This program is Understanding Leveling Systems. I am Kate Todd.

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I want to start by getting an idea of who is here today.Raise your hand if you are:Library Media Specialists (school librarians)Children’s librarians in public librariesOther public library staffCollege LibrariansLibrary School Faculty

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Now I want to ask about reading programs used in your communities.Raise your hand if you work with schools that use:Accelerated ReaderReading CountsLexilesFountas & Pinnell Guided ReadingReading RecoveryDegrees of Reading Power (DRP)

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So let me tell you a little about myself. I became interested in book leveling in the early 1990s when I was a children’s librarian for The New York Public Library in Staten Island. After retiring from NYPL, I enrolled at NYU to earn a second master’s degree in Educational Communication and Technology. I did my thesis project for that degree about reading instruction methods.

In 2008, I began teaching the ALSC online course, Reading Instruction and Children’s Books. I have taught at least 10 sessions of this course and it will be offered again in Fall of this year.

I also want to offer a disclaimer. I am not a representative of any of the companies or leveling systems that I will describe today. Everything I am discussing I have learned from reading books or publicly available web resources. If I make an error in describing a system, it is my own interpretation and not the responsibility of ALA or ALSC.

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Now that we know a little about each other, let me start the discussion of leveling with a look back at history. Readability formulas were first developed in the 1920s. This was the same time that the pedagogy for teaching reading using basal readers, such as Dick and Jane, was being formulated. Educators were searching for a method of assessing text difficulty for student readers. The original formulas were expressed as grade levels and tenths, such as 2.4, 4.5 or 7.5. On the theory that a school year is 10 months, these could be interpreted as 2nd grade, 4th month; 4th grade, 5th month and 7th grade, 5th month.

In the initial three decades of research, as many as 100 text elements were analyzed, including:Word lengthVocabularySentence lengthNumber of sentences per paragraphQuantity of prepositional phrasesAmount of personal pronounsEtc.

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After extensive research and calculation experiments, it was concluded that two elements work best as predictors of text difficulty:Semantic (word) complexitySyntactic (sentence) difficultySemantic, or word, complexity can be determined either byWord length (number of letters or number of syllables), ORVocabulary lists of words known to students in particular grades.Syntactic (sentence) difficulty is most often determined by number of words per sentence.

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Let’s take a look at one of these formulas. Here is the SMOG formula, developed by Harry McLaughlin: the reading level is calculated by taking the square root of the number of words having 3 or more syllables found in a sample of 30 sentences, then adding 3 to that square root.Some important things to observe about this formula:1. Even if there are zero polysyllabic words, the reading grade level will never be below 3.0. So this formula is not useful for determining readability of books for grades K-2.2. The formula only uses semantic difficulty, in particular the number words with 3 or more syllables, for calculating readability level.3. Since the formula was developed in the 1940s, there were no computers that could do large calculations with massive amounts of data, so McLaughlin relied on sampling only 30 sentences per book.If I were doing a workshop in your library, I would now ask you to go to the shelves and select a book, then I would work with you to apply this formula to the book. This is not possible in this setting, so I have provided instructions on the handout that you have received for this program so you can do this later. (The handout is also available on the wiki, http://levels.pbworks.com ).The SMOG formula is just one of many mathematical calculators that have been developed to measure the readability of text. There are at least a dozen well-known formulas and many others that are more obscure.

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If you took education courses in college, you may have learned to use the Fry formula. The Fry formula also uses a sample of sentences for determining readability. Fry calculations add the syntactic element of sentence length to the semantic measure used in SMOG. A graph plotting sentence length against the number of syllables is used to determine the grade level. The Fry formula and the SMOG calculation are among the easiest to determine without a computer so they are still popular today.

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With the emergence of computers, we now have the ability to do calculations on the entire text of a book or other documents. One formula commonly used for this purpose is the Flesch-Kincaid formula, which is actually embedded in most U.S. versions of Microsoft Word.Here is a current version of the formula:(0.39 x average words per sentence) + (11.8 x average syllables per word) – 15.9 .The second activity on your handout provides instructions for calculating a Flesch-Kincaid reading level with MS Word. I find this formula particularly useful when text is already available in machine readable form. I like to use it for analyzing brochures that are designed for children, or even for parents who are not native speakers of English. I also use this formula to calculate reading levels of websites that are recommended for use by children of specific grades.Let me also note that if you don’t own MS Word, there is also an online calculator that can be used to find the Flesch-Kincaid level. A link to that online calculator is also available on the handout.

