1. Miscues and Miscue Analysis
Ashley Blossom
An ESL & Reading Professional Development
Based on pages of Teaching Reading in Multilingual Classrooms by David E. Freeman & Yvonne S. Freeman

2. Three Cueing Systems Graphophonic Cues
A combination of visual + sound + phonic information used to
scan a text
Visual information: identifies letters
Sound information: how words should sound
Phonic information: connecting letter patterns with sound patterns
Syntactic Cues
Knowledge of word patterns and phrase combinations
For example, using parts of speech to construct/predict meaningful sentences. Knowing that “The sun is _____” will likely not be followed by another noun like “table” but an adjective like “bright” or “yellow”.
Semantic Cues
Use of word meanings and interpretations to gather comprehension from a text
Information obtained from pages of:
Freeman, D.E. & Freeman, Y.S. (2000). Teaching reading in multilingual
classrooms. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

3. Strategies for Constructing Meaning
Sampling:
Browsing a text, getting “a feel” for the text before reading
Predicting:
Using background knowledge & cueing systems to make predictions
Inferring:
Fill in missing information using clues from the text, background knowledge, etc.
Confirming/Disconfirming:
Checking the accuracy of predictions, meaning and understanding of a text
Integrating:
Continually adding new information to one’s comprehension of a text
Information obtained from pages of:
Freeman, D.E. & Freeman, Y.S. (2000). Teaching reading in multilingual
classrooms. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

4. What is a miscue? Miscue: “an unexpected response to a text” such as:
Omitting a word
Inserting a word
Substituting a word for another word
Reversing words
Information obtained from page 29 of:
Freeman, D.E. & Freeman, Y.S. (2000). Teaching reading in multilingual
classrooms. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

5. What to do about miscues…
Ask questions to determine what type of miscue the student is making!
Does the miscue look (or sound) like what was on the page? (graphophonics)
Does the miscue sound like language? (syntax)
Does the miscue make sense? (semantics )
Information obtained from page 29 of:
Freeman, D.E. & Freeman, Y.S. (2000). Teaching reading in multilingual
classrooms. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

6. Conducting Miscue Analysis
Select a reading that is both an unknown and grade-level text & print two copies, one for you and one for the student
Listen & record (optional-but recommended) the student reading the text
Score the text and record miscues as the student reads
REMEMBER: Miscue analysis does not assess comprehension but reading fluency

7. Why conduct miscue analysis?
Miscue analysis allows you to hear and see what times of errors or miscues your students (ELL or not!) are making in order to better focus goals and objectives for that particular student.
Frequent miscue analysis provides the necessary assessment data to create effective small groups & workshops, determine what needs to be re-taught and/or how native language or a lack of English understanding is effecting student reading.