Running Record and Lesson Plan

Below is a link to the running record that I conducted on Nechama, a fourth grade bilingual student.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qy1016mav8jjlyk/RunningRecord-%20Nechama.PDF?dl=0

This fourth grade student, Nechama has good phonetic decoding skills. One thing that she relies on besides is visual cues to determine how to read a word that cannot be decoded. She recognizes words that are familiar, and automatically pulls them up from her brain while reading. This visual cueing can be a great strength for her to get to know many words, however right now she is not so well-practiced in such "sight words" so this skill is to her detriment, and was the basis for almost all of her errors in the running record we did together.

Mini Lesson:

Aim: to understand what a sight word is

          to familiarize student with high frequency sight words to the point of automaticity

Method: First, I would show the student a few high frequency words which can not be decoded through phonetic breakdown, such as "little", "own", "their". We would go through how the words would sound if we read them according to the phonics rules and how the words should really sound.

I would hand the student a paper which I call the "Cheetah Sheet". It is set up with three columns; one has an image of a turtle on top, the next a horse, and the next a cheetah. In the turtle column, I would have a list of such sight words which she would come in contact with. I would explain to her that we are going to practice the sight words on the sheet until she knows them so well that she can read them so quickly and automatically upon seeing them. Now the words are all turtles, because it takes longer to read them, but after practice, they will become faster like horses and even faster, like cheetahs!

I would have her read through the words in the column. Words that she already is fluent in, we would move over to the correct columns, and add new words in their place.

I would put this sheet in place as a drill in the beginning of every session, and keep adding new words to the "turtle" list as words are moved.

I would ask the student to explain to me what a sight word is.

I would end this lesson with a short reading so the student has done something that she is comfortable and familiar with.