SCET Journal 2020/2021

« Language Matters

will only address the in-depth procedure, which is the most detailed and lengthy of all three as it has predeter- mined formats, percentages and coding which are kept separate. The in-depth procedure involves the individual analyses of miscues under the following characteristics: syntactic acceptability, semantic acceptability, meaning change, correction, meaning construction, grammatical relations, graphic similarity, and sound similarity. The in-depth procedure is not for the faint of heart and often requires peer-reviewing. The last piece of this case study is retrospective miscue analysis. RMA is an instructional strategy that occurs after the data collection from miscue analysis. It engages readers in a process that helps them to notice and discuss their miscues with others (Goodman, 1996). Through RMA, readers benefit from reflecting on their miscues through self-assessment and the social inter- actions which are the center of RMA, leading to new un- derstandings of the reading process itself, miscues, and areas of strength. RMA places readers in an environ- ment that validates their worth and potential. Learners are empowered to discuss the reading process by an- alyzing their own miscues (Moore & Gilles, 2005, p. 4). RMA is not about lengthy and/or tedious feedback on mistakes and errors, but draws upon readers’ strengths, pointing out their miscues as areas of growth and the cultivation a culture of positivity through dialogue. The case study presented in this article is explorato- ry. The participant was selected based on a teacher rec- ommendation of a bilingual reader who may need help with her reading. The participant, Elisa (pseudonym) is a 10-year-old girl, enrolled in fifth grade in a southern school in the United States. She is a heritage Spanish speaker, and both parents speak Spanish at home. She has been mainly schooled in the United Stated but spent 2 years schooled in South America. The parents and the student voluntarily participated, and I met with the student individually 12 times for about 30 to 40 min- utes per session, during a four-month period. Data Collection This study dawns on four data sources to support its findings: • A modified Burke Reading Interview in English for children (Goodman, Watson, & Burke, 2005) Methodology Setting and Participants

• Four miscue analysis sessions (Goodman, Watson, & Burke, 2005) and one over-the-shoulder miscue analysis • Two retrospective miscue analysis sessions • A semi-structured post-interview Data collection was carried out by the researcher, and feedback on coding, reading materials, and miscue procedures was provided by Dr. Wang, a professor at the University of South Carolina, her teaching graduate assistants, and a Ph.D., Spanish bilingual colleague. Af- ter the Burke interview, the researcher provided reading materials to gauge the participant’s level. At the initial meeting, I selected materials in English and Spanish, and planned our meeting times. Findings The data from this study led me to three major find- ings: the student’s shifting perceptions of reading, the attainment of a more accurate reading level in English and Spanish, and the debunking of the deficit model to- wards a positive view of self. Findings of this study also reveal the participant’s preferential use of reading strat- egies and the reaffirmation of her bilingualism through translanguaging. In the following section, I discuss the findings based on the case study data collection instru- ments. Burke Interview Important components of a student’s reading process are their beliefs and points of view about readers and reading, and qualitative data tools such as interviews provide a starting point before initiating the processes of miscue analysis and retrospective miscue analysis. For this case study, the Burke reading inter- view (Goodman, Watson, & Burke, 2005) was adopt- ed. The Burke reading interview aims to provide the researcher with the student’s perceptions and beliefs about reading and the strategies the student is aware of and uses. This interview was conducted online. During the interview, Elisa revealed that she liked reading and that she owned a lot of books. She reads daily and believes that people read to learn more. She thinks a good reader is someone who reads fast and does not have to stop to look up words. Elisa sees reading as a tool for learning, which really surprised me because of her young age. She also expressed she likes reading comics. Regarding reading strategies, Elisa views vocabulary as her biggest obstacle, as she does

South Carolina English Teacher

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