I enjoyed reading the article by Rog and Burton discussing leveling systems and how they are used with emergent readers. I think leveling systems are important to use when teaching children how to read because it helps to evaluate the progress and skills of each child. While I do think leveling systems should be used in the classroom, I think it is important for teachers to use a system that is effective and successful at developing the literacy skills of the children. With numerous leveling systems available to a teacher, I could see how problems could arise if the different systems did not have the same reading material within the same level. The reading discussed five ideas that should be considered when creating a leveling system: vocabulary, size & layout, predictability, illustration support, and the complexity of concepts. Can you think of any other areas that should be considered when creating a leveling system?
I too believe that using a leveling system in the classroom is important. I also think that teachers need to have a vast understanding of the system and level their classroom library as is discussed in the article. The system can only be effective if the books in each level are consistent (in illustration support, vocabulary, size/ layout, etc).
ReplyDeleteIn the article, it also considered the amount of words the book has. That might be placed under layout, but it is something else to consider. Leveling systems are a great thing for teachers to have, but I think it will take a lot of practice before we actually come up with one that works well for us. Like you said, it is hard to do when so many book companies are leveling their books many different ways as well.
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