Upon analysis of readers' miscues, instruction can be planned or modified. In reading, meaning is always central. In the process of constructing meaning, readers use their own knowledge of language and the world to make sense of the text. Assessment of a student's reading abilities should not be based on the number of miscues, but rather on the effect the miscues have on meaning. All readers, no matter how fluent, depart at some points from the text as written.
Miscue analysis focuses observation on the extent of a reader's use of cues to make sense of text.
Procedure Avoid a test atmosphere. Choose or have the student choose an appropriate passage to read aloud. It may be a short story or a non-fiction selection. The passage must be a complete text. Explain to the student that you wish to record and listen to the oral reading of the passage, that you cannot help during the reading, and that you want the student to persevere and solve any reading problems, even if parts of the text appear difficult.