Across Five Aprils By Irene Hunt (Berkley JAM edition, 2002) Ragyor Readability Estimate PURPOSE OF THE STRATEGY Devised by Alton Raygor (1977), this readability formula is designed specifically for middle/secondary level reading material. More reliable than formulas like the Fry Readability Graph (1977) which include syllable counts, the Raygor count is also easer to determine. Cautions about readability formulas are (1) as they give a grade-level score it is important to remember that grade level is rather ambiguous if we do not also consider a reader s prior knowledge, their interests, and background experiences and (2) other factors that should merit consideration include conceptual density, word frequency, and writing clarity. DIRECTIONS: STEP 1 The Raygor is really a lot simpler than it appears at first. The first step is to count out three 100 word passages, from the beginning, middle, and end of a book. The results of the Raygor are averaged out over these three passages. (A quick count can be conducted on one passage, but is not guaranteed to be as accurate). Don t count any numerals unless written out as numbers i.e., do not count 43 but do count forty-three. STEP 2 Next, count how many sentences you have. If the 100 word limit breaks a sentence in two, count all the words in that sentence, then estimate how many tenths of the sentence are used in your 100 word count. For instance, if you had 15 words in the entire sentence and only seven were part of your 100 word count, you would estimate.5 (15/7 = 2 1/7 =.5). STEP 3 Now take the 100 word passage and underline the words with 6 or more letters. Count how many words are in the passage. STEP 4
To plot the results on the Raygor, find the total number of sentences in your passage on the vertical axis (left column) of the Raygor scale and place a dot on the margin closest to your number. Next find the number of words having six (6) or more letters on the horizontal axis (bottom scale) and again place a dot closest to that number. Now find the place where the dots intersect on the graph to arrive at your grade level. Remember that the grade level is only valid within the parallel lines. If your plot is in the top left area of the grid or the bottom right (outside of the parallel lines) your total is invalid for the purposes of the estimate. Example: Sentences Words Passage A 6.0 15 Passage B 6.8 19 Passage C 6.4 17 Total 19.2 51 Average 6.4 17 This gives you a readability of 5 th grade.
The Raygor Readability Estimate For Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Berkley JAM edition, 2002) Passage 1 Page 1 He had heard talk of tariffs, of slave states and free ones, of a violent old man named John Brown, and during the past winter, of states seceding from the Union. But it had just been talk to him, and the only part of all the talk that held any interest for him was the conviction among all the men that war was sure to break out sooner or later. It hadn t broken out yet, however, and some men were swearing because the President had not declared war, while others were saying, jest let Ol Abe fire on the South Passage 2 Page 86 The team trotted briskly out of town, across the bridge spanning the river, and on up the road between meadows that seemed to have grown a little brighter since morning. The bag of coffee was at his feet; the wedge of pie, the book, and the newspaper were placed safely on the seat beside him. He thought with satisfaction of the things he would have to tell Jenny and his parents that evening. He pushed the scene at the store to the back of his mind, but the dinner with Ross Milton, the kindness of Mrs. Hiles, the gift of Passage 3 Page 190 It is late at night but I hev a story to tell and I must rite it becus I cant sleep til I hev told you. A few days ago I was put in charge of helpin to feed the reb prisners that we took in this battel. Tonight when I walked amongst em I seed a man and I swer to you I thot it was pa at first look. The man had a light colered berd like pas was when I was a boy and he had the same blue eyes with pas look in em. I stopt Sentences Words Passage 1 2.6 18 Passage 2 3.5 25 Passage 3 4.1 8 Total 10.2 51 Average 3.4 17 This gives us an Invalid readability for Across Five Aprils.
Raygor Readability Estimate Reflection For Across Five Aprils The Raygor Readability Estimate, rated Across Five Aprils at an invalid reading level. As teachers, this is helpful information because it accurately reflects that the reading difficulty in this particular book is not based around sentence complexity, as it is in most books. This novel contains three main types of writing: descriptive narration of events and dialogue, letters written in rural dialect, and more complex descriptions and letters about the Revolutionary War. My passage selections reflect all three types of writing, and all three passages rate in the invalid zone both individually and collectively. Upon reflection, I found that the novel generally contains very long sentences with several clauses; however the word length and complexity vary depending on the style of writing. Interestingly, the passages containing rural dialect are often the hardest to read in the novel even though they have most amount of sentences and least amount of large words. While the Raygor test would rate these passages as easier, they are actually more difficult because the reader has to try and wade through the misspellings and faulty grammar to reach comprehension. In this case, the test does not accurately reflect the reading difficulty. Based on the difficulty of the rural dialect passages and the more detailed accounts of the war, I would use this book with 7 th or 8 th graders because the average amount of long words is still fairly low. The long sentences require enough skill to retain information, but seem to flow in a stream of consciousness way that is easy to follow.
Unfortunately, the Raygor test is limited to leveling only those books whose reading difficulty parallels the sentence complexity, however, as a teacher it was helpful that the test pointed out that this novel doesn t fit into the normal mold. Because it caused me to go back and reflect on why the reading level is invalid, I now know that in teaching this book it will be important to focus on working through those more difficult sections of rural dialect with the students. As a teacher, this Raygor instrument will be helpful in not only leveling books, but in seeing whether or not the sentence complexity matches the difficulty of the book. For most books, it may prove to be a useful tool if I need to prove to the administration that a book I was assigned to teach is too difficult for my students.