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Building Classroom Reading Communities
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Building Classroom Reading Communities
Retrospective Miscue Analysis and Socratic Circles

Edited by:

Foreword by Dorothy Watson



December 2009 | 168 pages | Corwin
'Merges research-based Retrospective Miscue Analysis with adapted Socratic Circle discussions, thus empowering all elementary readers to collaboratively identify and verbalize reading strategies, individually experience ownership and control as readers, and effectively build both literacy and language confidence and competence within a united classroom community' - Marjorie R. Hancock, Professor Emerita of Elementary Education

Kansas State University

How can teachers ensure that each child becomes a better reader? Building Classroom Reading Communities presents a successful approach for motivating students as individual readers while encouraging peer-to-peer learning. By showing how to use Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA) and Socratic Circles together, the authors help teachers create a sense of community in the classroom and promote achievement for every student.

The authors show how RMA—which develops students' comprehension and fluency by analyzing their mistakes as they read aloud—can be used to provide a window into each student's progress. The interactive discussion techniques used in Socratic Circles then extend learning in small groups and classwide. Teachers, literacy coaches, and others will find:

- Assessment strategies and step-by-step guidance to implementing RMA and Socratic Circles

- Insights on improving student skills in vocabulary, language structure, comprehension, and other key areas

- Flexible, adaptable techniques for readers of all abilities

- Numerous vignettes showing the use of RMA with Socratic Circles in the classroom.

 
List of Figures
 
Foreword by Dorothy Watson
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
1. Revaluing Readers: Introducing Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA)
 
2. RMA and the Theoretical Premises Involved
 
3. Connecting the Reading Process to Miscue Analysis
 
4. Marking and Coding Miscues for RMA: Simplifying the Process for Classroom Teachers
 
5. Organizing the Classroom for RMA
 
6. Assessing Reading Performance Through RMA
 
7. Informing Instruction Through RMA
 
8. RMA Conversations Focus the Classroom Literacy Curriculum
 
9. Socratic Circles and RMA
 
10. RMA and Proficient Readers
 
11. RMA and Developing Readers
 
12. RMA and Striving Readers
 
13. Concluding Thoughts and Follow-Up Interviews
 
Resources
Resource A: A Summary of the Research

 
Resource B: Example of a Marked Transcript

 
Resource C: Retelling Guide for Narrative Text

 
Resource D: Retelling Guide for Expository Text

 
Resource E: Practice Text for Miscue Marking

 
Resource F: Focusing on Miscues: For Student Reference

 
Resource G: Reporducible Simplified Miscue Organizer

 
Resource H: Burke Reading Interview

 
Resource I: Thinking About Reading: Reproducible Survey

 
Resource J: Socratic Circles Reproducible Tracking Sheet

 
 
References and Resources
 
References for Children's Literature
 
Index

"By using retrospective miscue analysis, teachers can help students improve reading comprehension and fluency. This book emphasizes student strengths and gives students the tools they need to reflect on their reading and become better readers."

Bridget Stegman, Title I Reading/Instructional Coach
USD 501, Topeka, KS

"The authors open the windows to a new perspective on reading by merging research-based Retrospective Miscue Analysis with adapted Socratic Circle discussions, thus empowering all elementary readers to collaboratively identify and verbalize reading strategies, individually experience ownership and control as readers, and effectively build both literacy and language confidence and competence within a united classroom community."

Marjorie R. Hancock, Professor Emerita of Elementary Education
Kansas State University

"The authors not only clarify the details of examining conversations about reading miscues and retellings, they take you inside Seeger's third-grade classroom. Here you see firsthand how RMA works, from demystifying the coding process for miscues to watching each member of her class benefit from learning in Socratic Circles. Real classroom examples and vignettes, not to mention the variety of reproducible resources included, show how RMA and Socratic Circles engage students at every level of development in critical thinking and critical reflection—activities that empower students' reading development and become an essential assessment tool to guide further instruction."

Kathleen Strickland, Professor of English and Elementary Education
Slippery Rock University

"Moore and Seeger have developed an approach that combines RMA and SC in such a way that SC functions as a catalyst to greatly magnify the benefits of RMA for groups of students. As students are involved in RMA and SC, they begin to understand how they can use different strategies to make sense of what they are reading and how they are reading. This is quite an extraordinary method to help students become actively aware of their own reading strategies and comprehension processes."

Lee Gunderson, Professor of Language and Literacy
University of British Columbia

"Moore and Seeger provide an extremely comprehensive look at retrospective miscue analysis and Socratic circles. The powerful snapshots into Seeger's classroom provide invaluable insight on classroom application. The readability of the text and the practical application strategies motivate and inspire educators to really get their students talking about reading."

Karen Williams, Fifth-Grade Teacher
West Indianola Elementary School, Topeka, KS

"Readers will directly experience how productive use of retrospective miscue analysis can become a regular classroom routine. They will find concrete resources for reading and retelling assessment that center reading as an authentic practice, not as a disconnected set of skills. The excellent examples of teaching invite ownership of literacy processes as a classroom community."

Curt Dudley-Morling, Professor of Education
Boston College

For instructors

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ISBN: 9781412968010
£26.99