Finding the right fit between students' reading ability and textbooks is very important for comprehension. Readability studies aim to analyse texts to find the right fit between students and texts. In this literature review, readability studies are classified under quantitative, qualitative and combined quantitative-qualitative readability…

Argues that the Degrees of Reading Power test is not a valid tool for its main purpose, matching students to appropriate texts, because the test's units of text difficulty are not uniformly comparable to the test's units used to reflect a reader's ability. (HOD)

The reading abilities of low achieving high school students at two schools were compared to the readability levels of the magazines in which they showed interest. The median tested reading ability of these students was reported as third/fourth grade by their reading teachers. The reading specialist at one high school reported that boys had an…

Presents a study of United States History textbooks that identifies possible shortcomings of several readability formulas as tools in determining the appropriateness of reading materials. Suggests additional factors to consider when selecting textbooks and techniques to help students understand reading materials. (AEM)

The ability to read is vital. It paves the way to success in school, which can build self-confidence. It is power, key to personal growth. Through reading, we generate learning power that helps us know ourselves better and others as well. It also helps us understand past, present and future more clearly. So it is necessary for the teachers to find…

A recent study on the free selection of library books for recreational silent reading periods focused on the difficulty of material chosen and on the relationship between the students' reading ability and the readability of a book. Three groups of 24 students completed an interest inventory form, and their reading ability, sex, and reading…

Teachers can match content reading materials with student needs and abilities in a number of ways. If textbooks are the main or only source, teachers can group students according to textbook difficulty, conduct student surveys of specific topics in the textbook, and use the textbook as a sampler or starting point for more in-depth studies of…

The Cloze Procedure can be a useful instrument in matching student reading levels to appropriate reading selections. Additional research on ways to match students to readings at appropriate levels is needed. (Author/CJ)

Raises questions about the readability criteria used by publishers and editors of reading textbooks in selecting and assembling materials for middle grade reading texts. (RL)

Answers questions most frequently asked about the cloze procedure; suggests using cloze exercises to gauge the suitability of reading materials, showing how the technique taps meaning derived from text and indexes both textual reading difficulty and students' comprehension ability. (AEA)

Reports on five studies which investigated reading for pleasure. Finds that this reading is characterized by within-text reading rate variability, is more arousing physiologically than other waking activities, and gives readers a feeling of control. Also finds that the Fog Index of readability predicts readers' preferences and difficulty rankings.…

Cloze tests assess the readability of a book for students in a far more personal way than formulas or standardized tests of reading comprehension. The cloze procedure reflects the total language abilities in the following ways: familiarity with sentence structure, context clues, and vocabulary, and the ability to draw inferences from written…

Noting that traditional measures of textbook difficulty and traditional measures of student reading ability suffer from a lack of correspondence, this booklet deals with the problems of (1) identifying the levels of conceptual difficulty of text materials, (2) identifying students' abilities to understand text materials, (3) matching the…

A study was conducted to compare students' recreational reading levels to their independent, instructional, and frustrational levels determinable with an informal reading inventory. Subjects, 20 second grade and 20 fifth grade students, were administered the Basic Reading Inventory. In addition, the school's librarian recorded titles of four books…