| Working with five preservice teachers who were beginning their education coursework, I used Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA) as a research tool to investigate instructional strategies I used to assist the preservice teachers in reconstructing their perceptions of the reading process. I documented the changes in their belief using data collected from interviews, miscue analysis, Retrospective Miscue Analysis sessions, written reflections, and Literacy Belief Profiles. By analyzing the data of all five participants as a group case study, I documented changes in perception of the reading process as influenced by RMA over time.;Then, using a case study format, I examined in depth the data from two participants to determine their use of language cue systems and the specific changes they articulated over time. The research participants described rich language experiences in early childhood, classified themselves as "good readers," and none remembered any difficulty "learning to read." All the participants relied on their earliest memories of schooling when they characterized reading as a text reproduction process.;Each preservice teacher listened to audiorecordings of miscues they themselves produced in their oral readings. Through discussions in the RMA sessions they began to realize that as they transacted with text they omitted words, inserted words, and changed wording in a text as they constructed meaning. Prior to these sessions the preservice teachers had never scrutinized their reading practices to such an extent and all were surprised at the miscues they produced.;Over the course of the research the participants examined their assumptions about reading, became acutely aware of and revalued their reading strategies, and came to the realization that efficient effective reading does not result when readers focus on every word in a text. The most proficient readers use only the necessary information from a text to construct meaning. |
