Reading: Comprehension

How to Tell a Book's Reading Grade Level

 

            Today's Snack: Let's practice a cooking skill called "leveling off." When you use a cup measure, and you pile a food item in it so that it's like a mini-mountain, you have to scrape off the excess to produce exactly one-cup of the item, or else your recipe won't come out OK. Practice this skill with a one-cup measure by filling it to overflowing with Cheerios. Now, taking the edge of a not-too-sharp knife, pull the knife's edge across the top of the measure so that the excess Cheerios fall away. Now you should have a pretty close to exact measurement of one cup of Cheerios. It's time to pour them into a bowl along with the excess Cheerios you knocked off, and eat them with a big smile, some milk and a little bit of sugar.

 

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Supplies:

A stack of books that you might want to read for fun

 

 

You hear about so-and-so reading "on the third-grade level," and somebody else who reads "on the ninth-grade level."

 

But neither one of those students is in the actual classroom of the grade level for which he or she supposedly is reading.

 

How can you tell the grade level of the language in a book?

 

            It's by no means easy. It takes a lot of trial and error. You must consider not only the simplicity or difficulty of the vocabulary and reading structure of the book, but the suitability of its content for the child's emotional development.

 

There are experts who do this for a living. You don't want to have to spend that much time. But it is nice to know, so that you can make better book choices for yourself.

 

            The simplest way is to go by the publisher's own guesstimate. On the back of a paperback, down by the bar code or logo, you should see a little abbreviation like this:

 

            RL:5.2

            010-014

 

            That means "Reading Level fifth grade, second month" but children ages 10 to 14 would enjoy the content.

 

            So if you're in second grade, might want to fuhgeddaboudit. And if you're 18, it's probably too babyish for you.

 

But man, are there even MORE things to think about than just the grade-level of the language in a book. There also are various ways of estimating it, and a wide range of opinions. You could spend all day researching just one book's suggested reading levels, and you are likely to come up with answers that are all over the map!

 

But we like to make things easy for you. So here's a great website to give you the lay of the land:

 

            www.hoagiesgifted.org/reading_levels.htm

 

            Other websites that are helpful because they have grouped books by grade level:

 

            www.hedgehogbooks.com

 

            http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/

           

            www.fresno.k12.ca.us/technology/ar/documents/Readability.pdf

 

            When in doubt, use a simple counting method, the Five Finger Rule:

 

§         Flip a book open to a page at random.

 

§         Begin to read aloud.

 

§         Every time you struggle to pronounce a word or can't do it at all, lift one of your fingers.

 

If all five fingers come up, that book is not right for you - it's probably too hard and it would be frustrating to be looking up the definitions of words all the time as you plow through it.

 

If NO fingers come up, it might be too easy for you. Then again, a nice, easy read might be just what you're looking for!