Although children’s librarians think learning to read is about books, teachers use buzz-words such as lexile, phonics and word walls. Parents and students are often seeking grade appropriate reading materials. Several methods are used to determine grade level. In order for children’s librarians to effectively assist patrons, they need to understand how to interpret grade levels assigned to books by publishers and educators.
This course will provide children’s librarians with an understanding of different methodologies for reading instruction, including sight words, phonics, literate environment and pre- and post-reading activities. The course will then explore some of the ways that the grade-level of reading materials are determined, including Lexile Levels, Flesch-Kincaid Index and SMOG Readability Formula. These procedures will be applied to evaluate books, periodicals, websites and other material that children need to read. Finally, librarians will be encouraged to develop strategies for explaining these grading formulae to parents and to communicate more effectively with teachers as a result of their understanding.

• Teacher: Dan Bostrom
• Teacher: Kristen Figliulo