The Three Myths About “Reading Levels” Everyone Should Know

 

Measuring success, progress, and overall growth is something that all industries and companies do. Having a base number to compare yourself to allows you to see what you can improve on. The same idea comes to reading and writing. There are different scales and methods to measure a persons’ reading level. This is more prevalent with children and teens as they continue to educate themselves. 

Things aren’t always what they seem, especially when it comes to reading. First, let’s take a look at how the idea of “reading levels” came about and how they are measured. Then we’ll debunk the common myths about them. 

The different reading levels

There are three reading levels to let readers know the difficulty of the text they are about to read.  

• Lexile Level was developed in 1989 by MetaMetrics, who wanted to find a better way to measure reading skills. Using math and psychology, the developers of the Lexile Level found a way to “grade” a book and let readers know the difficulty. For example, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is an adult-directed book, as in a book adults read to children. It measures at a AD740L. Is this helpful? Stephen Krashen of the CSLA believes it is harmful. In Krashen’s paper, The Lexile Framework: Unnecessary and Potentially Harmful, he argues that the Lexile level solves a problem that never existed. 
• Guided Reading Level (also known as ATOS) is something you are probably most familiar with. Popular children’s publishing companies (Penguin, Scholastic, etc.) add these to the front of their books. Level One has simple vocabulary, word repetition, pictures, and is a predictable story that kids are familiar with. From there, the levels progressively get harder and harder. By Level Four, readers are enjoying books with complex sentence structures and in-depth plot development.
• Grade-Level Equivalencies are helpful to teachers so that they can monitor a child’s development. The score combines grade level and the time of year in school. So a book graded at 2.5 would mean it is for second graders halfway through the year. If a child is struggling with that book, it alerts teachers (and parents) to work with them more.

How do you measure a text complexity

A text complexity has three parts to it; qualitative, quantitative, and something called reader and reader task. 

• Qualitative measures how a reader evaluates the text. This includes what the author’s intent was, themes, concepts, language clarity, and more. 
• Quantitative measures the average sentence length, syllables, and the number of different words.
• Reader and reading task is mainly for teachers to measure themselves. It looks at the reader and evaluates their background, level of interest, and motivation. Not everyone likes the same books, and it reflects on their comprehension of that book. 

Three myths about “reading levels”

The process of scoring reading levels may seem solid, but don’t let these measurements convince you of that. Reading is a fluid process that is tough to put a number on. Let’s take a look at these three common beliefs and separate fact from fiction.

Each piece of text has an accurate reading level you can measure 

Each piece of text can measure differently depending on which scale you use to rate it. For example, The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is all over the map when evaluated using the different scales. According to the Lexile Level, they rate it as a book for 8 to 11 years old. Meanwhile, when you use the same book on the Grade Level, it becomes something more suited for fourth graders in their eighth month of school. Roughly the same age group, but shows that it is a broad spectrum of young readers who would be able to enjoy and understand the literature.

Each reader has an accurate reading skill level you can measure

Common tests to measure a reader’s skill level include filling in word blanks and answering questions after reading a passage. A great reader could nail these tests the first time, but the next time they could fail because they have a horrible headache. The text never changes but the person and their health will. Therefore, there is no real way to measure their reading skill accurately. 

Readers should always read texts based on their reading level

The idea that a third grader should read texts measured for thrid graders is false for a few different reasons. A book that they know too much about already or fly through it because they have an increased vocabulary does nothing for the child. Adults should challenge children who excel in reading. The same goes for a high schooler reading about the stock market. They could probably read the sentences and vocabulary, but unless they’re active in the stock market, the text becomes jibberish.

As you can see, there is no real number you can put on a piece of text. Doing so could limit a reader’s ability to grow. Those that excel in reading should read anything they want so as long as it is tasteful. Also, a grade-level textbook doesn’t mean the child in that grade will understand it. It is the content in there that is new and should be explored in a group.

The only way to get better at reading is by reading even more! Test yourself against these so-called “reading levels” by learning how to speed read. Click to learn more about our speed reading courses and how they can improve the way you read.