Reading development
Figure 7.23 Using levelled books
Many teachers organise sets of levelled books to provide information about children’s development in literacy. They organise the books into a gradient of difficulty based on the conceptual load, the complexity of syntax, the vocabulary load and the size and placement of text on the page plus the amount of contextual support in the illustrations. As well as a careful text gradient for assessing literacy progress, it is important to pay attention to children’s reading interests. Levelled books can be used to assess the child’s use of reading strat egies, for selecting children for small-group work and for selecting texts that promote reading challenges as well as scaffolding support. As well as accuracy of reading, teachers also need to observe for the child’s comprehension and reading fluency. Teachers find it useful to find out how many high-frequency words children can read by sight and write independently. Knowing how to read and write high-frequency words speeds up a child’s reading and writing.
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