Literacy Focus: Reading
Readability Statistics
Readability statistics are indicators, under the form of scores,
that measure how easily a student can read and understand a
text.
Literacy Focus: Reading
1. Insert/ or copy at least a paragraph of the text into a word document.
Literacy Focus: Reading
2. Go to File. Click on Options.
3. Go to Proofing.
4. Click ‘Show Readabilty Statistics’
Literacy Focus: Reading
5. Go back to the text and go to Review.
6. Click on Spelling and Grammar.
8. The Readability Statistics will then
be displayed.
Passive Sentences.
Flesch Reading Ease
Flesche-Kincaid Grade Level
7. Go through and either correct or
ignore the spelling and grammar
issues the document finds.
When the SPaG check is complete, go
back to Spelling & Grammar and then
the Readability Statistics will appear
on the screen.
Literacy Focus: Reading
The Readability Statistics will then be displayed.
Passive Sentences:
These are harder to read for most students.
The sentence is written in active voice when the subject of the sentence
performs the action in the sentence.
e.g. The girl was washing the dog.
A sentence is written in passive voice when the subject of the sentence
has an action done to it by someone or something else.
e.g. The dog was being washed by the girl.
Flesch Reading Ease:
The Flesch Reading Ease readability statistics formula rates text on a
100-point scale based on the average number of syllables per word and
words per sentence. The higher the score, the easier it is to understand
the document.
Flesche-Kincaid Grade Level:
This grade level score is based on the US grade system, so may differ
slightly for different countries. As a general rule, add 5 to the grade score
to get an actual reading age to compare to the student's actual age.
The document is made up of 32%
passive sentences.
The reading age would equate to 13.
The Flesch Reading Ease is 58.5%
Literacy Focus: Reading
The Flesch Reading Ease
This table provides an
easy breakdown of the
scores and the
readability of a
document.
The Flesch Reading Ease of the text is 58.5%
Score
Notes
100.00-90.00
Very easy to read. Easily
understood by an average
11-year-old student.
90.0–80.0
Easy to read. Conversational
English for consumers.
80.0–70.0
Fairly easy to read.
70.0–60.0
Plain English. Easily
understood by 13- to 15year-old students.
60.0–50.0
Fairly difficult to read.
50.0–30.0
Difficult to read.
30.0–0.0
Very difficult to read. Best
understood by university
graduates.
Literacy Focus: Reading
We should be exposing students to challenging reading material.
How can students help themselves?
 Ask students to pre-read texts before the lesson as part of HBL and come to the lesson with
questions about the text.
 Ask students to highlight words they don’t understand and ask them to look these up on their
device.
 Ask students to create their own key word boxes with definitions
 Encourage students to actively read the text using highlighters and a different coloured pen to
write annotations/ summarise ideas.
 Students could create questions for each other based on the text (ask them to create a test based
on the information provided in the text).
 Use images to present information when appropriate.
 If students use a reading ruler, ask them to use this in lessons.
Literacy Focus: Reading
Possible DART activity:
Ask students to summarise
key information in a
diagram.
Limit students to bullet
points (event word count)
to make them pick out the
most important content.
Tropical
Forests
Savannah
Biome
Where are
they?
Climate
Vegetation
• Found near the equator
• Hot and humid
• Contain a variety of plants
• Found in central Africa, N. Australia and S.
America.
• 2 seasons: dry and rainy
• Grass, scrub and occasional trees
Tropical Forest
Savannah
Literacy Focus: Reading
Possible DART activity.
Create your own headings/
sub-headings
• Requires active reading
and summary
• Can be reversed to
require processing and
expansion
Insert Headings/ sub-headings
DARTs are effective reading strategies
Xxxxx xxxx xx xxxxx xxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xx xxx xx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx.
Sub-headings help students to understand content
Xxxxx xxxx xx xxxxx xxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xx xxx xx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx.
Sub-headings can help students summarise content
Xxxxx xxxx xx xxxxx xxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xx xxx xx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx.
Literacy Focus: Reading
DARTS
DARTs (directed activities related to texts) are activities which get students to
interact with texts. Their aim is to improve students' reading comprehension
and to make them critical readers.
Reconstruction activities
Definition: activities that require students to reconstruct a text or diagram by filling in missing words, phrases or
sentences, or by sequencing text that has been jumbled.
Types of activities:
• Text completion (Fill in missing words, phrases or sentences)
• Sequencing (Arrange jumbled segments of text in a logical or time sequence)
• Grouping (Group segments of text according to categories)
• Table completion (Fill in the cells of a table that has row and column headings, or provide row and column
headings where cells have already been filled in)
• Diagram completion (Complete an unfinished diagram or label a finished diagram.)
• Prediction activities (Write the next step or stage of a text, or end the text.)
Literacy Focus: Reading
DARTS
Analysis activities
Types of activities:
•Text marking (find and underline parts of the text that have a particular meaning or contain particular
information).
•Text segmenting and labelling (break the text into meaningful chunks and label each chunk)
•Table construction (use the information in the text to decide on row and column headings and to fill in the cells)
•Diagram construction (construct a diagram that explains the meaning of the text. For example, draw a flow
chart for a text that explains a process, or a branch diagram for a text that describes how something is classified)
•Questioning (answer the teacher's questions or develop questions about the text)
•Summarising (based on key ideas)
Literacy Focus: Reading
How do we make texts and reading accessible?
We should be exposing all students to challenging reading material in order to improve their vocabulary
and reading skills.
•Use bold to take the reader to key words (especially words they won’t recognise or understand).
•Use a key word glossary on the board/ text.
•Use meaningful subheadings (to explain content).
•Use bullet points to summarise content.
•Break the text into readable bite-sized chunks.
•Try to limit the ideas in the text to one per paragraph.
•Use questions to guide students through the meaning of each paragraph and ask them to find information
(DART activities).
•Read the text as a class and make notes alongside the text.