[English] Reading Skills

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

Know about the excellent free *reading-skills* resource in Word & Office?

Grab any text, from anywhere, and of interest to kids, paste it into Word,
and, Word will tell you quite accurately the readability, grade-level and
reading-age of any written material. From long experience, it is accurate.

It accurately and easily checks the reading-age of any text on the screen.

And, also, by finding a dozen or so child-interesting paragraphs, with the
reading-age increasing by two months or so, for each paragraph, you've got
a great up-to-the-minute classroom reading-skills first-aid assessmsnt kit.

Here's an audiology website, and also Word Help, regarding 'Readibility'..

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Readability tests were originally created to evaluate the appropriateness 
of books for students at certain ages or grade levels. They apply a 
mathematical formula or graph to the text to calculate a U.S. grade level, 
reading age or reading ease score. 

Although there are several readability tests, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade 
Level and the Flesch Reading Ease scores are the most widely used outside 
of the educational setting, and both tests are available as part of most 
grammar or editing software offered today (e.g., Microsoft Word). 


(MS Help, in latest Word): When Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft 
Office Word finish checking the spelling and grammar, you can choose to 
display information about the reading level of the document, including 
readability scores according to the following tests:

* Flesch Reading Ease 
* Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level

To Enable readability statistics

Outlook

1. On the Tools menu, click Options. 
2. Click the Spelling tab, and then click Spelling and AutoCorrection. 
3. Click Proofing. 
4. Under When correcting grammar in Outlook, select the Check grammar with
   spelling check box. 
5. Select the Show readability statistics check box.

After you enable this feature, open a file that you want to check, and 
check the spelling. When Outlook or Word finishes checking the spelling 
and grammar, it displays information about the reading level of the 
document.

Word

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options. 
2. Click Proofing. 
3. Make sure Check grammar with spelling is selected. 
4. Under When correcting grammar in Word, select the Show readability
   statistics check box.


The Flesch Reading Ease score measures reading on a scale from 100 (easy) 
to 0 (very difficult to read).

Examples of score interpretation are: score of 90-100 easily read by an 
average 5th grader; 60-70 an 8/9th grader; 0-30 a college graduate. 

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula formally translates the 0-100 score 
to a U.S. grade level. A score of 5.2 would indicate material readable by 
a 5th grader.  The grade-levels can be converted to reading-ages simply by 
adding a value of five .. 

http://audiology.advanceweb.com/Article/Readability-Tests.aspx

--

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Member, Victorian
Institute of Teaching

stephen at melbpc.org.au
stephen at macmedia.com.au

Learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and clarity.
 - The Prince and the Pauper

Supposing is good, but finding out is better.
 - Mark Twain
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