The reading summary is done by: Lidia Brown (ENGL300-1) and Megan Berns (ENGL300-2)
Due by class time on: Fri., March 4th, 2011 (although today is off!!!)
The responses by the whole class are due by class time on: Mon., March 7th, 2011
The text you need to read is here.
In Edward Fry’s article “Readability Versus Leveling”, Fry examines the pros and cons of Readability formulas as well as leveling. According to Fry, Readability formulas have been the main way to determine the right difficulty level of reading for students for a very long time. Leveling is another way that teachers can determine the proper difficulty level of reading for their students. Both of these methods offer a way to determine the difficulty of reading material and are very helpful tools especially for teachers.
ReplyDeleteReadability, as mentioned by Fry, is thought of as numerical scores that you get when you apply readability formulas. Readability formulas are extremely objective. Computers now even have the technology to allow you to scan reading material and calculate the readability level of that reading material. Fry states in this article that the objectivity of readability formulas isn’t necessarily always a positive thing. Since readability formulas don’t take into account any other factors, they will not always be completely accurate. For example, readability formulas don’t consider motivation at all; if the reading material inspires motivation then it will be easier for a student to read through. Readability has a grade-level rang of difficulty that’s either 1-12 or 1-17. An example of a readability formula would be the Fry Graph. The Fry Graph requires that you select a minimum of three 100-word samples and count the number of sentences in each sample. Then you have to average the sentence count and syllable count and enter the graph in order to get the proper grade level (now you can see why they’ve found a way for computers to do this). The importance of readability formulas is that it helps students better learn to read because if you give a child a book that is too difficult for them to read it is going to make this learning process much more difficult.
Leveling, although it serves the same purpose as readability formulas, has some differences. Leveling is a much less objective process that determines the proper reading level, according to Fry. Leveling, as opposed to readability formulas, doesn’t just make simple mathematical calculations to produce an answer. Leveling requires many more factors such as content, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgment, and format. Most readability formulas don’t have these extra factors so that is the main reason some people prefer leveling. Obviously all of these extra factors are largely important in the determination of what reading material to provide to what age group of students. Leveling, unlike readability formulas, is only used in elementary classrooms whereas readability formulas are used elsewhere.
Both of these procedures are aimed at providing the most accurate way of determining the proper reading material for the proper age group. Although they each have their differences, both of these procedures have been extremely beneficial to teaching students how to read in the best way possible.
By: Megan Berns
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ReplyDeleteIn Edwards Fry's "Readability Versus Leveling", Fry compares and examine the pros and cons of reading and leveling formulas. He explains the history and definitions of both formulas. Both methods are used to determine the difficulty of the books and reading material.
ReplyDeleteReadabilty formulas are so objective that there are computers now to allow you to scan reading material and calculate the readability level of that reading material. Readability formulas don’t take into account any other factors, they will not always be completely accurate. For example, readability formulas don’t consider motivation at all; if the reading material inspires motivation then it will be easier for a student to read through. Readability has a grade-level rang of difficulty that’s either one through twelve or one through seventeen. One example of a readability formula is the Fry Graph. The Fry Graph has you select a minimum of three 100-word samples and count the number of sentences in each sample. Afterwards, you have to average the sentence and syllable count and enter the graph in order to get the proper grade level. The goal of readability formula is to help a child better learn to read.
Leveling formula has the same goals but has a different approach in the learning process. However, leveling is less objective than readability because it doesn't just use simple mathematical calculations to get an answer. Leveling requires "text support" factors such as content, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgment, and format. Also, Leveling is used for elementary classrooms whereas readability are used for all other grades.
Both leveling and readability formulas serve great purposes and is useful and beneficial to anyone who is struggling with the ability to read and learn.
Megan Berns and Lidia Brown did a great job summarizing the artcle on “Readability Versus Leveling”,written by Edward Fry. In this article Edward Fry focuses on pros and cons of Readability formulas as well as leveling. He then describes what each formula does and how effective they are with grammar. When it comes down to leveling I believe this is a great source of information determining the difficulty level of reading for their student. In my own opinion I believe this is great because it gives students time to cope with other students who are much smarter then they are. Leveling correlates with The importance of readability formulas in which that it helps students better learn to read because if you give a child a book that is too difficult for them to read it is going to make this learning process much more difficult. I believe that these formulas being used by teachers with their students is a good way for learing to be effective throughout the whole class. Everyone is working as one and not the smarter kids working faster then the "slower" kids just because they can't read as fast. These formulas in my opinion should be used throughout the education sytem in which "no child should NOT be left behind."
