The Night Sky: A Qualitative Analysis

A rising third-grade student named Ayden Pollard was chosen to participate in this assignment. The second-grade reading passage, entitled “The Night Sky,” was selected for Ayden to read. He appeared interested in the reading topic and read the passage quickly and fluently. Upon scoring this reading passage, Ayden used one mispronunciation, five substitutions, three insertions, and eleven omissions. According to Tompkins (2014), “only words that students mispronounce or substitute can be analyzed; repetitions and omissions are not calculated” (p. 85). Thus, omitted words were not included in the student’s reading level score. However, the high omission total is the focus of a key teaching point that should be addressed to increase overall reading
According to the miscue analysis, Ayden made one meaning miscue, two syntax miscues, and two visual miscues. For his meaning miscue, Ayden used the word “tickle” instead of “twinkle.” After reading the story, I discussed if the word “tickle” made sense in the sentence. He reflected and stated that it did not make sense. I then brought up the song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and we looked at the word again. He sounded out the word and agreed that the word “twinkle” made sense in this context. Relating a well-known song to the reading passage activated his background knowledge, employing both general knowledge and literary knowledge together to comprehend the meaning of twinkle in the passage. Two syntax errors were found in two separate sentences. The first included the following sentence: “Our sun is [so] close that we cannot see others in the day” with no self-correct. Here, the omission of so causes the sentence not to make sense. The second error reads, “Stars are made [up] of very hot gas, and they seem to tickle [sic] because of [the] air moving across [them].” As previously mentioned, the word should be “twinkle” and not “tickle.” The two visual miscues were found in two separate sentences. The first miscue substituted “a” for “one” and the second miscue substituted “the” for “our.” These two miscues did not alter the meaning or
Ways to assist Ayden’s reading speed include increasing classroom modeled reading and shared reading. According to Tompkins (2014), teachers provide the greatest amount of support when they demonstrate how expert readers read. By reading at the appropriate pace and expression, Ayden could read along and observe how the prosody and expression with which his teacher reads. Shared reading would also be a useful strategy, as it allows students to interact with the reading and requires students to follow along while the teacher. Implementing strategies that foster reading accuracy would be helpful to ensure Ayden is reading at a more appropriate pace and furthering his development of reading