Fry describes readability and leveling. These are two very similar things. Readability is "the ease of comprehension because of style of writing." Leveling is "selecting books to match the competencies of a reader or writer." McGuffey Readers were the most popular form of this in the 1840s to the early 1900s. An example of McGuffey is book 4 is more advanced than book 3. This leveling was widely accepted in the United States. Later in the 1930s, books were "graded" more firmly. An example would be a book marked with a 4 would be appropriate reading for a fourth grader. Readability is marked more so for younger readers (ex. first, second, third, and fourth graders).
Two things mark both readablitiy and leaveling: syntactic difficulty (grammatical complexity) and sematic difficulty (meaning or word meaning). Finding the readability of a text can be done by computer or by hand. The compute process is done more equally than doing it by hand. Leveling, on the other hand, cannot be done by computer. Leveling also takes into account others items such as content, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgement, and format. Readability does not take into account the limitations like leveling does.
Readability has a much wider range then leveling does. Readability goes from grades 1-12 or 1-17 while leveling goes from grades 1-6 or even 1-3 or 4. Leveling is used strictly in elementary school. Readability is used in school and outside such as in loan contracts and insurance policies.
Most adult best-sellers have an eight-grade reading level, and newspapers also have a low grade level for reading. It is not because people cannot read harder levels, but the people who write them want them to be more openly read by people of all ages. Readability and leveling help teachers select readings that are not too hard and not too easy for their classrooms.
Based on what you read in the article by Edward Fry, how reliable and effective is such a readability measurement in your opinion?
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I haven't quite had time to read the entire article, but based on the fact that it is rather widely accepted as a way to measure, I assume it is somewhat reliable. Obviously, all systems of measurement have some flaws in their system. I, however, cannot think of a better way to judge.
I agree with Alexandra's comment about a better way to judge flaws, etc. This system of measurement seems like a good one for keeping a good reading level for classes. I think it would be interesting to see a converter (like a thesaurus for books, articles, etc) that could change a difficult reading level to a simple one.
I wonder what other methods of measurement could be?
I found it interesting that some sort of measurement scale even existed for readability, although I suppose it does make sense. I like what Raquel said about a converter--I think it would be interesting to see a converter work in reverse too, going from simple to difficult. That could definitely come in handy. :)
Oh, and I didn't think of this earlier, but one other thing that I think leveling might leave out is content. I remember once in grade school I checked out a level three book that I guess the school didn't scan because it didn't have third grade content in it at all...that might also be something to consider.
I think that these systems are a good place to start when deciding what material is at the appropriate level for students. I think that it also has to be up to the individual teacher to decide what is adequate for his/her certain class since not all classes perform at the same level. Overall though, I think that these systems of measuring reading levels are a good way to find appropriate material for classrooms.
It sounds a lot like this program my jr. high school had, Accelerated redaer. It was a way to measure the students' ability to read and we had colors that were the way of showing the level of difficulty. It worked really well for the students and the teacher as well. I agree with Alexandra's comment about how all systems have flaws, but all iin all it sounds like a good system.
This system is pretty handy. I know that I usually check the reading level when I buy books for my son. This helps because I know what will challenge him, but will not be too difficult. However, I also open the book and read some of it to make sure because sometimes it is not difficult enough, even though the level is "appropriate." The reading levels are also handy when shopping for a child who is not your own. If you are unsure how well that child reads, you can just get a book from the appropriate level.
I think the measurements seem like a system that may have its flaws but is still one of the only ways we can measure ability. Ability, no matter reading, sports, or something else, is very hard and complicated to measure. Not every person is like another and that means that somebody does not develop just as another person does.
I think that the system could be pretty reliable, but at the same time it may have flaws. Some students may read at a higher level that 4th grade if they are in that grade. However, there are always things in the world that make exceptions. I do think that this system should stay in place, it helps to evaluate learning. It's pretty neat that you can do some of it by computer, that makes things a lot easier. Our world advances so much, I wonder what will be next?
I would have to say that I think readability measurements are reliable and effective. The only thing that I can think of that would make the measurements not reliable is if the measurements were either calculated by a computer of by hand. I think the level might be different depending on the person who is going through the text by hand instead of than letting it go through a computer.
I certainly agree that readability is an important factor for deciding what to read or teach, but leveling must also be taken into consideration. Material that may be understood by younger children can still contain inappropriate content. For example, I was recently at Barnes & Noble in the kids' department. They were selling a book which contained many of Shakespeare's plays that had been converted to a lower reading level. I considered buying this for my son because I'm a Shakespeare fan until I read some of it. The book contained Hamlet, Othello, and many others which contain murder of loved ones and many other inappropriate topics for children. They may be readable, but the level of the content was horrible.
I don’t think that readability is very reliable due to the points that Fry makes about certain areas not being able to be tested. These areas include content, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgment, and format. These things are not taken into account in test of readability, but they are still very important when looking at what a child can learn from a text. Leveling is a little more effective in that it allows for a better match to students of different levels in reading. I don’t think that a teacher can fully rely on readability when he or she designs the curriculum of the classroom. The teacher needs to be able to accurately examine literature from all angles to decide what is best for the students.
I wasn't even aware that readability levels existed until this article. It seems like they may be a good guideline for teachers to use, but i don't see myself sticking to them unconditionally. It might be a good incentive to students to read books that are above their own level for extra credit and such.
It would be very interesting to see a converter program for this, i'm curious to see what words they would change to raise and lower the levels.
I think having an average readability level for certain books, magazines, and newspaper articles is important, because your reader will stay focused on what he/she is reading. If the readability level is too high you will lose the reader. I know I don't want to read a book that has a lot of big words, because I probably miss the whole point the reader is trying to make. I think in writing the most important thing is to appeal to your reader; you want them to grasp and understand the key lesson or point you are trying to make.
I think Laura's comment on content is a ver important factor in all this. Something that is easy for a particular age group to read may not always be easy for them to understand. For example, a third grader reading an age apropriate book about the importance of family versus an age appropriate book on the branches of the government. In that particular case, the test definitely cannot be one tracked. As a child, I was a very good reader, but I did not always take the time to understand what i was reading. So basically, I do think the measurement system of choice could be a good one, but there are a lot of factors to think about when planning for the experiment.
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