Today I’ve taken quite a turn from my last several blogs but there is good reason behind it. First of all, I had a conference today. The parent wanted to discuss her child’s progress and where she is headed. This child should be in 7th grade but is currently performing at around the 4th grade level. The mother said she had heard all you really need to get through life 6th grade reading and math proficiency. She hoped her daughter would achieve this. (Yes, if I have anything to say about it and oh yes, I do!) So of course I got to wondering about this 6th grade level thing. After doing some searching I found a web article that claims newspapers are in fact written at the middle school level.
See: http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/archives/000418.html
On the one hand, I feel a sense of relief for my students some of whom will struggle with reading their entire life. I’m pleased to know that they will be able to read the news as adults, even if they never become “great” readers. On the other hand I am completely appalled that these are the standards in our country. We as teachers work incredibly hard to build and sustain the foundation that children need to excel through school. We pour blood sweat and tears into teaching struggling readers how to read and purchase hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of equipment in an effort to aid these students. Then we have parents shooting low because that’s where the rest of society has already set the bar. There is however, a bright spot. The article talks about the Flesch-Kincaid tool which measures the readability of any document. The scale measures on a scale of 1-100 with, as the author puts it, 100 being a stop sign, and 1 being “practically impossible to read”. The average newspaper story falls between 70-80 (about 8th grade level) while the top 5 internet blogs (based on a source called the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem http://truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php ) score significantly better scores-- between 45 and 55 (10th-12th grade level). What this tells me is that when given the opportunity, people want to read more challenging work and as a teacher, this tells me that if I want to give my students a good challenge I should encourage them to read blogs rather than newspaper articles for a good mental workout. I hope that if students become more accustomed to reading quality writing they won’t want to stop at the 6th grade level of reading, that they’ll push beyond that to read what is interesting and challenging. Why should we let students settle for mediocrity when something better exists at our fingertips?
Before I close I found something else interesting. It’s called “The Blog Readability Test”. Simply enter the URL of your blog and it will tell you the reading level. http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx. This blog is currently at the college level.
3 comments:
I was suprised to read that the average newspaper was written at the sixth grade level. The more I thought about it though, the more true it seemed. It made me wonder on what level our small town newspaper (it comes out once a week) is written. Probably, a fourth grade level. I wonder what level the New York Times is!
I had once heard that newspapers were written at a middle school reading level, but didn't believe it until I checked out your link. Wouldn't it be interesting to see if students who blog write at a higher level over time than those who don't since blogs tend to me at a higher level?
Well, I was under the impression from something I read years ago that the newspaper was written at a 4th grade level. I am anxious to see what my blogs are written at. It is sad that parents are satisfied with lowering the bar, but after years of frustration, they are often grabbing on to anything they can. You are doing a great service to raise those expectations and push your students to higher goals.
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