Steering Committee

Introduction
A student's reading level is one measure of what a student understands. Do you know the reading level of your students? Do your printed materials appropriate for their level?

Here is a simple yet very useful way to determine reading levels. Get about five books or magazines that your students say that they can read. Use one of the readability scales mentioned below to analyze a sample of the material. In this way you can create your own reading level index.

The Flesch-Kincaid Scale
One of the most widely used scale comes free with Word and is an option under [Tools} as a function of spelling and grammar. Type in about four paragraphs from the students' materials. Then block the materials and click on [Tools] and then [Spelling]. At the end of the spell checker, you will be shown the Ease of Reading Index and the Reading Grade Level of the passage. Once you know your students' levels, you can then test your written curriculum to determine if what you write is what they can read.

The chart below was generated by analyzing some paragraphs from this article. Word counts your words, characters, paragraphs and sentences. It then shows Reading Ease and Reading Level.

The Five Finger Test
Probably the easiest way to determine if a book is at an appropriate reading level for your student use the 'five finger rule.' Have the learner begin reading a chapter, and put down one finger each time he or she struggles with a word. If he or she reaches the end of the page before you get to five fingers, the book is written at a comfortable level for independent reading. Perhaps in your country it is six fingers but you get the point.

If you are looking for some fun, analyze the Bishop's last letter or your last written sermon and find the reading level. Try this with your Bible also. The Good News for Modern Man Bible tests evenly for the 4th grade reading level. There are no variations from sentence to sentence or book to book on a reading scale.

An Example of Reading Levels
The paragraph below appeared earlier on this page. It is analyzed at the 61% level for ease of reading and at the 10th grade reading level using the Flesch-Kincaid Scale.

Probably the easiest way to determine if a book is at an appropriate reading level for your child is the 'five finger rule.' Have the child begin reading a chapter, and put down one finger each time he struggles with a word. If he reaches the end of the page before you get to five fingers, the book is written at a comfortable level for independent reading.

The next paragraph communicates the same ideas but at the 4th grade reading level and with 84% ease of reading, using the Flesch-Kincaid Test.

There is an easy way to determine if your child can understand a book. It is called the ‘five finger rule.' Have the child begin reading a chapter. Tell your child to put down one finger each time he struggles with a word. How many fingers are down at the end of the page? If there are less than five fingers, your child can understand the page.

The re-write above has more but shorter sentences, smaller words with fewer syllables and only one clauses.

Reading levels are only one measure of "understanding" but as long as we use written materials in TEE, we should try to find our students' reading levels and write to those levels. Create your own index by working backward from what your students like to read to the scores shown on the Flesch-Kincaid Scale.

To learn more about the history of and theories behind reading scales as well as the advantages and disadvantages, click below on the suggested link.

Have you found useful reading tools that others in TEE might appreciate? If so, please let us know. Email garykushmail@aol.com