[NOBE-L] Running Records

[Heather Field]

Hello Ruben,

I am a braille user.
This answer assumes that you are a braille reader. Apologies if not you didn’t indicate in your post.

I worked as a special ed. Resource teacher for a number of years and now run my own tutoring business.
I sometimes used to do running records when I was recommending reading intervention for a student and needed to convince other teachers it was necessary.
I don’t find them particularly helpful for a blind teacher since I don’t look over the test and observe the visual symbols, colours etc. For my own records. However, when it was necessary, I used the method below.

The way I do a running record is as follows:
I get the print material which the child is to read ahead of time, get it converted into an accessible format, such as a text document and emboss it in braille on the single-sided setting, on letter-size, light-weight braille paper, using double-line spacing. I will then be able to read along with the child in real time. I find it helpful to spiral bind the document to keep the pages neat and in order. I have had some blind colleagues who stack the unbound pages in readiness and simply flip them as they read, and again as they finish each page. That’s personal preference.
I prepare for the reading by placing a tactile drawing board under the first page and I use a stylus to mark the text, holding the stylus loosely with the fingers on my right hand as I read. You can practise this and it becomes quite easy. As the child reads, you can slip the drawing board under each new braille page.
I purchased the letter-size tactile drawing board from www.futureaids.com and it was very reasonably priced.
 
 This way, as the child makes errors, self-corrects etc. I mark this right on the text as it happens, only it’s in braille and I can read it. You can use the code they use in print or invent your own. Some tests use different colours for some error notations but, obviously, I don’t use them.
If I need to mark up a print copy of the test, E.G. for the student’s file or to present it to his classroom teacher, then I attend to that later, getting a sighted person to help me.
Recording the reading could be helpful, since you could recheck your original mark up afterwards. Since you are doing the task in real time, I can’t see how anyone can object. However, if you need to record and mark up the material later, I see no reason why that should be an issue, since you don’t need the results immediately because it isn’t your intention to make a reading intervention on the same day as you test. I would see that as a reasonable accommodation.
Hope this suggestion is helpful.
Warmly,
Heather Field

From: Ruben Rincon, Jr. via NOBE-L
Sent: Wednesday, 8 September 2021 12:57 PM
To: NOBE-L at nfbnet.org
Cc: Ruben Rincon, Jr.
Subject: [NOBE-L] Running Records

Hello everyone,

This question is for anyone who teaches reading at the elementary level. How do you administer running records? I will have to do this next week with a second or third grade student for the first time and am not sure how I will mark their errors and self-correcting behaviors. This will take place over Zoom if that makes a difference. The only thing I can think to do is to record the student while they read and complete the running record later, but I’m not sure that will be allowed.

Any advice y’all can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Regards,

Ruben Rincón, Jr.
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