Rethinking Reading Levels

2/15/2018

What are you ready for? If we're teachers, it's a question we ask our students when they set goals. If we're coaches or leaders, it's a question we ask our teachers when we coach or observe them. If we're any of these, or if we're learners at heart, it's a question we ask ourselves all the time! What are we ready for? After more than a decade of living in the world of level-based reading, we're ready to start thinking of how to find a balance to using the knowledge of reading levels and combining that with the importance of student choice and agency that sometimes comes with reading books that don't necessarily match the independent reading level at which we've assessed a student.

Let's look at where we came from...In the early days of reading workshop, students really read books they chose to read, because they loved them. They were interested in authors, themes, genre. Kids loved reading these books, but they didn't always get what they needed to out of them. Mismatched readers sometimes pick up bad habits, habits which can sometimes lead to gaps in growth and understanding. I don't get this passage. Let me skip ahead...Not sure what this word is. I'll just ignore it.

Using the theoretical basis of Allington and the many resources available through Fountas and Pinnell, we began leveling our libraries, trying to match books to readers. We became more responsible about not letting students read texts that were too hard for them. Armed with checklists of skills, sometimes we found that our conferences were sounding less and less like readerly conversations and more like scripted lessons. What other impact did this have?

Some readers became embarrassed about the books they read, because they seemed easier than those of their friends. Some kids walked around making statements like, "I'm an H," or "I can't wait for my teacher to test me, so I can finally be a P." Child study teams refuse to evaluate students, just because they're reading on grade level. Parents pressure teachers to reassess their children so they can get to the next level, wearing it with the same pride as some sort of varsity letter, all while accidentally exposing their children to content that may be inappropriate. Teachers base their SGO's on student reading levels in some sort of race to the top that, if done too quickly, can leave gaps in skills. And what's lost? The ownership that's such a big part of living a readerly life...one of the biggest parts of the reader's workshop philosophy.

So this is not meant to be a pendulum post, where we say we're going the totally opposite way. There is great benefit to knowing students' reading levels, and teaching skills responsibly. But how do we use this information with a sense of balance, as just a part of our teaching? How do we keep kids from losing that loving feeling when they read their books? What are some practical ways to balance the art of loving reading and the science of teaching with skills in mind?

This post is instead meant to be the start of a conversation that many are having. It's not a black-and-white decision of either we know kids' levels or we give them choice. Please join this conversation by commenting here and helping us figure this out. It will help many teachers and leaders shape their values and align them to their practices. It will help many students rekindle their love of reading while they continue to grow the important muscles they need.

It's what we're ready for!

10 Comments

Amy

2/15/2018 07:24:29 am

Simply put: Every child, every day should experience and love books.

Leveling students was never the purpose of using F&P's text gradient, it was a tool created for teachers to understand what makes one text more/less challenging than another to assist teachers with selection of proper instructional materials.

Several years ago, administration in my district directed teachers to level enough of their classroom libraries to match the learners that read there. Many colleagues leveled far more titles than necessary. To be completely honest, I did not find this troubling because these teachers directed "book shoppers" to select books at a specific level (for the purpose of facilitating high success reading for comprehension and fluency development) IN ADDITION TO books of their choice. We all want students to select texts they want to read.

I believe leveled texts have a place in our classrooms. Leveled texts are perfect for guided reading instruction and specific strategy groups. Using instructional level texts to guide readers and explicitly teach strategies, or develop skills needed for decoding and comprehension, is most effective in my experience. These texts are best organized in bins or baskets where the groups meet for instruction, not in the classroom library.

My hope is that lots of discussions take place about leveled books in the days and weeks ahead. I hope teachers make plans to reorganize their classroom libraries and engage their readers in that process. When I walk into Barnes and Noble, I love that I can go directly to the section I want to shop in; whether I am in the mood for a new mystery or seeking an information book on my next travel destination, the books in the store are organized in a way that I can easily find where I should be browsing. I think our classroom libraries should mirror this organization of books- it is real world preparation for the bibliophiles we are raising each day in our classrooms!

What do you think?

Tom link

2/15/2018 07:44:11 am

Thanks for sharing this Amy! Yes, you're right. It's not about going all or none on levels. This contains valuable information about what type of instruction kids need, but we don't want to limit ourselves (or them) to simply this.

We never want kids to see reading as something as simple as just choosing from the right color basket. It's much messier than that (as all important things in life are!)

Ryan

2/15/2018 08:36:10 am

This is such an important conversation. Balance is so important ....It is interesting to think about if one trumps the other or are both equally important. I almost think it needs to be first about interest and engagement and then a check to see if it is just right. We need to first live in a literary place - the world of authors and titles and a love of story.

