assessing grade level reading

[Anonymous]

How do you assess a child's reading grade level? Posters often refer to whether a child is reading at or above grade level, is there a list somewhere of what common books are at which grade levels? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Try scholastic. They have something that tells you the DRA. I think it also tell others, but our school uses DRA so that's what I look for.

Also, look online. Somewhere there is a conversion chart. Im sure if you google "reading level conversion chart" you'll get it.

[Anonymous]

The scholastic website is great for this, many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Some parents are actually referring to tests that their kids have taken at school. For example my kids have taken the STAR Reading and Math tests nearly every year since K and these indicate the grade level.

Also some schools participate in the Accelerated Reader program. The website for Accelerated Reader can tell you the grade level of almost any book out there - so it can be used to make sure kids are reading a mix of books.

[Anonymous]

Our school uses the DRA.

But if you go to scholastic.com to the Book Wizard, you can put in a book title and it will tell you the reading level of a book. It's a way to get a rough idea of what level your kid is reading.

[Anonymous]

Another useful source is www.lexile.com Lexile is a system of book rating that is based on the complexity of the reading/sentence structure/vocabulary. On the Lexile site, you can type in a book title and get a "lexile rating." If you click on the "lexile map" you will get a page that runs the lexile numbers (100-1400 or something like that) across the corresponding grade ranges and gives sample titles/text for ascending ranges.

I found this a very useful way to show teachers that I KNOW my child's reading level. In addition, in MoCo where we go to school, the reading assessments are the "MAP-R" test and these tests provide a MAP-R score and a corresponding lexile range, so when you speak "lexile" to the MoCo teacher, you and he/she have a common language.

You can also put in a lexile number or range and click on different interests in order to find books that your child might both 1) be interested in and 2) be able to read for him/herself. I found this function to be very helpful in "guiding" my reader to slightly more and more complex texts on our trips to the library.

[Anonymous]

DCPS schools that administer the TRC can give you your child's Guided Reading level from A through Z.

But this test is not perfect. And teachers are administering the test themselves.