Running Records & a Freebie!

Let's talk running records.  Do you do them? Love them? Hate them?  I learned how to do running records in college and thanks to DRA when I began teaching, rarely did a running record for years.  Our previous principal encouraged us to do them during reading groups, but let me be honest and say I couldn't even figure out how to fit that in.  I was DETERMINED to get them done this year.  I know all the benefits of running records.  Most importantly, it helps you to see where your child is and how they are doing on a particular level to determine if you need to move up, down or stay the same.  Having trouble fitting it in? Let me explain how I do it.

This is a simple recording sheet. Everyone's name is listed on the left.  I write the date of their running record, the level, the score and if it was independent, instructional or frustration. Each child has a tab in my notebook.  I store all their running records behind the tab.

Students come to the table.  1 student sits right next to me. While the other students are rereading with the whisper phone, I read with that student.  (I tell them who this is.)

The students know to whisper read until I finish the running record.  I complete the running record and the retell and put it aside.  I don't take my precious Guided Reading time to score it or any of that.  I can do that later.

I then check in with my other students to make sure they have an understanding of our book.  Next we make our sight word from the story.  This week I introduced our Making Words Folders.  I got these from What the Teacher Wants.  I color coded mine so if any pieces fall off, I know where they go.  Super time consuming to make, but well worth it.  I have been using paper letters, but it's time for them to start being accountable for finding the letters to make our words.

We write the sight word.  Those dry erase dots are still going strong!

We complete our activity.  We are still working with open ended sentences for guided writing so today their sentence was "I see my big or small ______." They chose a word from the story. We have writing sight words down, we are still working on stretch spelling.  

We played an app at the end to practice some skill work.  This group actually did a rhyming word app!

Later I go back to my Running Record and score it.  Things that are important to me - accuracy, fluency and comprehension.

The friends who read this book today didn't have too much trouble with it.  I showed an example of a perfect one and one with a mistake.   

Questions I asked for Comprehension:

What was the story about?  

Start at the beginning and tell me what happened.

What is the setting of the story?

Did you like the story? Why/Why Not?

How can you relate this story to your life?

These questions come straight from our Read 3D progress monitoring and I want them to be able to answer these questions during that test.  

I write their answers right on the bottom of the running record sheet because I don't need all the lines anyway.

How is it scored?

I use this conversion table to get my percentage and these rubrics to figure out fluency and comprehension.  Students need to score 95% or above with a 3 or a 4 on fluency and comprehension to be independent.  We want to figure out their instructional level so we can plan our lessons.  We DO NOT want them to be frustrated! 

I created this simple running record form because after chatting with some coworkers, we decided that if the form had lines it would be easier for us.  I wanted a form that had everything I needed on it.

Are you still with me?  Here's the freebie!  A running record form, conversion chart and rubric just for you! 

Please note: Conversion Chart is based on Marie Clay's conversion chart.  Fluency and Comprehension Rubrics are based on Fountas and Pinnell's Fluency and Comprehension Rubrics.

Here's a question for you - do you do running records? How often? How do you organize them?

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! I can't wait to have some fun with my Kinders tomorrow!!