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Mesmer, in her book Tools for Matching Readers to Texts, refers to these as Traditional Readability formulas. (The book is listed on the last page of the handout). These traditional readability formulas were not embedded in an instructional plan or reading program. The pedagogy of teaching children to read was developed independently. Over the last three decades, several programs have developed that incorporate reading levels with instructional methodology. Many of you indicated that Accelerated Reader (often referred to as AR) was used in your community. The initial idea for AR was to expand reading for students beyond the excerpts in an English Language Arts textbook or a single title assigned to an entire class. Since all teachers cannot read all the books that a student might want to read, AR developed quizzes that tested comprehension. In the 90s, the quizzes were purchased by schools and school districts and administered on desktop computers, which were new at the time. AR then provided reports to teachers with points for the percentage of correct answers and the difficulty of the text. The point system was originally designed to allow teachers and parents to track the reading progress of a student. However, AR points have been used by schools for many purposes including incentive prizes, award certificates or even report card grades.The AR program has developed its own readability formula, ATOS [Advantage TASA Open Standard, where TASA stands for Touchstone Applied Science Associates], that looks like this: 1.95x(AvgWords per sentence) + .46x(AvgGrade of 100 most frequent words) + 1.74x(AvgCharacters per word) -8.54.The formula combines both word length and a word list to calculate semantic difficulty and includes words per sentence for syntactic complexity. The formula is clearly designed for computer calculation and there is a link on the handout to the ATOS for Text online calculator.

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AR also has a database, AR Bookfinder, that allows students, parents and teachers to search for books that have quizzes available. The search results provide Interest Level, Book (or grade) level and AR points. Searches can be made using title, author, topic, interest level, book level and language (English or Spanish). If you use the ATOS calculator, you will note that the book level is still given in the traditional format, grade and month in school. One of the difficulties of reporting reading level in this format is that students in the same grade read at a variety of levels. And there is often a stigma attached to telling a sixth grade student that he or she is reading at second grade level.

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Different scales of reading difficulty are used by what Mesmer calls Second Generation reading formulas. One example is the Lexile system. How many of you said Lexiles were used in your community?Lexiles are expressed in units from 100 to over 1700. Examples would look like this: 400L, 760L or 1170L .Although the formula for Lexile calculation is proprietary, their web site indicates it uses both semantic and syntactic difficulty, which we have already discussed, to determine text readability. According to their website, semantic difficulty is determined by a graded word list and the frequency of appearance of words that are not on the list. Syntactic difficulty is measured by the length of sentences. The Lexilesystem is able to harness computer technology to do more analysis than would be possible with a sampling method such as SMOG or Fry. Substantial word lists and analysis of large quantities, or even all, of the text is possible. In addition, Lexileprovides student testing that reports results in the same units as the book testing. This makes it easier to match a particular student with a book on the appropriate reading level.

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Lexile has a Find a Book database, allowing searches by author, title, genre, Lexile or grade level. In addition, the Scholastic Book Wizard can be used to find the Lexilelevels of books.

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Lexile also has an online text analyzer which allows submission of any text then reports its Lexile level.Activity 3 on your handout suggests that you submit the same paragraph from a children’s book or magazine to the ATOS and Lexile analyzers then compare the results.

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For the last 20 minutes I have been telling you about quantitative leveling, describing formulas, calculations and computer analysis. I know many of you have been thinking: these numbers are not the only thing that is important about the readability of books. And you are right!Some other things that you may have thought need to be considered are:• Writing style• Subject matter or ideas• Genre• Student background or experience• Emotional complexity• Illustrations or diagramsThese are all elements that can be supportive of reading or make it more difficult.Several qualitative leveling systems have been designed to account for these factors.Many of you are familiar with qualitative structures created by publishers to provide levels on easy readers or beginner books. You may even have taken my webinar about Leveling Easy Readers.Today I want to focus on the system designed by Fountas and Pinnell for Guided Reading. Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell created their system for matching texts to readers as a result of their work with teacher training and staff development. They use the term Text Gradient rather than reading level. F&P gradients are identified by a letter, ranging from A to Z, with A being the easiest to read and Z the most difficult. All the books in one gradient, for example K, should provide similar challenges to readers. This is different from a quantitative or numerical system in which books having a level of 700L should be more difficult to read than books that are 650L. Also, the distance between gradients is not equal. 9 gradients, A through I, are used in Kindergarten and First Grade, while only 3 gradients, X through Z, are defined for Seventh and Eighth graders.

