Assessment

Readability and Leveling

Readabiliy according to Fry's article is, "the ease of comprehension because of style of writing." Where as leveling is, "selecting books to match the competencies of a reader or writer."  Both are used in classroom and have different interpretations based on what you are using them for in the classroom.  Books that are used in a classroom are ranked based on difficulty and the higher the number the more difficult it is.  Typically the number that it is given it directed to the grade level in which it fits into.  But nowadays this ranked grade level reading is something that can't be used because of the diversity that is in a classroom.  There are many things that goes into scoring the readings but there are two main ones.  One is Syntactic difficulty which is determined by the sentence length and semantic difficulty which is length and frequency of the words that are in the book.  Both of these can be done by hand or by computer.  Most of the time you can google a book and the Readability score will be there.  Leveling has other components that can only be done by hand.   Those categories are; Content, Illustrations, Length, Curriculum, Language Structure, Judgement and Format.  All of these things are looked at by a book by book basis and are taken in to thought when scoring the book.  

Readability and Leveling do not necessarily cover the same things.  Leveling is typically not used outside of an Elementary School Classroom.  Where Readability since done by strict formula can be used in other things besides a school setting.  It is important to make sure that the child is reading something that is in the level because if it is not they will become frustrated and it will be difficult for them to read.  An assessment of their level before, during and after the year is something that is very important.  This way you can see how the child is learning and where they have come from.  Once you have assessed them they will be able to pick stories and readings out of the classroom library that will suit their level and their interest needs.  

A way that a child can make sure they are reading on their level is by organizing your classroom  library by level.  This can ensure that they are able to know exactly which books they are going to b able to read and will no become frustrated with books that they are not going to be able to read.  

Questions:

1. How important do you think it is to have your library set up in a level based system? Do you think it would be harmful or hurtful to their learning?
2. Do you remember reading leveling when you were in elementary school or was it something that was just understood?