How to find “just right” books for your child’s reading level
Has your child come home with a reading level or Lexile? Do you know what it means? Teachers use reading levels at school to determine what kind of books are ‘just right’ for your reader. Books that are too easy don’t challenge readers and books that are too hard can be frustrating.
Different school districts use different reading level measurements. Factors that go into reading levels or Lexile include how smoothly your child can read out loud and what your child understands of what is read. Common systems include Fountas & Pinnell (also known as Guided Reading), DRA and Lexile.
Fountas & Pinnell or Guided Reading ranges from A – Z.
DRA numbers range from A-1 to 80.
Lexile levels ranges from 100 to 1400.
Your child’s teacher, librarian and bookstores can help you find books that are “just right” for your child’s reading level.
Scholastic has created a Book Wizard, based on reading levels, to help you select books that are appropriate for your child and introduce new book titles that your child might enjoy. You can enter your child’s reading level or Lexile to find other books or series your child might enjoy.
If you don’t know your child’s reading level, that’s okay. Just enter their Grade Level Equivalent based on their grade and month of the school year. For instance, a first grader in the 2nd month of school would be entered as 1.2 while a 7th grader in the 6th month of school would be 7.6.
If your child is interested in a book or a series and you don’t know what level the book is, then you can enter the title in Book Wizard to find out the reading level.
Encourage your child’s reading by suggesting new books, titles, series and genres. Strengthening your child’s reading abilities reinforce and expand a child’s speech-language skills.
Jann Fujimoto, MS CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and owner of SpeechWorks LLC. SpeechWorks helps children become confident communicators and empowers parents to be their child’s speech-language advocate. Reach her at 262-490-5653.