Readability calculators The readability or reading level of text has been on my mind since reading Ellen Notbohm's book "Autism Trail Guide."  Ellen's son with autism was having trouble with math, but his troubles had actually nothing to do with math skills.  The source of the trouble was sloppily written story problems that required him to have experiences, make inferences and read at a reading level that were beyond his ability (and actually beyond that of his NT classmates too).  Ellen pointed this out to the teacher, and even  provided the teacher with the readability quotient of some sample questions.  And the teacher started writing better story problems! To make a long story short, I started looking for readability calculators.  Here are two that I found.  You just type in (or copy and paste) the text and the calculator calculates it for you.  http://www.standards-schmandards.com/exhibits/rix/index.php - This calculator gives you the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score (for English text).  This link also includes  similar tools in Swedish/Danish, Spanish, Dutch and French. http://www.linda-andrews.com/readability_tool.htm - This calculator gives you the SMOG readability grade, but also provides details about word count, syllables, sentences, etc.  How accurate are these calculators? I tested these calculators using some text from a Random House "Step Into Reading" book for children who know the alphabet and are ready to begin reading (described as pre-school/kindergarten). The text tested as Grade 4.94 using the SMOG calculator.  SMOG was introduced in 1969, and I think my little test really shows how inflated our expectations have gotten for our school children, when a book written for pre-schoolers is actually written at what was once considered close to Grade 5 level.  Of course, I also think that Random House is mislabelling these books. Anyhow, this same text tested as Grade 4 on Flesch-Kincaid, but when I changed the names from Nemo and Marlin to Nem and Marl, it tested as Grade 1 -- much closer to what Random House intended.  I figured this was a reasonable alteration for me to make while testing, since these names appeared repeatedly in the text, so many kids would quickly learn to identify them by sight.  Changing the names didn't make any difference on the SMOG test, so I think the Flesch-Kincaid seems a little more fine-tuned. I hope some of you have use for these calculators.  I used it already to check the reading level of a "read it yourself" social story I'm working on. Thank You Norway Mom, I am going to try this.
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