Kudos Jim!
I too was surprised by the negative views. The national push is for our
students to work at higher levels. To do this they must truly understand
everything they read. Too many so called reading programs just focus on
the sounding of words without delving into real comprehension. Too many
of our students read just to count the number of books they have "read"
without true meaning.
Lexiles deal with both semantic difficulty AND syntax complexity.
Educational leaders such as Willard Daggett are proponents of using
lexile ratings. I encourage everyone to investigate Lexies thoroughly.
Textbooks are going to have Lexile ratings in the very near future.
I have seen a comparison list of all of the "tests" students take with
the lexile ratings. Our state exit exams are the lowest of all. Even the
test for getting into the military is sever hundred points higher than
our state tests. Among the highest lexile rankings by test are things
like MCAT and LCAT....
Sandra McLeroy, Library Technology Specialist
ESC Region 6
Huntsville, TX
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Debbie Hall
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 10:17 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Target: Positive spin on the use of Lexiles
Our district is looking into using Lexile data to help students who are
= not reading on grade level. I shared some of the e-mails from thread
on = Lexiles with our Library Department Manager, Mr. Jim Hundemer.
Most of = the comments that I shared were fairly negative. Mr. Hundemer
asked that = I share his viewpoint with you.=20
A Response to Target: Lexiles
=20
On a recent visit to one of our high school libraries I was visiting =
with the librarian and she related to me the following incident. A =
young man had finished his assignment and had his head down on the table
= so she went over to the shelves, selected a book she thought might =
interest him and gave it to him to read. He opened the book and began =
to read. About 10 minutes later he threw the book across the room and =
walked out of the library and left the campus. The next day she saw the
= student and asked him what "that" was all about. He said, "You gave
me = book I can't read." The student was a junior and she had given him
a = book that she felt any high school student could read and was a
popular = title. She later discovered that he is reading at the 5th
grade level. = She also found out this student had been abandoned by his
mother and was = sleeping on the streets. This is just one of the
realities facing an = urban school system that challenges our
librarians. =20
=20
I asked the librarian later about how she found out about the reading =
levels of her students and of the over 2,500 kids on her campus, how =
many of them did she know. She said that she would know if she worked =
on a project with the student or the teacher shared the information if =
the teacher knew it. She said that she only knew the reading levels of
= the students that used the library on a regular basis, and that =
represented only about a fourth of all students.
=20
This got me wondering how serious a problem this might be so I contacted
= the "best of the best" librarians in my district, elementary, middle,
= and high school, and asked if they knew the reading levels of their =
students. Even librarians with 500 students at an elementary school =
said that they knew maybe half of the students reading levels. All =
shared that there were many students that were not reading anything =
especially in middle and high school. We have severe academic =
deficiencies in this large, urban school system and the data clearly =
points to poor reading skills. In talking with teachers, they face =
reading levels all across the board and they indicated having reading =
level data for all of their students would be very helpful.
=20
I determined to do something about this and the first task is to get =
reading levels for 212,000 students. The best way is to use a test that
= all of our students had taken and that is the SAT 10 test. I will =
receive lexile scores for every student in the district. I am =
challenging all of my librarians to know the reading level of every =
child in their buildings, and to help them select books that are =
appropriate and on a subject that interests them. I am really concerned
= about students that are not reading anything. If a student is a
reader = I don't care what he or she is reading. There should be no
restrictions. = Test/Don't test-that is not the focus. Further, I am
working to = automate the entire process so librarians don't have to
label any book = in the library. The student lexile information will be
in the student = record of the library automation system that we use. I
am also working = with our automation vendor to match lexiled books with
lexile scores of = our children. The student will put in their student
I.D. and click on = "Give Me Five Books" or something like that, and
seamlessly the books = will appear on the screen. The books will be at
lexile level, above and = below. If he or she doesn't like the
selection, the student can ask for = another group to look at. I want
to challenge all of my librarians to = ensure that every child in our
system is reading and to help them become = better readers. The
librarian will become the true partner with the = principal and the
staff to improve reading on the campus for ALL = children. Too many
children are dropping through the cracks and nobody = is doing any thing
about it.=20
=20
Now, why lexiles. Our state has adopted the use of lexiles as a measure
= determined from the results of our statewide test, the TAKS. I refer
you = to the Texas Education Agency's website and the letter of
endorsement = from Deputy Commissioner, Susan Barnes. So with the state
signed on it = seemed logical to continue with lexiles. I looked at the
website for = lexiles, www.lexile.com, and it made it very clear that
the Lexile = Framework has been designed to determine the degree to
which a reader = can access the text-it places a reader and text on the
same scale. The = website further states, "The student's interests,
parental views on what = constitutes age-appropriate material and
teacher's instructional aims = are also vital issues in managing a
reader's growth." Lexiles are just = another tool to help with the
reading experience. The various grade = levels that are assigned refer
to text demand at each level, not what is = recommended for each grade,
and gives me and 276 libraries, staffed by = almost 300 librarians, a
way to get a handle on this and help all of our = students. The whole
idea is to make our readers better readers, to get = our non readers
reading, and to help librarians make a better match for = those students
that need the help. In the future, I look forward to our = students
having lexiled databases and textbooks as additional resources.
=20
So if you are a librarian in a school district where everyone is reading
= don't stop doing anything you are doing. Just buy more books.
=20
Jim Hundemer
Manager,
Library Services
Houston Independent School District
jhundeme@houstonisd.org
Deborah A. Hall
Library Technology Supervisor
Houston ISD
debhall@swbell.net
http://www.hisdlibraryservices.org
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