ReplyDeleteMegan Berns and Lidia Brown did a goob job summarizing the article “Readability Versus Leveling” written by Edward Fry. In the article, Fry focuses on the pros and cons of readability of formulas and leveling. Consequently, he explains what each formula does and how effective they are in grammar. In terms of leveling, this is a great concept that was developed because it determines the difficulty level of reading for students. In other words, this concept does help out a great deal because it helps (teachers) understand what the student has trouble with and if they need any extra help. It is a good and effective way for students to learn because it places them where they're more comfortable at learning. This is a great idea that the education system should use in schools so that no child is left behind.
ReplyDeleteBoth students did a great job summarizing the article. I have never heard of leveling or readability of formulas. I think that it is a clever technique to use to determine a student's reading/grammar abilities.Also, I wish that I had experienced this before, because it seems like an interesting concept.
ReplyDeleteThe two students did a great job at summarizing these two articles. Both of these techniques are new to me. I would have to agree that both techniques are good ways to measure a students reading capability. As a possible future educator, I am curious to know if these techniques are effective. I do believe that these are good ideas because I do agree that a students reading ability is a issue. Many students do indeed struggle with reading capability and reading levels because they think that it's a reflection upon their intelligence when it's not at all. It is important to take reading levels into consideration and that not all two students are the same. I do agree that there are limitations on the techniques of leveling and readability but these are good ideas to implement in the school system.
ReplyDeleteBoth the students did very well at explaining the article by Edward Fry. In the article, he expresses some pros and cons that goes along with readability formulas as well as leveling. He describes how effective they are and their purpose. I have never heard of a technique such as this so I do believe this is definitely a good way to measure the different levels of reading to a certain extent. I do agree that in terma of leveling, this coukd possible be a great tool to use because it does measure that individuals level of difficulty. Other than measuring level of difficulty, I do not believe it would be of much. All in all both the concepts and the reading was interesting and informative.
ReplyDeleteThis article was about two things I have never heard of, even though the first has been around since at least 1923: readability and leveling. They are both used to determine the difficulty of a book. Readability is more objective than leveling and can be done by a computer.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too sure how this works after a certain grade level. I can see how it would be helpful in the early grade levels, to promote reading, but after Jr. high, students should be reading harder books, but allow more class time to deal with issues the texts will bring up/grade a little easier for those texts.
I am so shocking with this kind of technology and proud of human being mind. Both readability and leveling are new for me. Although I have not seen how they work and how accurate they can do, I think they are convenience to calculate what level of difficulty of one reading have. When I was a child, I can see some star grading on a reading on magazine. I was doubted how people calculate to one reading. Now I know the method and I think it is a good thing for academic reading. Of course, they cannot be 100% accurate.
ReplyDeleteFry's article discussed the pros and cons of both readability and leveling. Although I noticed that both readability and leveling had their differences I feel as though leveling would be the best bet for students. The fact that leveling requires "text support" factors such as content, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgment, and format. I think this format would be perfect for all grades not just elementary because I think a lot of people base their reading of items on those factors.
ReplyDeleteBoth students did a very good job summarizing the articles. Throughout the article, Fry expresses the pros and cons related to readability formulas and leveling. Fry describes the purpose of them. I was never really aware of these two things until reading this article, which is kind of surprising to me. Both of them seem to measure the difficulty of a book. I think leveling is a good concept because having a system to determine difficulty of a book helps a lot of students. This can also help teachers understand his or her students more. Schools all over should use this system because of the benefits.
ReplyDeleteI thought Berns and Brown did an excellent job of summarizing the text. The article that we had to read today was very interesting. "Reading versus Leveling" was interesting because it finally provided an answer to a question I formulated years ago. Why are there numbers on binding of my books? I now understand what they meant, and I happy that it was finally answered.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I must agree with the author when he says that leveling doesn't work when the motivation isn't leveled either. I remember reading books that were at my level, but they were so engrossed in their concepts, that the motivation to read the books became boring.
Both students did a terrific job summarizing the article. The two techniques of readability and leveling are something I have never heard of. The techniques to measure a students reading capacities are interesting. Everyone has different reading levels. I agree with Millard Curtis when he stated, "It is important to take reading levels into consideration and that nor all students are the same." Just as every student learns differently they also read differently. Because one student has a lower reading level doesn't make them less intelligent.
