How to Determine the Reading Level of Children's Books
Many teachers have leveled libraries in their classrooms or have access to one at their school. These are valuable resources used in guided reading instruction and for kids to utilize independently. The only drawback to these texts is the different systems publishers use for assigning reading levels. Teachers need to be familiar with these systems or know how to assign a reading level to books that may not already have one.
Instructions
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Consult an Internet resource like Scholastic's Book Wizard. This helpful site has a search engine that finds books by author, title or keyword. The interest level and grade level equivalent are given. Searches can also be modified to include genre, subject and desired level of difficulty. Another educator website, A to Z Teacher Stuff, has an online database with reading levels for thousands of guided reading books.
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Visit book publishers' websites. Most will have an online resource detailing reading levels of the books in their program. One major book publisher, Rigby, uses a system of letters and numbers to assign levels to their books depending upon the reading stage like developing, emergent and fluent. Rigby's site provides a chart that displays this information. Many publishers send printed charts with their books when schools place an order.
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Familiarize yourself with major systems of book leveling. A relatively easy one is Fry's Readability Graph, which levels books according to the number of sentences and syllables per one hundred words. Another popular system is the Fountas and Pinnell, which uses all letters of the alphabet to designate levels for kindergarten through 12th grade. School libraries are a good place to find this information, as they may have leveling information for specific publishers. The Oregon Association of School Libraries has an online comparison chart for the most commonly referenced leveling systems.
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Determine reading level manually. One suggested method is the Five Finger Rule. Tell students to open their book and read a page. If they encounter a word they do not know, they will hold up a finger. If they finish the page and are holding up none or one finger, the book is too easy. Two or three fingers means the book is most appropriate for them. Four or five fingers indicates the book is too hard or at frustration level.
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References
Resources
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