STRADDLING TWO WORLDS: The Influence of Retrospective Miscue Analysis on the Reading Process and Perceptions of Wilson Reading Students ArielAdrian,Ed.D.

DOCTOROFEDUCATION,LITERACYSTUDIES HOFSTRAUNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION:

Many students consider themselves poor readers" who struggle to connect words and understand text They often misunderstand cueing systems and resist instruction, protecting their self-esteem In middle school, they lose their love for reading and need guidance to read for pleasure Poor readers are often provided with less high-quality reading lessons and more isolated lessons on specific skill deficits Do these children understand the difference between skill-focused instruction and reading? These definitions are often tangled for these students! Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA), a focused, meaning-oriented strategy lesson is designed for students who are less than optimally efficient, bringing attention to the high quality miscues they produce (Goodman & Marek, 1996)

METHODOLOGY:

This study took place in a public Middle School on Long Island, New York. The students (Ages 11 & 13) were receiving Wilson Reading System (WRS), and shared the traits of low confidence, low assessment scores, recommendations from classroom teachers, and a documented history of reading difficulties through IEPs, along with enrollment in the AIS program in the building The students were given the QRI, iReady, and the Burke Reading Interview as a pre-assessment From October 2022 through January 2023, students participated in bi-weekly RMA sessions. As the teacher and researcher, I studied the stories and experiences that unfolded from our RMA sessions, writing a narrative of our experiences.

FINDINGS:

MISCUESPERHUNDREDWORDS

Increase in language sense scores (syntactically and semantically acceptable)

Increase in the percentage of their high-quality miscues (strength in language sense)

Participant #1 - Decrease in the number of miscues per hundred words (MPHW) - More confident

Participant #2 - Increase in the number of miscues per hundred words (MPHW) - High-quality miscues that did not alter the meaning of stories; He was not as focused on tapping out and segmenting words

Significant improvement in their attitude toward reading, as indicated in the pre- and post-interview

Burke Reading Interview and Closing Questions

The improvement seen in both students demonstrates a shift from a model of the reading process that emphasizes accuracy in word recognition to one which focuses on meaning construction

RESEARCH QUESTION:

This study analyzed how Retrospective Miscue Analysis influences readers’ perceptions about the reading process, and themselves as readers Of specific interest is how RMA influences a child's definition of reading, and effects shifts in reading strategies as documented by engagement in RMA sessions with students who were concurrently receiving instruction in the Wilson Reading System No research has been previously done investigating the use of RMA with Wilson students

ANALYSIS:

THEME 1: Augmenting Wilson Instruction with SelfAwareness of Strategies and RMA

Invalidated feelings of rejection and stigmatization from WRS

Significantly declined sound tapping strategies

Building of confidence through RMA

Importance of authentic literature and using non-controlled texts Students recognized the necessity of integrating all three language cues and not overly relying on the visual features of each word

THEME 2: The Construct of a Reading Disability

Outside evaluations brought into school-based CSE is controversial

Participants were positioned as "deficient" and "struggling"

Harmful consequences to being labeled as "reading disabled" such as "The Matthew Effect" (Stanovich, 1986)

Construct of disability limits possible opportunities

THEME 3: Revaluing and Reader Confidence

Shift in how they viewed reading and the reading process

Revalued meaning construction over accuracy

Miscues were guided by their knowledge of language and how language works

Readers defined their own beliefs to gain a new understanding of their strengths in the reading process: "demystifying the reading process" (Flurkey et al , 2021, p 10) because "even good readers encounter unknowns when reading" (Goodman & Marek, 1996, p 112)

CONCLUSION:

Many children with decoding challenges are incredibly smart and area able to compensate when they read in context

They have great background knowledge and vocabulary which helps them pull through decoding challenges

Words in isolation present as a struggle and that is where WRS is used, but should not be used as the sole method to improve reading

Miscue Analysis and Retrospective Miscue Analysis are great diagnostic tools used to augment Wilson Reading System instruction and to uncover some of the results of educational testing that has become heavy on the shoulders of our students labeled with reading disabilities

Miscue Analysis and Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA) allow us to reveal strengths, whereas other testing focuses solely on deficits and weaknesses

Confidence building is key and will unlock the door to future success of each student

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