Company Guidelines for Counting Words Correct Per Minute
The goal of a one-minute timed reading is to measure the student’s reading rate—you want to know how many words the student can read correctly in one minute. Read Naturally has guidelines for counting words correct per minute, which may be different from other methods you’ve used.
The guidelines start with three general rules:
- Count a word read correctly as correct.
- Don’t say the correct word after the student has said an incorrect word.
- Wait three seconds before supplying a word to a student who is stuck.
Read Naturally also has specific guidelines to determine what counts as an error and what types of mistakes are not errors.
Errors
- Mispronunciations and dropped endings
- Omissions
- Out of sequence (count as two errors)
- Words supplied by teachers
- Substitutions with synonyms
- Repeated errors are counted each time
Not Errors
- Mispronunciations or dropped endings due to dialect or speech problems
- Repetitions
- Insertions
- Self-corrections
For one-minute timings, we measure the words read correctly. One reason Read Naturally counts words correct per minute (wcpm) is that the Hasbrouck-Tindal norms were developed using wcpm.
We’re looking for the number of words read correctly, not the number of errors. Therefore, we count every error, even if the same error is made multiple times. This is different from some other systems.
Other systems analyze and categorize errors, but a one-minute, timed reading may not give you accurate information about errors, because it is timed. If you want to analyze errors, listen to the student read without timing him/her.
Some systems allow substitutions that mean the same thing, like “house” for “home.” Read Naturally does not. Making a meaningful substitution does not mean the student can read the actual word.
These are the recommended guidelines for counting words correct per minute within the Read Naturally program. Our experience shows this is the best way to account for errors, record wcpm scores, and accurately monitor progress.
The most important thing, however, is to have a strict set of rules, and stick to those rules consistently. Having firm rules reduces judgment calls and gives more reliable results.
