[Phys-L] Re: Reading level

[William Thomas <william.r.thomas@GMAIL.COM>]

We use the Lexile (www.lexile.com <http://www.lexile.com>) reading me=
asure
at our school. One should be very careful with all reading level meas=
ures
that they are not used incorrectly.
 The lexile score gives us a very quick answer for this question:
 "Can a student reading at this lexile level understand text at this =
lexile
level?" In other words, if the material I am asking them to read in c=
lass is
lexiled at 1250 and the student can read at a lexile level of 900, th=
ere is
no chance that they are going to understand the material no matter ho=
w many
times I tell them to read it. Indeed in this situation, the more read=
ing you
request of a student when the material is more than a couple of hundr=
ed
points above their ability, the higher the level of frustration for t=
he
student, and the less productive the exercise.
 On the other hand, Hemingway lexiles very low compared to technical
manuals. Does this mean that just because the student can read at 125=
0 they
will understand a Hemingway novel that is written at 1000? Of course =
not.
 Lexiles are useful to make sure we align the reading with our studen=
t's
abilities, and give us realistic goals for stretching and improving a
students reading without turning them off due to frustration or unrea=
listic
expectations.
 Telling a student with a 900 lexile level to just read more slowly o=
r more
often when the text is too far above their reading level is like yell=
ing at
a person who doesn't speak English in the hope that more volume will =
make
them understand you.
 William Thomas

 On 11/2/05, John SOHL <jsohl@weber.edu> wrote:
> I have been interested in these reading level measurements for a wh=
ile.
> My son is now in the 6th grade and we've been carefully monitoring =
his
> reading level for years. BC's readability scores post listed the
> equations that are used to determine the "grade level" of the mater=
ial
> and it is easy to see that it is based purely on sentence structure=
 and
> word length. *No conceptual understanding is needed.*
>
> Out of curiosity, I pasted in a section from one of my optics labs =
into
> the Gunning Fog Index calculator and got 8.87. Yet, I feel comforta=
ble
> claiming that an average ninth grader is not going to understand
> "ASE=3DAmplified Spontaneous Emission" even though they can read th=
e
> words.
>
> One place where I saw this flaw (before I figured out the equations
> used for the calculations but was already suspicious) was when my t=
hen
> 4th grade son brought home a book rated at the upper end of fourth =
grade
> - Phantom of the Opera. I figured that sure, he could read it, but
> would he understand the complex interplays of emotions and contexts=
?
> Probably not. I figured that we'd wait until high school to read th=
at.
> On the other hand, a ninth grade rated version of "Swiss Family
> Robinson" was easily read by him and pretty well understood when he=
 was
> only in 5th grade.
>
> The above text rated 8.25 - don't try to get your young children to
> read it... :-)
>
> I'll bet that Hake's posting could be rewritten to get a score of 8=
 to
> 10 and be no more understandable to the non-specialist reader.
>
> John
> P.S. I very much enjoy the detail in Hake's postings and am thankfu=
l
> for the references.
> P.P.S. It is interesting to look at the "significant" figures in th=
e
> online Fog Index analysis. All values have 1 to 3 sig figs except t=
he
> average number of words per sentence which has an absurd 10 signifi=
cant
> figures listed. (Maybe OK for a population but certainly not for a
> sample!)
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> John E. Sohl, Ph.D.
> Professor of Physics
> Weber State University
> 2508 University Circle
> Ogden, UT 84408-2508
>
> voice: (801) 626-7907, fax: (801) 626-7445
> e-mail: jsohl@weber.edu
> web: http://physics.weber.edu/sohl/
_______________________________________________
Phys-L mailing list
Phys-L@electron.physics.buffalo.edu
https://www.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l