US High School Students Reading Books at 5th-Grade-Appropriate Levels
Found an article on The Huffington Post entitled "American High School Students Are Reading Books At 5th-Grade-Appropriate Levels: Report."
According to a report by Renaissance Learning, Inc. entitled "What Kids Are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools," the top 40 books teens in grades 9-12 are reading in school have an average reading level of 5.3, which is at the fifth grade level.
For high schoolers in 2010-2011, book No. 1 was The Hunger Games (ATOS book level 5.3), No. 2 was Of Mice and Men (4.5), and No. 3 was To Kill a Mockingbird (5.6). The concern is that national reading scores are falling, and students may not be adequately prepared for their college courses and subsequent careers if they are not choosing more challenging and complex books to read.
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Comments
Interesting, I wouldn't have
Interesting, I wouldn't have thought those first 3 books listed would be considered 5th grade level.
Hi Bicultural Mama,
Yes, I was surprised, too--but the ATOS level relates to the difficulty of the text, not to the sophistication of the themes or concepts. They only factor in word length, frequency, familiarity, as well as sentence length and book length.
So sad.
I will note that I remember Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird being on my high school reading list. And I'm really surprised at the 4.3 reading level for Of Mice and Men. Makes me put less stock in those reading levels, as my son has read things that AR considers higher levels (i.e. Harry Potter) that deal with less mature themes than all those three.
Hi HapaMama,
I agree--it would be nice if the reading level also reflected the sophistication of the content and themes.
I am also surprised that the
I am also surprised that the last 2 books are 5 levels because I read them in middle school. As for the Hunger Games, I'd say that at least kids are reading! I'd rather my son read a book than play video games, which I don't believe would be rated high on the reading scale ;). Nevertheless, there is definitely issues with US school system and we are also lower in Math than in other developed countries!
Hi Lisa,
I agree that it's fine for high school kids to read books that are at lower reading levels for fun, especially if they're reading instead of playing video games, but it would be nice if they read them in addition to reading books that are at higher levels, too.
wow... seriously. : (
wow... seriously. : (
Hi Savvy gal,
Yes, kind of surprising that 10-year-olds are reading the same stuff as high schoolers.
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