Miscue Analysis The word miscue, coined by Kenneth Goodman, describes readers unexpected responses to written text.

Miscues should never be thought of as errors; they are positive tools used to inform reading instruction. Research suggests that miscues are essential to reading development. Careful miscue analysis can reveal a lot about students reading capabilities. By understanding the miscues students make, teachers can more accurately plan individual and small group reading instruction. The student that I chose to analyze was a 6-year-old kindergarten student named Sanjana. Sanjana is at a Fountas and Pinnell reading level of L, and is in the highest ability reading group of her class. Currently, Sanjana is reading a second grade level text in her guided reading group. In order to assess Sanjanas reading capabilities, I used the Miscue Analysis Kidwatching Profile. My cooperating teacher provided me with a text selection that Constable school uses for miscue analysis. The text selection on Sanjanas reading level was a small book called Jane Goodall and the Chimps. The text was 32 lines long, and included pictures with captions. Sanjana and I completed the miscue analysis in a quiet hallway outside of the classroom. I provided Sanjana with her own copy of the text and allowed her to examine the front cover. I explained to Sanjana that she would be helping me learn about how kindergarteners read. When she agreed to read her book to me, I instructed Sanjana to begin on page 2. My findings regarding Sanjanas miscue analysis were very interesting. Sanjana demonstrated that she is able to read text from left to right and from top to bottom. I was very impressed to find that Sanjana read small picture captions without a prompt. She

was able to move effortlessly from the story text to the captions and then back to the text without confusion. I also noticed that Sanjana used word pronunciations in parenthesis to read unfamiliar or foreign words. For example, the text describes a place in Africa called Gombe. When Sanjana approached this word in he text she used the breakdown (GOMbay) to aid her reading. Sanjana was also able to self-correct words in the text. For example Sanjana read, So she stayed for away and corrected the word for to far. Sanjana realized that in the context of the sentence, the word for did not make sense. After reading the word away, she realized that the correct word was far. Out of 36 lines in the text, only 2 lines were considered unacceptable sentences. For example, Sanjana read that Jane Goodall grew up in Artica rather than Africa. This sentence is considered unacceptable because it changes the meaning of the text. Sanjana also had substitution miscues however; these did not change the meaning of the sentence. For example, in line 4 of the text, Sanjana replaced the word with with the word for in the sentence Louis had been looking for a woman to study chimps with him. One of the most important things I observed about Sanjanas reading is her lack of comprehension. The text provided by my cooperating teacher included three comprehension questions to ask students after reading. The first question requires students to recall details from the story. When asked to name two things Jane Goodall saw the chimps doing, Sanjana answered, talking. I then prompted Sanjana to look back at the pictures in the story to look at what the chimps were doing. After looking back at the pictures, Sanjana was able to provide two appropriate answers to the question. Sanjana was able to correctly answer the second question about how Jane made friends with the chimps (gave them a banana). The last question was an optional question that

also asked students to recall details from the story. The optional question read, Why was Louis Leaky looking for a woman to work with him? Sanjanas answer was Louis couldnt do it alone. Although Sanjanas answer makes sense, it is not correct in the context of the story. The correct answer was that Louis Leaky thought the chimps would be afraid of a man. In order to answer this question correctly Sanjana would have to infer that chimps would be afraid of men because of their size relative to women. Inferring is a skill that appropriately matches the level of the text, but does not match Sanjanas current cognitive abilities. Although Sanjana has very well developed decoding skills, her lack of reading comprehension presents an interesting problem. In my opinion, Sanjana does not have a severe lack of reading comprehension skills. Rather, the mature content of Sanjanas high-leveled books makes it nearly impossible for her to understand the story. One thing that I would do to better inform instruction is find appropriately leveled books with age appropriate themes. One great example that I would recommend for Sanjana is the Amelia Bedelia book series by Fritz Siebel. This book series ranges from levels K- M which is perfect for Sanjanas current reading level. These books are ideal for advanced kindergarten readers like Sanjana, because they contain content that is appropriate for students ages 5-7. Reading books like those in the Amelia Bedelia series, will ensure that students like Sanjana are reading leveled books with stories that they can comprehend and enjoy. In additon to finding age-appropriate books for Sanjana, I would also work on some comprehension skills before moving her to the next F&P level. For example, while Sanjana was reading I noticed that she read the picture captions without looking at the

pictures. I would instruct Sanjana to stop and look at pictures as she reads. Looking at the pictures that accompany the text, will aid Sanjana in her understanding of mature content. Another thing that I would discuss with Sajana are some pre-reading strategies that she can use to better comprehend mature content. For example, if I were using the Jane Goodall book in a guided reading group with Sanjana, I would provide her with some background knowledge before reading. I would discuss some unfamiliar content that appears in the book, so that she would have a better understanding of what the book might be about. Some of the things I might discuss would be the location of Africa and the types of animals that live there. If Sanjana had an understanding of the storys setting and of a chimps habitat, she might have self-corrected her Artica miscue. It would also benefit Sanjana to have background knowledge about the job of a naturalistic scientist. What I learned from this analysis is that comprehension skills are essential for advanced readers. Just because a student can decode a text with ease does not mean they comprehend what they are reading.