Rachel

2/15/2018 10:16:08 am

As a parent, I have continually expressed my concern that my child is not at the level of his peers. He knows that he isn't the same color or letter as many of his friends. This has only led him to have lower self-esteem and ill feelings towards reading. At this point I'm at a loss. The reading logs he is required to complete only further animosity. I'm not sure how to help him. The school system seems inflexible with our concerns. I know that if this continues his reading will be greatly affected. I think this is a critical conversation to have. Implementing R&W workshop on the high school level hasn't led me to any conclusions; however, I have been more flexible with my students with their independent reading choices. I do feel that more students are reading than not but it still seems an imperfect system. I wish I had some answers.

Dina

2/15/2018 11:23:14 am

This is such an important conversation! When I was student teaching at a public school on the UWS of Manhattan, I entered into a first grade classroom that was leveled to the nth degree. In fact, my first "job" before the students arrived was the painstaking task of typing in the title of each book into Scholastic and then labeling it with a letter.

I was still making sense of things as a brand new student teacher, but even then, I felt uncomfortable about levels. I watched the teacher become a slave to those letters too. It was clear how pressured she felt to move children "up a level", to the point where parent-teacher conferences became all about the letter.

In the classroom, all of the things Tom mentioned above were happening... there were the kids with the "varsity letters" and others with "scarlet letters". There was no student choice. I noticed kids longing to "shop" for books either above or below their reading level that were stopped. That made me feel so frustrated. I remember reflecting at the time that it also felt very inauthentic. If we were teaching young students the basics about what it means to be readers, why would we be teaching them a habit most readers wouldn't use?

On the other hand, I also saw how helpful leveling books could be. As another commenter mentioned above, I learned so much about guided reading in that classroom, and saw the absolute necessity of using instructional reading level texts to help children develop strategies and meet new reading goals.

To sum it up... as I learned from a very influential teacher in High School, "balance is everything!"

Lynn

2/15/2018 04:08:21 pm

A balanced approach to literacy is something I strive for everyday . Leveling books can be an arduous task albeit an important one . It helps students apply and learn various reading strategies with guidance from me . I know when they are independently reading with their just right book they are able to apply those learned skills . From another standpoint I agree with Amy that our classroom libraries should reflect what we see in bookstores . Who doesn’t love walking in a bookstore and seeing the table labeled “ staff favorites” or “books to read at the beach”? Perhaps if we arranged our classroom libraries this way by Highlighting different genres and making many different books accessible to all students we could builds more authentic readers I love when I look inside a students book bucket and see a variety of books or ones that they continuously turn to to reread with a friend or one that is recommended.
Thank you for getting the conversation started.

Lorraine

2/16/2018 04:32:23 pm

I'm so glad this conversation is happening! Balance is so important in life, why not a classroom? One thing I have suggested to my teachers recently is the idea of having both a heterogeneous and homogenous partner for reading. Some are alternating the partnerships so that kids at lower levels get to read alongside higher students and enjoy a book together regardless of the level. Isn't this what creating a "love" of reading is all about? We are social creatures, and there is nothing better than enjoying a book and being able to talk about it with a friend at school. Kids are really enjoying the partner switch ups.

I too love the idea of creating libraries that mimic the authentic experience of a book store. The important thing is to get kids interested in wanting to read and talk about books, and the best person to do that is a teacher who LOVES to read and TALK about books.

I do think the levels are important for the teacher to inform future instruction. I also think we can teach kids to choose books they can read with confidence and choose others they want to challenge themselves with. Again this should be balanced so they can experience fluency and confidence as well as joy.

Rhondi Ickles

2/22/2018 10:05:34 am

I'm very grateful for this discussion. I often speak to parents about the meaning of their child's reading level. It's so important to remember that levels are not labels. We should celebrate whatever level they are on and work at both home and school to guide them.

Michael

3/8/2018 01:34:07 pm

What a thought provoking post! I am a huge fan of the workshop model. Walking into a classroom and being able to witness a teacher pinpoint a reading strategy that a student needs in order to grow as a reader is a sight to see. Creating long term plans to build their capacity is something that I was not able to experience when I was a student. That being said, I do agree with the fear of “reading level rigidity”. This is an ongoing conversation that we have with colleagues in our school. When you first start the journey, the letter is bible! As you continue on the journey it becomes more of a “band” being able to enjoy 2-3 levels. This expands the book selection and diffuses the self conscious nature of the letter. Nonetheless, it is an ongoing process that we are honored to be connected with.

3/8/2018 05:24:01 pm

Thanks Michael!

These are pretty common rites of passage of implementation, but they take their hold on our kids as we have them.

I'd encourage you to start up the conversation within your own school, and send us some collective feedback!

Tom

Rethinking Reading Levels

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