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ANECDOTAL RECORDS: ASSESSING AS YOU TEACH
John E. Readence
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
As a form of assessment, Anecdotal Records* are a way of recording
information about a child's literacy as they do reading and writing in
classrooms or other settings. They usually represent information that is
collected on the run by a teacher. Anecdotal Records have become a way of
assessing children's literacy development. Unlike checklists, Anecdotal
Records can be made without anticipating the ways in which children engage
with various events in school. Thus, Anecdotal Records not only allow
teachers to engage in kidwatching, but they also allow them to consider their
observations and use those observations in their future interactions with
children and their parents.
Anecdotal Records require teachers to: a) draw upon their
understanding of the child in relation to their understanding about literacy
development; b) recognize significant events, as it is neither possible nor
desirable to record every event in the process of a child's acquisition of
literacy; and c) use the event to inform their instructional practice. Thus,
Anecdotal Records provide teachers with information that can be used in the
classroom, leading ultimately to action and then collecting more information as
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*Adapted from Tierney, R.J., & Readence, J.E. (2005). Reading strategies and practices: A compendium
(6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
events unfold. Assessment is cyclical in nature.
Description of the Procedure
Anecdotal Records allow teachers to bring together knowledge of
literacy development and the history of a particular child in a process of

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recognizing events that are significant to that child's reading and writing
development. In turn, this information leads teachers to a process of analysis
that leads to instructional planning and the generation of new questions for
assessment. Anecdotal records may be implemented as follows.
1. Guiding Observations. Since literacy development is a lifelong
process that changes significantly from moment to moment in a person's life, it
cannot be easily or briefly summed up. Additionally, there are many aspects of
reading and writing that are part of literacy development. Therefore, it is
suggested that some guiding questions be used to structure your
observations.
Questions to Guide Observations
Concepts about Print
1. To what extent does the child attend to print (e.g., does the child focus on
the print when someone else is reading)?
2. How does the child handle books (e.g., is the child able to hold the book
right side up, turn pages one at a time, and point to the place where
one should begin reading)?
3. Does the child expect the print to make sense and have meaning (e.g.,
does the child seek out text that will provide the information s/he
wants)?
4. How does the child use information from the print setting (e.g., where the
print is found, who asked that it be read, why it is being read)?
Background Knowledge
1. How does the child bring background knowledge to the reading situation?
2. How does the child approach text? Is there an effort made to appreciate the

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written experiences by relating the text to his/her own life?
3. How does the child use memory as an aid (e.g., when asked to read a
familiar song or riddle, does the child use familiarity with the material as
a basis for predicting and making inferences)?
Strategy Use
1. How does the child handle the information-giving systems of language?
Does the child use a flexible strategy that encompasses all language
cues (e.g., context, sound/symbol) to construct meaning, or does the
child rely on a single system?
2. Does the child proficiently sample and construct meaning from text?
3. Does the child monitor his/her reading by asking, "Does this make sense?"
4. Does the child self-correct when meaning is interrupted?
5. Is there a dialect or first language influence on the child's reading, and how
does the child handle this influence?
6. What strategies does the child use to approach unfamiliar text?
Self as Reader
1. What does the child think of himself/herself as a reader?
2. Under what circumstances and with what frequency does the child make the
decision to read?
3. What risks are taken by the child as he/she reads?
4. How realistic is the child's judgment of his/her knowledge of discourse forms
needed to read various texts (e.g., science materials vs. drama)?
2. Recording Significant Events. Anecdotal Records provide a method
of recording teacher’s observations of significant events as children engage in
actual reading and writing. What constitutes a significant event? There is
usually so much happening in a class that teachers must be highly selective

