Reading with my buddy

Over the past few weeks, I have learned that my 4th grade buddy is a very confident reader. She loves to read and frequently reads for enjoyment, not just as a requirement for school. Her fluency is well developed. When tested reading a grade level text (Amelia Earhart) she read at 139 words per minute, which is the 75th percentile for her age group. When we asked her to read an excerpt from “the Mouse and the Motorcycle” by Beverly Cleary (pg. 12, 1990, level 4.1), the only miscues she made were ones that approximated words but did not change meaning or grammatical correctness. For example, she would substitute “it’s” for “it is” and she would insert or omit words that did not necessarily change meaning (for example she changed “around room 215” to “around the room”).


When looking at the NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Scale, I would place my buddy at a solid level 4. She reads large, meaningful phrases, with expression and a sense of ease. She also displays a high level of comprehension. She was able to make accurate inferences into every text that she read to us.

When we ask her to retell a story to us however, she is often very brief in detail, but she is sometimes able to recall and answer questions if prompted. If I were able to take a next step with my buddy and her reading, I would be interested to know more about her comprehension of non-fiction texts and how she determines the importance of what she is reading. With fiction, she seems to understand and be able to make predictions and inferences. From a few questions we asked her about the Amelia Earhart passage, I have questions about what details she chooses to remember from her reading. I think that if I were able to find a non-fiction text that interests her and focus a lesson on determining the importance in what we are reading, it might be a beneficial focus for her. Since we have not had a lot of opportunity to observe her in this type of activity, it may be that she does not have difficulties in this area, but it seems that it might be an interesting activity to undertake.