The article titled, "Readability versus leveling," explains the similarities and differences between readability and leveling. As defined in the article, the term "readability" is an objective numerical score obtained by applying a readability formula (Fry 2002). Leveling yields a score of difficulty, but it is less objective and takes into account some subjective factors of judgment. Both are used to determine the difficulty of books and reading materials for elementary and/or commercial reading material.
Syntactic difficulty and semantic difficulty are taken into account when determining readability scores. Syntactic difficulty or the grammatical complexity is usually measured by sentence length. Semantic difficulty or the meaning of a word is judged by the length of a word, the number of syllables, and sometimes by the frequency of a word. as compared to leveling, which is determined by the content of the text, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgment, and format. Since more measures are taken into consideration for leveling, it is not used outside of elementary school classrooms, but readability can be used inside and outside of classrooms. The objectivity of readability, as opposed to the subjectivity of leveling, allows it to be used commonly in such material as military training manuals, plain-language laws for insurance policies or loan contracts, and newspaper articles. This is so because the objectivity and consistency it posses allows different people to have the same score on whatever book or reading material they are calculating.
The directions are: Randomly select 3 one hundred word passages from a book or an article. Plot average number of syllables and average number of sentences per 100 words on a graph to determine the grade level of the material. Choose more passages per book if great variability is observed and conclude that the book has uneven readability. Few books will fall in a gray area but when they do, then grade level scores are invalid (Fry 2002).
To be serious, when I first read the title, I thought this article was going to explain how to calculate my reading level. So I was very confused but then figured out if I can calculate the level of readability of books i normally read and can comprehend, that should tell me at what reading level I am up to.
Every member of my family has a science degree, and I have often, in jest, stated that grammar is not so different from the mathematical formulas each utilizes in his or her respective field. However, I did not realize that mathematics was so readily applied to the writing level of a piece of literature. While I understand the purpose of readability, I connect more with the concept of leveling. To objectify writing to the number of sentences and syllables is to disregard other factors that can attribute to the difficultly and sophistication of a work. For example, Shakespeare, according to the readability formula, would be placed at an eighth grade level; however, many adults have difficultly reading his works because of the language he utilizes. While the idea of readability is a simple and compact one, it is not one that should be used without applying other factors, such as those accepted in leveling. Literature and grammar, however similar to science and math, are not exact and should not be so objectified to the point that other factors cannot be applied to them.
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in learning what my own readability is. As a student who strives for excellence, I try to improve and perfect my skills in every area I can. I think the Fry graphing and testing will be a very interesting way of telling me where I stand and how I can improve.
ReplyDeleteI never realized how much of science this topic was. Elizabeth makes a good point though about Shakespeare. Although there is a science to readability, perhaps there is more going on than we can categorize in such a subjective topic as English. An example of readability not being accurate is from a student that I tutor. His last paper discussed a lot of philosophical concepts that made my brain hurt, but it was written lower than a high school reading level. That being said, it was a very good article.
ReplyDeleteI agree with RWhite, I think it will be interesting to put the readability to test my own standing as far as reading and writing goes. However, I feel that its smart to have some kind of universal rubric when it comes to grading writing and reading because it can be a very comprehensive matter to grade and can vary greatly depending on who is grading. I didnt realize there was such a standard as the fry graph until this article so it was very informative.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that readability measures how hard words are and leveling measures how hard the text is as whole. Leveling is a broader measurement. It takes more into consideration. For example the readability level of a text can be at a 4th grade level but the leveling can be at a 8th grade level. This means that a 4th grader could read the material but most likely would not understand the material until 8th grade when they are mentally more developed.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know something such as this existed. I never realized it was a science to figure out the readability of books. I think it's interesting how they figure out the readability of books. I think there should be a universal idea of how to calculate the level a book should be at. This Fry graph I think is interesting and is a start for that.
ReplyDeleteI actually was never aware of the ability to precisely calculate the reading level you are at. I also never realized the extreme amount of science and calculations involved in order to properly calculate the reading level of a child. I think this should be more widely known among educators. I think this would be extremely valuable to the teacher, because then they would be able calculate the reading level of their students at the beginning of the year. At the end of the year, teachers can compare the reading level again to see if their students have progressed in their level of reading.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that their was this much research behind this reading topic. I found this very interesting of how they discovered the readability that is needed to be able to read a book. All English teachers should be notified on the Fry graph.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that this existed. I wonder what my own readability is. I would like to see research done on how accurate this actually is. For example, can an individuals readability level correlate with the idividuals intelligence? I found this article very interesting. I look forward to reading more about it.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that there should be a system to label the complexity of work, specially of professional writers. However, when it comes to judging a student's work specially in elementary school and high school a teacher must take into account the ability of the particular child. Every child learns at a different pace and should not be penalize harshly if he/she has great improve in a subject but is not quite at the level the he/she should be. I think that effort should be praised so that the child knows that he/she's progressing.
ReplyDeleteI really do not like the readability method because it leaves out other important factors in writing, such as content. What if the student commits many spelling errors in his writing but his thoughts and the grasp of content is exceptional? Shouldn't he/she be given credit for this?
Fry graphing sounds much more complicated than what it really is. I think it is very important for people to know what grade level they are in when they are writing.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important for people to know what grade level their writing is. I also think it's interesting that there is so much science behind it. I didn't realize this was how people figured out what grade level books are.
ReplyDeleteI like how there is a science behind finding ones readability status and think that everyone should know at what level that they are writing at since it allows you to know weather or not that you need to improve or not.
ReplyDeleteI always thought when someone said the reading love of this book is for College students, I thought that is who will understand the reading better. That's really interesting that there is actually a scientific formula to figure ones reading level out.
ReplyDeleteI never knew how people figured out the reading level of certain books. It is interesting to know the reading level of your own writing and of other writings. I think if you know the readability of your own writing it can make you a better writer.
ReplyDeleteOriginally I didn't understand how the fry graph worked, I now started to wish I responded to this blog before I wrote my essay on it, because I focused a lot on how I didn't understand how it worked. But I think that the fry graph is a great thing, since it helps you to be able to rank your work.
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