212 The Reading Teacher, 63(3), pp. 212–221 © 2009 International Reading Association DOI:10.1598/RT.63.3.4 ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online dren fail, families are placed in jeopardy. Sometimes families fail” (p. 26). Carol and Christie were participants in a Family Retrospective Miscue Analysis (Family RMA) study that combined Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA) with family literacy. The purpose of the study was to investigate how RMA could be used to help parents and children navigate the reading process, with the goal of helping parents better understand their chil- dren’s reading strengths. In this article, I present the study and argue that RMA provided a space for Carol to identify with Christie as a reader, which in turn allowed Carol to better support Christie. I conclude with the implications of this study for reading special- ists and classroom teachers. Reading and Reflecting Through RMA Family RMA brings parents and children together to discuss reading by requiring parents and their chil- dren to participate together in oral readings and RMA discussions. RMA, which is a retro-reflective discus- sion about a reader’s miscues, is based on the work of miscue analysis (K. Goodman, 2003a). Miscues are produced responses that differ from expected responses in texts. For example, a reader reads “I went into her house” for the expected sentence “I went into her home.” Miscue analysis views miscues as windows into the reading process (K. Goodman, 2003a). That is, miscues can help us infer what read- ers are thinking when they read (albeit never per- fectly). Miscue analysis has been the cornerstone C arol (all names are pseudonyms), a single working mother, expressed frustration at watching her daughter Christie’s unwilling- ness to read Buzz Said the Bee (Lewison, 1992): You are making me so uncomfortable. You are acting so reluctant. This is such a waste of good energy. I have to run away when she acts like this and when I’m bom- barded with this horrible energy. She can’t possibly be learning. I know what she needs to accomplish and this is not it. Christie is a third grader who reads at a preprimer level, based on results from the Qualitative Reading Inventory–4 (QRI–4; 2006). She struggles with read- ing both in and out of school. Christie’s struggles also become her family’s struggles. Taylor (1993) discussed the burden placed on families when she wrote, “When we evaluate children we get lost in our own abstractions and children fail. When chil- Family Retrospective Miscue Analysis provides a venue where teachers and reading specialists can bridge the divide caused by parents’ misconceptions and discourses about reading and encourage parents to see reading as meaning construction. Parents and Children Reading and Reflecting Together: The Possibilities of Family Retrospective Miscue Analysis Bobbie Kabuto