Do teachers individualize their responses to reading miscues?: A study of feedback during oral reading

Abstract

Assumptions concerning ways teachers respond to reading miscues have given rise to suggestions for improving feedback. Research assessing actual miscue‐response matches has been limited, however. For this study, 399 miscue‐response pairings were obtained from 19 second grade teachers and their students in the course of two oral reading sessions per teacher. Misreadings and teacher feedback were coded and subjected to chi‐square analyses. Hypotheses about associations between type of miscue and a) teacher disregard, b) instructional, and c) word supply responses were confirmed. Though teachers as a group do appear to be matching responses to miscues, more compliments for higher‐level miscues, more comprehension instruction when meaning is violated, and self‐study of response patterns to guard against habitual or inappropriate feedback are recommended.