Miscues and Modeling

“I am convinced, absolutely convinced,

that embarrassment is not only a true enemy of learning,

but of so many actions we could take to better ourselves.”

Thomas Newkirk from (embarrassment) (Heinemann, 2017)  

When I first began using RMA with a handful of ninth and tenth grade students this year, I didn’t expect the deep levels of embarrassment that my students would reveal when I asked them to read orally to me. Of course I knew that reading was not an area that these students felt was a strength for them, but I had worked exceptionally hard to develop a good rapport with them. They knew I had struggled as a reader in elementary and middle school, often feeling stupid and inadequate as a student and person. In fact, these were the same students who told me that they trusted me.

Trust is not an easy thing to come by, especially with underserved high school students.

Two months into the school year I explained the procedures and primary objective of RMA to the students I was working with. I’ve shared before of what I like about RMA, but I think it warrants repeating: I love that RMA isn’t about identifying mistakes or determining a reading level. Ultimately, it’s about listening to a reader and letting that student guide the conversation about his or her reading. Thinking and talking about miscues helps the student and teacher better understand what kind of strategies that student is using.

RMA is a strength-based approach. It helps us meet students where they are.

Part of the process of RMA is to record the student orally reading a short text. Recording a student’s oral reading helps the student be able to listen to his or her reading and be metacognitive in his or her moves as a reader. Listening to a recording also helps the teacher analyze the reading and consider possible mini lessons to inform instruction. After talking with my school’s technology integrator, I used an online video editing program called WeVideo. WeVideo is cloud-based, so I could easily access the audio files from any device, and I could use the audio recording feature with a Chromebook.

As I was figuring out how to best incorporate RMA into my classes/instruction, I invited my students to record their reading in a quiet corner of the classroom as I was reading/conferring with the rest of the class. Initially, one of my students refused to read for me. He (I’ll call him Theo) told me how stupid and boring reading was and that he would not read for anyone. I gently explained to Theo (again) about how every person miscues as he or she reads. I studied him as talked with me about his refusal to read. He looked visibly uncomfortable, his body straight, his hands clenched.

I didn’t push him.

A few days later, when I quietly approached him again, Theo reluctantly agreed to work on RMA with me on one condition - if it was just the two of us and no one else could hear him read. I agreed and told him that I would figure out a time that he and I could work together without his peers in the room.   

Theo’s hesitation to orally read reminded me of a conversation I had at the beginning of the school year with my eleven-year-old son, Isaac. An avid reader, Isaac devours books. He is the kind of kid who reads with a flashlight under his sheets well after I’ve tucked him in for the night. Isaac loves to visit the library and bookstores. He even confidently reads in front of our congregation at church. Yet, once Isaac told me that he hates reading aloud to his teacher, especially when his teacher is conducting a reading benchmark. He recently told me:

“Mom, I hate it. Out of the corner of my eye I see her make a mark every time I say something wrong. It makes me feel nervous. I mess up more. I can’t see what she’s writing about me. It's awful... Once I had a bad day and went down a level. Just because I made some mistakes.  And then I had to switch reading groups and it was on my report card. I hate benchmarking.”  

Yikes.

Isaac generally likes school. He likes his teacher. He loves reading and knows he’s a strong reader. If benchmarking makes him nervous, I cannot imagine what it feels like for students who already feel stupid as readers.

Based on Theo’s conversation, I decided that we needed to meet in a less threatening environment. In our high school we have a non academic daily class hour, Flex, that is reserved for students getting help in their classes or meeting with a group/club. As a teacher I can request to meet with a student or a student can request to meet with me. I couldn’t meet with these students every day for RMA, but I figured out a way that I could meet with each student individually to deliver RMA once every two weeks. It wasn’t (and still isn’t) ideal, but I figured that some time was better than no time.

After some personal reflection, I also decided that I needed to do a more thorough job of explaining RMA to my students. To accomplish this I decided to model myself orally reading a text and have a conversation with them about my miscues. I wanted to show my students some of my vulnerability as a reader, so I selected a text that was intimidating to me - one I knew would challenge me. Even though I am a voracious reader, I still struggle with many texts, and I wanted my students to see this. I selected a short essay by Sir Frances Bacon, “Of Studies," to read. I recorded my oral reading and later listened to it with my students. Analyzing my miscues with my students helped me explain what it meant to miscue and it showed my students that everyone miscued. Using my miscues, I taught my students what an omission, insertion, and repetition was, and it was how I explained the difference between a high level and a low level miscue. My reading and conversation about my reading was authentic and helped me to better understand what my students went through when they had a conversation with me.

My miscues from "Of Studies"

Of course, listening to my reading and talking about my miscues with my students took extra time. It was less time that I worked with my students on their reading. However, I believe that taking the extra time it took me to model and talk about my miscues made a huge difference for my students. When we started using their reading and having conversations about their miscues, I found that we had meaningful and engaging conversations. Best of all, when it was Theo’s turn to read his first text, his face and body looked relaxed. I felt that Theo revealed more about himself as a reader and learner than before.

Based on my conversations with Isaac about his reading benchmark and listening to Theo's hesitations, I made some changes in some of my practices with RMA. Now I try to be as transparent as possible with my students. I invite them to view my notes during our RMA sessions. In addition, although I analyze student miscues based on the recording before I meet with each student and have some teaching points planned, I always let the student lead the conversation based on what he or she notices as a reader and learner. This means that I don't always use the mini lesson I planned, and that's okay. I also post sticky notes as a visible reminder to me and my students about what we want to consider when we think about our miscues.

One of my sticky note reminders

Overall, I am grateful to have the experience of using RMA with my high school students. Watching my students and listening to them share their insights about reading has been inspiring. It has also deepened my knowledge for learning more about the complex process of reading and the direction I need to take to serve my students better.