By Kelli
It’s recommended that a student read within 50 above to 100 below their Lexile measure. That’s not enough movement within the range to find a book that a kid is going to like -- the measurement is held to too rigid a manner and it limits them being able to find a book that they’ll like. And you can’t hold it against educators, because they’re as limited as their students are. These unrealistic parameters are set by school systems, not the teachers, and they’re assigning an inherently flawed system of measurement to assess a student’s reading ability. This approach is most detrimental to reluctant readers - they’re forced into a reading range and given a variety of books to choose from that don’t suit any of their preferences. Students who score highly are given college level texts. And no, I don’t mean literature that you’d read in college. I mean giant history textbooks that very few freshmen in high school are going to pick up to read. The measure doesn’t factor in that just because a student tests well means that they’re going to enjoy reading. Some kids are just good at reading! Limiting them to dull and outdated books is going to kill any possible interest a kid may have in reading, because it’s going to turn the act of reading into a chore. Students who score below their grade level get a crap deal too -- their options end up being too juvenile. Using Lexile’s website, and searching for a book for a high school freshman with a lower level, the entire first page is picture books and juvenile chapter books. Seeing page after page of picture books when they’re already dealing with receiving a low score is going to kill their confidence. While some of this can be blamed on Lexile’s search algorithm, the reality is that this is the resource a student is going to use to find a book, and these are the books that they’re being recommended.
Choosing appropriate titles becomes an even greater chore because of disparities like this. What a discouraging experience for all parties involved! Look, I don’t have kids, and I’m not an educator, so I can’t pretend to be an expert on this subject. Everything I’ve cited so far is just based on research, and not first-hand experience. But I do have first-hand experience, despite not being a parent or an educator. Let me paint you a picture of every September at my library: Test scores are announced. A flood of confused parents appear, trying to understand the measurements and find books that suit not only their child’s learning needs, but also to find books that their children are going to enjoy. An attempt to search on their site brings back too many results, the majority of which aren’t even relevant. Grabbing books based on their interests and then look up the book’s lexile means a lot of back and forth, and usually the books are too high or too low anyway.
Establishing a baseline for their reading ability makes sense, but restricting them to only that baseline means limiting them in some way. It means limiting them to books they won’t be interested in. It means limiting them to books they can’t understand. And it means limiting them to a world where books may be a chore, instead of something that they can enjoy.
1 Comment
Pud
12/15/2020 08:19:02 am
Lexile is the worst, and this is all the reasons why it is. Thank you for doing the lord's work.
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AuthorsKaylen: Reads a bit of almost everything. Has a special love for sci-fi and fantasy. Archives
January 2021
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