1.5 Self-corrections
Although self-corrections may seem less important as a diagnostic tool than errors, they demonstrate the way in which a reader is working to make sense of a text and allow the teacher a glimpse into the child’s thinking. Teachers can identify patterns of a student’s use of cuing systems across one or more running records. When a student “fixes” his or her reading, this action speaks to the specific error at hand until there are enough instances of self-corrections to view patterns. At this point, the teacher can carefully select texts that support the systems already in use by the student but that challenge the student to make use of combinations of systems he or she is neglecting.
Text selection cannot be explained by a mere formula. When a student is making a great many self-corrections, although he or she is thereby correctly “calling” the words within the text, fluency and comprehension will be lost. If the text does not provide enough opportunities for self-corrections, the teacher will not have the opportunity to uncover whether the student is making heavy use of one or more of the cuing systems. It would also be impossible for the teacher to determine whether a particular self-correction was just an isolated occurrence or an indication that the student needs to work actively on the text to figure out its meaning.
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By Jeanne Gunther.
