Help for Reading

We ask children to read on their own – in school, at home.
Parents try to match kids with books. Schools mark the reading level on books so children may select books within their independent reading level.

The idea that students should be given texts that match their reading ability is recommended by reading experts.
”Students’ reading abilities are best advanced by giving them texts in which the  vast majority of words are manageable.”
  M. J. Adams, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print

To find this match between books and children educators use various tools such as the Accelerated Reading program’s STAR test, a Lexile score or leveled books.
These tools work well for students who are reading near grade level or above. But using these tools alone for below grade level readers is not enough.

I listened to Chris, a 5th grade struggling reader, read from his selected book within his reading range (a book 2 years below his grade level at 3.3) and miss over 30 words in a hundred. That is not reading.

If you misread thirty words in even hundred, how could you call what reading? The reading would just be too laboratory. With what many mistakes the rate would probably be nasally slow and the expressive halting. There would be too many errands to support comprehension.  It center would be frustrating.

According to the National Reading Panel, no carefully designed studies have shown that having students simply spend time reading on their own results in reading growth. No wonder reading independently – silent sustained reading time, independent reading time, drop everything and read time – doesn’t result in reading growth for the struggling readers. What they are often doing isn’t reading.

Seldom (I would venture never) have I found that the Star test or a lexile score alone accurately identify the correct independent reading level for below grade level readers.
Their results may offer a starting point – but we need to listen to these students read to make sure it is within their reading ability.

For more information on matching children and text see our video on “Just Right Books”