I would love to hear how the parents here are determining their child’s reading levels. I often see posts stating they are on a 1st or 2nd grade level or so forth. Just curious to know how you figure this out. I am guessing just by them reading books that state they are for that level.
I use a combination of methods:
A to Z Homeschooling’s reading level assessment: http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/articles/060899.htm
The San Diego quick reading assessment tool: http://webschool.wash.k12.ut.us/reading/inventory/sandiego.html
and AR Bookfinder: http://www.arbookfind.com/default.aspx?rs=1 where you can type in the title or ISBN of a book and it will give you the reading level.
Of course, none of these results are set in stone and I just use them primarily to guide me in choosing books for my daughter.
Thanks a million!
Thansk for sharing.
I’ve just been going by the level of books my daughter is reading. I have Calvert’s readers and they are graded on the side of the book and Maggie is just finishing up the 1.1 ( first grade 1st month) reader. On the other hand she’s also able to read the Brillkids Aesop’s Fables books and I’m not even sure what level those even are. So maybe the assesment will give me a better idea of where she is at.
Aangeles,
Thanks for links. I just tested my son. He is 6, son to be 7. He is just finishing up 3rd grade. I think he is testing on an 8th grade reading level or so. I didn’t print the words, I just had him read them off the screen. He got tired when we were on list 9, so it is hard to say. I really appreciate the links. Now to try them with my 4 year old. 
As a few different reading experts have told me, if your very young child is able to decode text at a high level, his decoding level obviously doesn’t match his comprehension level. These are two different metrics, and while I’ve been using http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/articles/060899.htm as a quick rule of thumb for decoding level, the tests for comprehension level are not free (as far as I know) and much more difficult to take, especially for a little kid. For purposes of comprehension, I think it’s reasonable to say that if your child can understand, without much clarification on your part, most books that are of a certain reading level according to the Scholastic Book Wizard (http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do), then your child is reading at that level. So I figure I can read books to him that are above his comprehension level, so long as I explain difficult words as we read, and sometimes we read simple books that require little or no clarification. But more often, he just reads those books himself–earlier today, Flat Stanley, grade level 4.4. And it’s very vague anyway, by this measure, because as H. told me when I observed that he didn’t need me to explain much from the book, he flipped to a phrase he didn’t understand. He was also reading The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (grade level 7.3) to me while I snoozed, and so didn’t seem to need much help from me with word definitions, but I know it has a lot of words that are challenging for him. And the grade levels are not AT ALL reliable. “Whangdoodles” might have measured at a 7.3, or allegedly appropriate for 12-year-olds, probably due to vocabulary, but in every other respect it is totally accessible to much younger children. I myself read it the first time when I was nine, and I don’t remember having too much trouble with it.
Great topic.
Thanks krista to bring this out. I am interested too. :biggrin:
I previously posted a resource here that is also helpful:
Thank you DadDude and Aangeles for sharing. You two are just amazing, I’ve learnt so much from you. And thank you Krista G for this great topic. Karma to all.
DadDude, my daughter loves your “Pigs in Mud” , and “Things you find in medical bag” got her ready for a trip to the doctor. Thanks a lot.