ReplyReply AllMove…darrengeorgialmnetmandypyrecipestillwaysubscriptionstech hints Flag this messageHIT: ELEM: Reading LevelMonday, September 13, 2004 5:12 PMFrom: “Cindy Lund Moreno” Add sender to ContactsTo: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDUThank you so much my fellow librarians. You are all so fabulous! The parent and I thank you sincerely. Here is the HIT:
I need your help again fellow librarians. A parent asked me if there
is a way for her to find out what grade level a book is. Her daughter
is in 3rd grade but has a level of 4th and 5th grade reading level and
she wanted to find out how to find a grade level of a book for when she
purchased a book.
I didn’t know what to tell her. This is really good question. As an
elementary librarian, I should know this, but sadly to say I don’t. I’m
new to this!
Thank you for your help!
I’m also a “newbie,” but I remember from one of my courses that
Titlewave (Follett website) gives suggested reading levels on books (though I
believe they may only be for textbooks- not sure). Another way to
investigate would be to search the archives of professional journals such
as School Library Journal to see if the particular book was reviewed,
and for which age group it was suggested.
Cindy,
I have added a link to Kathy Schrock’s web page on how to use Edward Fry’s Readability graph which is one of the easiest ways to determine reading level. http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/fry/fry.html
Another way is to use lexile scores. Lexile measure is a number indicating the reading demand of the text in terms of the semantic difficulty (vocabulary) and syntactic complexity (sentence length). http://www.lexile.com/EntrancePageFlash.html
The SMOG conversion tables were developed by Harold C. McGraw, Office
of
Educational Research, Baltimore Co. Public Schools, Towson, MD.
The SMOG Readability Formula is a simple method you can use to
determine the
reading level of your written materials. If a person reads at or above
a
grade level, they will understand 90-100% of the information.
Generally, you
need to aim for a reading level of sixth grade or less. In addition, to
ensure that the text is clear and readable, read your draft aloud.
How to use the SMOG formula:
1. Count 10 sentences in a row near the beginning of your material.
Count 10
sentences in the middle. Count 10 sentences near the end. (30 total
sentences)
2. Count every word with three or more syllables in each group of
sentences,
even if the same word appears more than once.
3. Add the total number of words counted. Use the SMOG Conversion Table
I to
find the grade level.
If your material has fewer than 30 sentences, follow the instructions
for
“SMOG on Shorter Passages” and use SMOG Conversion Table II.
Word Counting Rules:[PARA]* A sentence is any group of words ending
with a
period, exclamation point, or question mark. [PARA]* Words with hyphens
count-as-one-word. [PARA]* Proper nouns are counted. [PARA]* Read
numbers
out loud to decide the number of syllables. [PARA]* In long sentences
with
colons or semicolons followed by a list, count each part of the list
with
the beginning phrase of the sentence as an individual sentence. [PARA]*
Count abbreviations as the whole word they represent.
SMOG for Shorter Passages (< 30 sentences)
Use this formula and SMOG Conversion Table II for material containing
less
than 30 sentences, but not less than 10 sentences.
1. Count the total number of sentences in the material.
2. Count the number of words with 3 or more syllables.
3. Find the total number of sentences and the corresponding conversion
number in SMOG Conversion Table II.
4. Multiply the total number of words with 3 or more syllables by the
conversion number. Use this number as the word count to find the
correct
grade level from Table I.
SMOG Conversion Table I[PARA](for longer materials) SMOG Conversion
Table
II[PARA](use on material with < 30 sentences)
Word Count Grade Level # of Sentences Conversion #
0-2 4 29 1.03
3-6 5 28 1.07
7-12 6 27 1.1
13-20 7 26 1.15
21-30 8 25 1.2
31-42 9 24 1.25
43-56 10 23 1.3
57-72 11 22 1.36
73-90 12 21 1.43
91-110 13 20 1.5
111-132 14 19 1.58
133-156 15 18 1.67
157-182 16 17 1.76
183-210 17 16 1.87
211-240 18 15 2.0
14 2.14
13 2.3
12 2.5
11 2.7
10 3.0
Another Readability Option
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index
While the SMOG Readability Formula is an easy way to determine
readability,
another option is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Index. This test is
automatically calculated on your Microsoft Word documents. After
Microsoft
Word completes a grammar check (under tools in the tool bar),
readability
statistics are displayed.
One of the formulas that is similar to the SMOG formula is the
Flesch-Kincaid formula. This index computes readability based on the
average
number of syllables per word and the average number of words per
sentence.
The score in this case indicates a grade-school level. For example, a
score
of 8.0 means that an eighth grader would understand the document.
Standard
writing approximately equates to the seventh- to eighth-grade level.
However, for Patient Education for U documents, the recommended reading
level is around the sixth grade.
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