in the reading process, reading can become an even more rich and complex place for author/reader transaction. Now, there is room for not only author and reader but a listener as well.

What is a miscue?

A miscue is any unexpected calling of a word or section of text. A miscue “says” something other than the exact printed text. Some might label such mis-callings as errors. However, the term error implies something negative. The fact that an unexpected response can be heard by a listener tells us that listeners are also transacting with text. Miscue analysis values the choices made by readers and views miscues as a “window into the mind of the reader.”2 This window is an opportunity for both the teacher and the learner.

Miscue analysis focuses specifically on “cueing systems” used by the reader. The three cueing systsms used in miscue analysis are the same as those used to describe work done by readers in running records. The cueing systems are labeled slightly differently, as the graphophonic system (visual cues in running records), the syntactic system (syntax or structure cues in running records), and the semantic system (meaning cues in running records).

Miscue analysis vs. running records

Running records are a useful tool for determining text level, observing cueing systems in use, and identifying individual teaching points for students. Running records determine text level by the number of errors made during reading. Miscue analysis is less concerned with the number of miscues than with the type of miscues. Good readers don’t necessarily transact with text in a word-by word manner. Many good readers skip words, substitute words, mis-call words and still gain a high level of meaning from a text. Miscue analysis honors the reasons behind miscues and the information documented is used to further the reading success of the given student.3

With whom to use miscue analysis

Students eligible for this procedure are independent readers. Most studies conducted using miscue analysis use readers in third grade or higher, but there is no formula to tell exactly when a student is ready to engage in this assessment or intervention. Sandra Wilde suggests that a student is ready to participate when he or she can read unfamiliar material without teacher support.4 Certainly miscues may happen at an earlier stage, but without the foundational knowledge of reading, miscue analysis does not provide window into the choices a student is making while reading.

Miscue analysis requires a good deal of time on the part of the teacher. Because of this time investment, a teacher may not select all of his or her students to use miscue analysis. Generally, this procedure can best be reserved for struggling readers. As there is a diagnostic quality to this assessment, miscue analysis is best employed when a teacher is unsure of exactly why a certain student struggles with reading.5

  1. Goodman, Yetta M., Dorothy J. Watson, and Carolyn L. Burke, Reading Miscue Inventory: Alternative procedures (New York: Richard C. Owen, 1987), 20. [return]
  2. Quoting K. Goodman. Goodman, Yetta M., “Miscue Analysis for Classroom Teachers: Some History and Some Procedures,” in Primary Voices, K–6 3:4 (November 1995). [return]
  3. Wilde, Sandra, Miscue analysis made easy: Building on student strengths (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2000), 2. [return]
  4. Ibid., 30. [return]
  5. Ibid. [return]