Collaborative retrospective miscue analysis with middle school students.

Abstract

Collaborative retrospective miscue analysis (CRMA) is an instructional strategy designed to engage reads in analyzing and evaluating the quality of their own reading miscues and those of their peers in a collaborative group setting. This study was concerned with discovering what happened when four middle school students engaged in discussion about their own miscues and the miscues of their peers. Before the CRMA sessions the Burke Interview was administered and a Reading Miscue Inventory using Procedure I was analyzed on each of the readers. In this way a profile of each student's strengths and weaknesses as a reader and their beliefs and attitudes about reading were ascertained. All sessions were video-taped and audio-taped to document any shifts in strategies, attitudes or beliefs about reading which occurred. Four instructional lessons were presented to introduce the concepts of miscues and the format of the study. The students, working on their own, then participated in weekly CRMA sessions during a four week period. Each student read in the group and then participated in three other CRMA sessions on the readings of their peers. The researcher returned at the end of each session to answer any questions and to discuss each session with the students. At the end of the study a final Burke Interview was administered and a Reading Miscue Inventory using Procedure I was analyzed on each of the readers. This data was compiled to create a profile of each student's development as a reader. The profile consisted of the students development as a readers before the CRMA session, during the CRMA sessions and after the completion of the CRMA session. Research findings indicated that CRMA used as an instructional strategy with middle school students facilitated a more realistic understanding of reading by those students involved and created an environment where shifts in strategies and new understandings about reading can occur. Readers moved toward a more positive and realistic perception of themselves as readers, and shifts in reading strategies occurred with a focus on constructing a meaningful text.