Running Records: Authentic Instruction in Early Childhood Education

The most effective way to understand what a child knows about the reading process is to take a running record. In Running Records, Mary Shea demonstrates how teachers can use this powerful tool to design lessons that decrease reading difficulties, build on strengths, and stimulate motivation, ensuring that children develop self-sustaining learning strategies.

Special Features include:

• a step-by-step outline for taking efficient running records
• guidance in running record analysis: readers will learn how to use running record data to determine a child’s level of decoding skill, comprehension, fluency, and overall reading confidence
• a Companion Website offering videos of the running record process, sample running records for analysis, and numerous other resources

In order to meet the multi-faceted needs of children in today's classrooms, teachers must be knowledgeable about literacy concepts. Running Records provides that invaluable knowledge, making it an ideal text for literacy courses for pre-service teachers and a key professional reference for in-service teachers.

Mary Shea is Professor and Graduate Literacy Program Director at Canisius College. Previously, she worked for many years in western New York schools as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, and language-arts coordinator.