ReplyDeleteHaving an article that peaks a student's intrest is very important when it comes to reading assignments. It is impossible to impress everyone but tryinfg to make the article interesting is very important like it said above. Having a boring article the student reads the article, but doesn't actually READ the article. The student won't retain the knowledge of the article. Great job summarizing it was enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteIn Edward Fry’s article “Readability Versus Leveling”, Fry discusses readability and leveling.Readability formulas have been the main way to determine the right difficulty level of reading for students and leveling is another way that teachers can determine the proper level of reading for their students.I believe that it is neccessary for teachers to rate their students so they are better equiped to help them learn. I also believe that both these formulas are not completly accurate for grading and need to be improved upon.
ReplyDeleteI think I would have benefitted more from this article had my mother read it back when she tried to homeschool me when I was in 7th and 8th grade. She didn't really know what she was doing, and consequently I didn't want to learn, and didn't learn much. I had always had a high reading comprehension level throughout gradeschool, but not so high as to warrant some of the books my mom tried to force me to read in 7th/8th grade, such as "In Cold Blood." The books were beyond my readability level, and even though I normally loved to read, the books she assigned me made start to hate reading, because they were so hard for me to understand and read at that level. I agree with the author on that count. On top of that, the content wasn't particularly appropriate for my age group, either. All of the things about readability, leveling for appropriateness, etc. mentioned in the article are very good things for any teacher to consider.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered what exactly makes one book for third graders and another for fourth graders. Last Friday, a professor of mine was telling how a parent should read aloud to his or her children from a higher grade level book. Then when the child reads alone they will be better prepared. I don't think these formulas should be applied across the board. I also doubt that teachers just follow these guidelines. They may be a good start, but I believe that the parent or teacher should think outside of the level.
ReplyDeleteI thought both students did a good job summarizing the article. "readability Versus Leveling," is an interesting topic. Something that I'm not familiar with. I think leveling is a good thing for students because it allows them to work from a level that they are comfortable with and capable of.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting and the responses to it were well written. I did not know much about this application of readability to what students learn before reading the article. I think that overall this is a good method to base were the difficulty level of a reading is, but as stated in the article it does not take in all factors of the reading.
ReplyDeleteThis was another interesting article, and the summary was very informative. I think that both methods discussed hold some validity, but I also think that attempts to measure something like readability is questionable because reading ability varies by person. For example, I was reading at a high school level in the 6th grade, but others in my class were struggling at a 4th grade level.
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be fairly interesting, and I thought the summary was well written. I feel that these equations to determine reading level can help. Like it was said, if the reading is too difficult, it will make the learning process more difficult. By gauging what students should be reading, I think reading levels could prosper among a large range of students.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the article was very informative and interesting. I liked the fact that it explained to people how the level of a book difficulty was determined. I never knew that so it taught me someting new. I lime how Brown and Berns distinguished between the two ways to determine the level of difficulty. Readability and leveling are the two ways that they determine. From the explainations from the article i believe that leveling is the best way to determine difficulty.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very informative. The author was great about stressing the importance of reading formulas. Reading is the foundation of learning. By learning the proper formula it can help people to excel. I enjoyed reading the summaries as well because they were very detailed and covers all aspects of the article.
ReplyDeleteEdward Fry's article “Readability Versus Leveling," he criticizes the use of formulas in readability while also supporting the use of formulas and leveling. He contends that you need to know more about the individual so they can get the best personal learning experience. The formulas without subject variables are the formulas Fry would oppose to.
ReplyDeleteIn Edward Fry’s article, “Readability Versus Leveling”, Fry discusses the positives and negatives of Readability formulas. Fry believes that numerical scores can be applied to create readability formula. Fry explains how each formula works and how effective they are in relation to grammar. The concept can be applied to reading to determine the difficulty of a given reading. This method can help students that have trouble with a reading and if they need any extra help a teacher can provide it much easier. Both individuals who summarized this article did a good job
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting. In it Fry describes the pros and cons of Readability formulas and leveling and then goes in to telling what each formula does and how effective they to grammar. I believe that leveling is great way of determining the difficulty or easiness at which a student reads. The reading ability formulas work with leveling to help students get to higher levels of reading, making them very important. Both of these tools are great for students and teachers and as class all together. It allows every student to work together and does not separate the faster moving kids from the slower moving kids. These are two tools I plan on using as a future English teacher.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to read about grammar formulas. Fry makes it clear that the pros and cons are very important in telling how effective they can relate to grammar. Stressing the importance of formulas is very important in grammar and should not be overlooked.
ReplyDeleteReadability and leveling, When I was in fourth grade we had this test on the computer to test the students readability. The teachers then used our readability score to give us a selection of A.R(accelerated reader) books. When we were finished with the book we were to take a quiz over the book. If we passed so may AR book quizzes we would level up. This continued until my eighth grade year. When I hit high school we no longer read A.R. books.
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