Before I started this assignment I would have given children who are attending learning support tests to determine their reading and spelling age. I now realise that getting a reading age and spelling age and comparing it to the child's age, gave me little or no information about the child and how they learn. I would also have only talked to a child intermittently about different aspects of literacy, gaining only some insight into how the child was feeling about school.
Through carrying out the discussion part of this assignment, I discovered the benefit of just talking with the child about their schooling. By being more aware of my questioning and asking how the child thought I could help them better, I gained valuable information about the child. I have had similar conversations with many of my students in the last month. It is amazing the insight the children have about how they learn.
I found the process of performing a miscue assessment very beneficial for the child. Not only did I gain a better understanding of how the child reads, but also where their strengths lie and where they are having difficulties. I discovered that while Mary could read 203 Dolch words in isolation, she was having difficulty reading the same words within a text. If I had not given her a miscue assessment, I would have
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Likewise, the teacher may underestimate the number of self-corrections the child uses while reading the text, a good strategy which should be encouraged. I also believe that a teacher must write down their findings as the analysis is being carried out because it is amazing how much information can be forgotten by the end of the reading