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about what to record. Teachers must decide if they want to use Anecdotal
Records in a planned fashion to track specific aspects of literacy acquisition,
or if they want to capture spontaneous moments of literacy behavior for later
consideration. Certainly, the guiding questions posed previously will help in
this decision-making.
Although there are numerous forms that they might take, the following
guidelines for making Anecdotal Records are suggested. First, describe only a
specific event. Second, be objective; report rather than evaluate or interpret.
That will be done later. Third, relate the event to other facts that you know
about the child. Fourth, observe children in a variety of settings at different
times in the school day. Fifth, record your observation as soon as possible.
Finally, choose a workable recording system for yourself.
One of the easiest (and cheapest) vehicles for recording Anecdotal
Records is sticky notes. They can be carried around on a clipboard and then
transferred to a notebook that has ongoing records for each child. With the
advent of laptops and hand-held computers with handwriting-recognition
software, teachers may find such devices to be a viable way of making
Anecdotal Records (depending on their availability and affordability, of
course). Regardless of the recording system, it is important to provide a
sufficient amount of detail so that someone else reading the record will have a
sense of what happened. At a minimum, each observation should be dated
and should include key features such as identifiers of children and the
assignments themselves.
3. Analysis and Interpretation. Record the event in the most value-free
language possible, keeping interpretive or analytical comments separate from
the record of the event. Consider dividing your record form in half, one part for
reporting the incident and the other for making interpretive comments.

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In making your interpretive comments, consider the significance of the event in
relation to other observed events and how the information will inform teaching.
If, for example, the teacher deems it significant that an individual child
begins to use letter/sound relationships in her writing, this moment might be
recorded. The teacher would record the child's actual writing and a translation
that would allow her (or others) to read that writing in the future. She also
would record her intervention process (showing child how to "stretch the
words" and asking the child what she did that was different). In the process of
analyzing this particular record, the teacher would draw on her knowledge of
literacy development to remark about what the child is capable of doing as of
this observation, and some possible next steps for this child. In analyzing an
event, the teacher might consider the factors that make the event significant
as well as the implications of the event for the future.
If the teacher in the example continues to make several Anecdotal
Records over time for this particular child, the teacher might find that she is
gaining facility with letter/sound relationships or that she has a problem with a
particular set of letter/sound relationships. She might be able to record the
moment when the child starts to understand about word boundaries. In
conference with the child’s parents, the teacher will be able to show some rich
data about the child's literacy development. Thus, three types of analysis are
possible with Anecdotal Records: a) making inferences, b) identifying patterns,
and c) identifying strengths and weaknesses.
4. Use. The information from Anecdotal Records has several possible
uses, including instructional planning and generating new questions about
children’s literacy behaviors. Anecdotal Records of children's responses to
written language can help teachers plan stimulating instructional situations for
the reluctant as well as the enthusiastic reader/writer. In addition, teachers

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may use them to periodically inform others, including the children themselves,
about their strengths, weaknesses, and progress. Analyzing Anecdotal
Records and using them to plan instruction encourages teachers to generate
new questions that lead full circle to further assessment of children and of
teaching itself.
Cautions and Comments
Anecdotal Records are potentially a very important part of authentic
assessment procedures because they create a picture of a child's engagement
within a natural literacy setting, rather than the artificial setting of a test.
Further, although a disadvantage to Anecdotal Records may be that they are
time-consuming to produce, they can be done within the context of children's
engaging with the activities of the school. In other words, Anecdotal Records
do not interrupt the child's work for the process of assessment; they are
integral to the child's work.
Anecdotal Records are a form of assessment that acknowledges—
and depends on—teachers’ understanding of children and ability to work
constructively with them. Unlike behavior checklists (which limit the process of
observation), Anecdotal Records allow wise teachers who have a great deal of
insight into children 's behavior and progress to bring all their skills and
information to bear in the process of assessment. They also can be used in
concert with many other assessment tools as well as the analysis procedures
(such as rubrics) and reporting mechanisms (such as conferencing).

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As with any powerful tool, Anecdotal Records have a potential to be
harmful. Judgmental language or other implicit judgments in the process of
recording can be detrimental to children, particularly if these records
become a part of the child's school record. Further, although teachers may
be a wise people, they may not have observed the whole event. There
may be another side to the story that is missing from Anecdotal Records,
but one that readers of Anecdotal Records may not look for, since it is so
easy to assume that teachers recorded the event accurately. In the case
of Anecdotal Records about problematic events, teachers may want to
invite children to record their observations and perceptions and to store
the children's records with their own records.
References
Goodman, Y. (1985). Kidwatching. In A. Jagger & M.T. Smith-Burke (Eds.),
Observing the language learner. Newark, DE: International Reading
Association.
Rhodes, L.K., & Nathenson-Mejia, S. (1992). Anecdotal records: A powerful
tool for ongoing literacy assessment. The Reading Teacher, 45, 502-
509.
Watson, D. (1985). Watching and listening to children read. In A. Jagger &
M.T. Smith-Burke (Eds.), Observing the language learner. Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.