Abstract
The matching of students with language learning disabilities and dyslexia to appropriate reading materials is discussed, and formal and informal methods are presented for determining reading levels for accuracy, fluency, and comprehension instruction and practice. A brief history of classic readability is introduced and the DRP->BookLink CD-ROM, Spache Readability Formula, New Dale-Chall Readability Formula, and the Qualitative Assessment of Text Difficulty is discussed and their application demonstrated in profiles of students requiring reading material at a third-grade level for accuracy, a fifth-grade level for fluency, and a sixth-grade level for accuracy, inferential thinking, word meanings, and conceptual knowledge.
Every adult who has ever sat with a child and a book has instinctively realized the need to find appropriate reading material. In the early years, parents search for the right books. They wonder which book will best hold children's interest, teach the desired values, or provide readiness for reading instruction. Perhaps most importantly, they want to foster a lifelong love of literature. Later, when children attend school, the task shifts to teachers as they search for the best instructional matches. However, this is not easy, and it is even more complex when students with language learning disabilities (LLD) and dyslexia are involved. Classic readability measures can help in this process.
Chall (1988) and Chall and Dale (1995b) state that readability research began some 80 years ago in the 1920s, probably because of two developments. First, Thorndike published a comprehensive word frequency list, the Teacher's Word Book (1921), making it possible to objectively measure the difficulty of reading material. In addition, the population of junior and senior high school students was changing in the 1920s. Whereas in the past, education for most students had ended with elementary school, many now continued their educations; they had become the first generation of secondary school students in their families. Consequently, the content area materials that had formerly been appropriate for older students were now too difficult for this new population of students who did not have the same backgrounds. Two kinds of studies began to appear: research about controlled vocabulary and methods of measuring readability. The focus of controlled vocabulary research was to find the optimal number of different words to use in children's primary grade readers, the number of repetitions of the words, and the level of their difficulty. At the same time, researchers were attempting to find ways to differentiate easier from more difficult content area reading material in the upper grades through adulthood.
Readability research has resulted in many quantitative and some qualitative measures that help to assess the difficulty of reading material. Some of these measures will be described in this article, and it will be shown how they are used to find appropriate reading materials for students with LLD and dyslexia. The same procedures could be used by anyone who is helping a student learn to read: a reading specialist, speech-language pathologist, special educator, or classroom teacher.