As iPods become more and more ubiquitous, here’s an idea to greatly enhance your reading fluency testing or running records. With an iPod and an attachable audio recorder you can easily record students reading without having to plug anything into the wall. You can then put those recordings on a computer or plug into a speaker and play back students reading for students, parents, and anyone else who might be interested such as student study teams.

While students are reading I generally record their mistakes on paper but with iPod I am able to go back and hear mistakes again to find common errors. Students can also learn from their own mistakes by listening and analyzing their reading for errors.