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In a qualitative leveling system, such as F&P, three components are used to develop a framework for analysis:FormatLanguage structureText support

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Here is an overview of the elements that make up these 3 components:Format considers

1. Amount of text on a page2. Size of text3. Layout of text and images4. Capitalization and punctuation

Language structure includes1. Vocabulary knowledge of students2. Predictability, like rhymes or beginning consonants3. Repetition of words, partial sentences or ideas4. Simple sentences using noun, verb, subject vs. complex sentence structure

Text support is provided by1. Pictures or illustrations2. Contrast of text with background3. Student familiarity or experience 4. Definitions or anecdotes in the text

As you can see there are about a dozen different elements that must be simultaneously evaluated to determine a qualitative text gradient. The analysis cannot be done by a computer. It requires people to read each book and compare it to benchmark titles. The book on your handout, Leveled Books K-8, provides in depth discussions of how these components are evaluated at each F&P gradient.Once again, I think that librarians can understand this process best by trying it out. Activity 4 is designed to give you an introduction to how F&P qualitative leveling works.

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In terms of providing assistance to library patrons, there are several sources. F&P publishes books with lists of titles on each gradient. They also have a searchable database, although there is a charge for database access. Scholastic Book Wizardprovides F&P levels at no charge to searchers.It is important to remember that the process used by F&P means that not all books will be given F&P gradients and new titles will not have gradients available upon publication.

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Before I talk about the consequences of leveling, I want to review what we have covered so far. I have described three types of leveling systems:1. Traditional quantitative leveling which provides grade and month in school.

Examples include SMOG, Fry, ATOS and Flesch-Kincaid.2. Second generation quantitative leveling which provides other numerical scales.

Examples include Lexile and Degrees of Reading Power (DRP).3. Qualitative leveling which provides gradients of text complexity. Examples

include Fountas-Pinnell and Reading Recovery.

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Next, I want to summarize some positive aspects and cautions about the use of leveling systems as presented by the authors of Beyond Leveled Books.Some positive aspects of leveling include:Books used for instruction can be matched to the needs of students.Students who are successful at reading will be motivated to continue reading.Readers make the most progress in learning to read when books are neither too easy nor too difficult.Identifying book levels can help parents, teachers and students select appropriate books.

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Some cautions about the use of leveling include:Focusing solely on text difficulty limits choice. Leveled book lists may not contain all books of interest to a student.If reading level is the single selection criteria, students and parents have a skewed vision of the purpose of reading. Contests or incentives for reading can eclipse the value of reading for learning or reading for pleasure.Despite nearly a century of research and the development of multiple systems, leveling is still not a precise science.All of these leveling systems are designed for English speaking students progressing through school grade levels. They may not be relevant to English Language Learners, adults and teens, or special populations.

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This last caution is particularly important to libraries and librarians. The existence of leveling systems often leads to the suggestion that libraries label books and arrange them by reading levels. ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee opposes labeling as a violation of the Library Bill of Rights which can lead to censorship of student reading. AASL specifically opposes labeling books by reading level since it limits student ability to explore interests and threatens the confidentiality of students selecting materials.

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Readability leveling is a tool. It is one of several tools available to help us match books to readers. Leveling was designed to be part of a school instructional program. The uses of leveling can be positive or problematic. Many of the problems occur when leveling systems are taken out of their original contexts. Other problems occur because the people using the leveling systems do not really understand them. As librarians, we can serve our communities best by understanding leveling systems and sharing our insights with parents, teachers and students.

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As a conclusion, I would like to describe one of the simplest leveling systems: The Five Finger Method. Many of you already know and use it. The procedure is simple. Find a book that a student might want to read. Have the student open the book to a typical page. As the student reads, put up one finger for each unknown word. If all 5 fingers are up before one page has been read, the book is probably too difficult for independent reading. The student should seek help from a teacher, parent or more advanced reader in order to read the bookThe Five Finger Method is effective because it matches a specific reader with an actual text. It has a theoretical basis because it has been found that students who know less than 97% of the words in a text spend so much time decoding that they lose track of the meaning. The Five Finger Method requires no calculations, computers or database searches. Students always have this tool, their hand, with them when visiting the library or bookstore.

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Thank you all for attending this session today. In addition to the handout, more resources are available on the wiki, http://levels.pbworks.com . Everyone should feel free to email me at EduKateTodd@gmail.com with more ideas or questions.I will be happy to answer questions now.

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