How to Calculate Reading Level
Monday June 22, 2009
Have you ever wondered if you are reading or writing at the appropriate reading level? Sometimes it is important to know if the books you are reading are actually challenging you and improving your comprehension skills. You can actually calculate the readability of a book, using a special formula.
The Flesch-Kindaid readability formula is a simple calculation that uses things like "words per sentence" and average "syllables per word" to come up with a grade level. Find out how to calculate the readability of your own writing or the readability of a book you are reading. It's a handy tool for improving your reading and writing skills.
Comments
Good advice on reading levels. To find out the independent reading level of your child try the following:
Primary teachers have used the “five-finger method” for years. Readers select appropriate reading levels by using the fingers of one hand to count down the number of unknown words on a single page. Any more than five unknown words means that the text is at their frustrational level and another book should be selected.
To update and refine this technique for older students, reading text that has about 5% of the words that are unknown to the reader is the appropriate independent reading level. Reading this level of text will expose most readers to about 300 unknown words in 30 minutes of reading. Learning 5% of these words from the surrounding context clues of the text is realistic. This means that students will learn about 15 new words during a typical reading session. Complete directions at http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/reading/how-to-get-students-to-read-at-home/
Mark Pennington
MA Reading Specialist