Miscues Not Mistakes: Reading Assessment in the Classroom

In this substantive, practical guide, Ruth Davenport presents essentially a miscue analysis workshop in a book - a lucid, teacher-friendly account of the whys and hows of the topic. Davenport demonstrates that you can do miscue analysis every day with every student reading any book through the use of an Over the Shoulder Procedure. You will not only be able to interpret what you hear when you listen - really listen - to readers; you'll realize that changes in the text are miscues, not mistakes, that tell you much about the reader's use of language and processing of written text.

Davenport lays the foundation for understanding her methods with a thorough description of the reading process from a transactive sociopsycholinguistic perspective. She then offers practical applications of these methods using reproducibles, examples, and explanatory artwork. In addition, by visiting the website www.heinemann.com and linking to her book, she gives you a chance to hear an eight-year-old reading. Listen as you look at a transcript, mark the student's miscues on a typescript included in the book, and follow Davenport as she evaluates his reading.

• a deeper understanding of the reading process
• charts and transcripts to help you try out miscue analysis
• skill in the Over the Shoulder Procedure - fast, friendly, and relatively paper free
• a new view of readers and their use of language
• well developed "miscue ears" attuned to the language of miscues, not mistakes.