How Will I Know What My Students Need? Preparing Preservice Teachers to Use Running Records to Make Instructional Decisions

Abstract

Effective teachers use assessment data to make instructional decisions. One of the most informative techniques to assess young learners’ reading progress in the primary grades is the running record. Running records provide concrete evidence of students’ skills, reading levels, strategies, and progress as readers. The data gathered help teachers identify readers’ current strengths, needs, and reading levels. Frequent consideration of assessment data allows teachers to make up-to-the-minute evidence-based instructional decisions for their students. How do preservice teachers learn to take, score, and analyze running records to inform their literacy instruction? This article describes two approaches used by teacher educators to equip preservice elementary teachers with beginning proficiency in using running records to determine next steps of reading instruction for young students. The authors also provide novice teacher educators with insight into how they might incorporate running records instruction into their assessment or methods coursework, and they suggest resources to guide follow-up instruction.