ABSTRACT
Retrospective miscue analysis (RMA) worked well with third graders as described by Martens and Doyle in the main part of their chapter, and we wondered how RMA might work with a whole class of older learners with less direct teacher intervention. Debra Peters, a middle school teacher, and Carol Gilles, a university researcher, collaborated with Debra’s entire seventh-grade homeroom class at a suburban school that is about 60 percent Caucasian, 30 percent African American, and 10 percent other races, with about 44 percent who receive free or reduced lunch. Debra’s class of 25 mirrored the school’s population; most students were Caucasian, with three African Americans, and one student who spoke English as a second language. Debra was concerned that some of her students didn’t engage deeply with the texts they read and that they didn’t always monitor for meaning. Although they chose books they wanted to read, and completed the books, Debra wondered if there was something that they could do that would teach them more about reading, particularly to promote more engagement and monitoring. Our project, lasting the final five weeks of a school year, was a chance for both of us to dig a little deeper into RMA as a way of helping learners reclaim reading.
