Using Modified Miscue Analysis Results by Carol Nichols, Metropolitan State College of Denver, nicholscmscd

1. Using Modified Miscue Analysis Results by Carol Nichols, Metropolitan State College of Denver, nicholsc@mscd.edu Planning Future Instruction Based on the Evaluation of the Assessment

2. Modified Miscue Analysis Results After administering a modified miscue analysis and after evaluating the results you are ready to use the results to plan future instruction.

3. Syntactic Cueing System The first question you ask about each miscue is, “Did the miscue sound right?” “Was the miscue grammatically correct in the sentence? You are trying to find out if the reader used the syntactic cueing system while reading.

4. Use of the Syntactic Cueing System Look at the “Syntactic Acceptability” column on the worksheet. Were your written answers mostly “yes?” If so, you can say the reader used the syntactic cueing system, even though miscues were made. If your answers were mostly “no,” you can say the reader did not use the syntactic cueing system. Also, did the reader generally self-correct these miscues? If so, perhaps he/she used the syntactic cueing system to do this.

5. Use of the Semantic Cueing System Look at the “Semantic Acceptability” column on the worksheet. Were your written answers mostly “yes?” If so, you can say the reader used the semantic cueing system, even though miscues were made. If your answers were mostly “no.” you can say the reader did not use the semantic cueing system. Also, did the reader generally self-correct these miscues? If so, perhaps he/she used the semantic cueing system to do this.

6. Examining the Syntactic and Semantic Cueing Systems

7. Syntactic and Semantic Cueing Systems There is an extremely close relationship between the syntactic and semantic cueing systems in reading. Meaning (semantics) is constructed through the student’s use of grammatical (syntactic) structures. Thus, it is often difficult to talk about one without addressing the other.

8. Syntactic and Semantic Cueing Systems (Continued) It is possible for a miscue to be syntactically acceptable, but semantically unacceptable. Example: The hippo was sitting in the tree. While the word “hippo” is the right kind of word grammatically, it doesn’t make sense in this sentence. Semantically it is not acceptable. Usually it is impossible for a miscue to be semantically acceptable but syntactically unacceptable.

9. Syntactic and Semantic Cueing Systems (Continued) It is less frequent that a miscue will be semantically acceptable but syntactically unacceptable. This may happen, though, when the reader has English as a second language and the first language has a grammatical structure different from English. You could argue that in the sample sentence below, the reader used a word that makes sense in the sentence, but because English is a second language, used the wrong grammatical structure: Example: The dog runned away yesterday.

10. Syntactic Cueing System Also, you need to look at the “Self Corrected” column on the worksheet. Did the reader generally self correct his/her miscues? If so, possibly the syntactic cueing system was used to signal to the reader that what he/she just read did not sound right. Finally, does the student have English as a second language? If his/her first language has a different grammatical structure, you may find more syntactically unacceptable miscues.

11. Suggestions if You See a Lack of Use of the Syntactic and Semantic Cueing Systems Make sure you also keep syntactic, semantic, and graphophonic cueing systems closely links when you conduct skill work. Students need opportunities to apply the grammatical system of the language when they work with skills. Avoid teaching skills in isolation. Consider using an analytical approach to teaching phonics.

12. Suggestions If There is Lack of Use of the Syntactic and Semantic Cueing systems Check to see if the reader gave any sign of being aware that the word read (the miscue) did not sound right or make sense. Did the reader make the miscue and then back up and repeat? This may indicate he/she “heard” that something didn’t sound right or make sense. This may mean the reader is SELF MONITORING his/her own reading. This is a strength and the reader should be encouraged to do this.

13. Suggestions (Continued) If the reader made no indication of being aware that the word read (the miscue) made no sense and didn’t sound right, he/she may not be self monitoring. The teacher needs to make self-monitoring for “making sense” and “sounding right” a teaching point for the student. This needs to be stressed often with the student.

14. Suggestions Regarding Lack of Use of Syntactic/Semantic Cueing Systems Does the reader have English as a second language? If his/her first language has a different grammatical structure, you may need to help the student build his/her English oral language base.

15. Grapheme-Phoneme Similarity In this part of the evaluation you are examining the miscue for similarity to the text word. We will look at visual similarity. Does the miscue look like the printed text word? If so, how much similarity is there? Is there a “high” amount of similarity. “Some” similarity, or “No” similarity? You are trying to find out if the reader used any of the printed, visual feature of the text word in making the miscue.

16. Grapheme-Phoneme Similarity Compare the miscue and the printed, text word. Was the beginning of the text word used? Was the middle of the text word used? Was the end of the text word used? High similarity= 2 or 3 parts of the print used Some similarity= 1 part of the print used No similarity (none)= no parts of the print were used in producing the miscue. The reader did not use graphophonics.

17. Writing a Modified Miscue Analysis Report A summary statement needs to be written about each the student’s use of each cueing system: syntactic, semantic, and graphophonic cueing systems. There are samples in the glossary under Modified Miscue Analysis Report. A summary statement needs to be written about the student’s unaided and aided retelling.

18. Writing a Modified Miscue Analysis Report- Writing the “Next Step.” Finally, the examiner needs to look at the evaluation in terms of what instruction is needed next. Questions which need to be answered include: Which cueing system(s) need to be strengthened? What can I teach this student which will strengthen these areas? What is the next instructional step needed by this student? Here you are planning what instructional steps need to be taken to help the student.

19. After reading & studying the two miscue Power Point presentations: Post any questions you have about modified miscue analysis on the Forum. Be sure to read questions from your classmates. The answers may be of help to you. If necessary, review the information in the Glossary under the titles “Modified Miscue Analysis” and “Retelling to Check Comprehension.”

20. Complete and submit Test #2 on Modified Miscue Analysis Test #2 Modified Miscue Analysis is worth 60 points.