How easy a material can be understood?

1. READABILITY
How easily a material can
be read (and understood)
Jovy D. Elimanao – Mihm,
MAEd

2. In Review: CRITERIA FOR
SELECTION
• Emotional Experience
• Empathy
• Craftsmanship
• Values
• Readability

3. In Review: CRITERIA FOR
SELECTION
• considerations when buying or
reading a book:
– Name of the author
– Catchy title
– Attractive book design
– Thinness/thickness of the book
– Size of the print
– Blurbs on the outside
– Subject matter
– Writer’s style
– Friend’s recommendation
– Number of illustrations
– Price

4. THREE GENERAL FACTORS THAT
AFFECT READABILITY
• The material
• The Reader
• The Purpose

5. The Material
• Four general factors to consider in the
material itself
Content Format Organization
theme kind / type of printing title of the book
nature of subject
matter
illustrations chapter division
unity of content general appearance paragraph divisions
size , binding introductory notes
number of pages study helps
margins reference guides
length of the lines glossary

6. The Material
Writer’s style
• Number of polysyllabic words
– The longer the words, the less readable it is)
• The number of unfamiliar words
– Based on list of service words
• Sentence length
• Paragraph length

7. Computing for readability
Flesch Grade Level Readability
Formula
• Step 1: Calculate the average number of
words used per sentence.
• Step 2: Calculate the average number of
syllables per word.
• Step 3: Multiply the average number of
words by 0.39 and add it to the average
number of syllables per word multiplied by
11.8.
• Step 4: Subtract 15.59 from the result.

8. Computing for readability
The specific mathematical formula is:
FKRA = (0.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) -
15.59
Where,
FKRA = Flesch-Kincaid Reading Age
ASL = Average Sentence Length (i.e., the number of
words divided by the number of sentences)
ASW = Average number of Syllable per Word (i.e., the
number of syllables divided by the number of words)

9. Computing for readability
• Analyzing the results is a simple exercise.
• For instance, a score of 5.0 indicates a
grade-school level; i.e., a score of 9.3
means that a ninth grader would be able
to read the document.
• This score makes it easier for teachers,
parents, librarians, and others to judge the
readability level of various books and texts
for the students.

10. The Reader
Sub-factors to consider regarding
your reader
• Background
• Chronological age / sex
• Mental age / intelligence
• Curriculum level
• Reading ability / grade
• Reader’s interests

11. The Reader
Before selecting a specific passage or
story for the class, the teacher should
ask the following questions:
1. Although the topic is familiar, will I
have to explain the setting which is
not familiar to my pupils?
(background)
2. Will I have to remove a lot of difficult
vocabulary? (reading level, style,
curriculum level)

12. The Reader
3. Will both the boys and the girls like the
story? (interest, age, sex)
4. Can I read it straight from the book or
do I “storybook” so that they have less
difficulty in following the narrative?
(organization)
5. Are the pictures big enough to be seen
well by a class of 50? Do I need to
have bigger pictures of the most
crucial parts? (illustration, format)

13. The Purpose for
Reading• We read for information and for
entertainment
For Information For Entertainment
Book’s organizational
features like glossaries
and subtitles
Puts emphasis on the
importance of interest,
background, and style
Finds summaries and
chapter introductions
useful for study purpose

14. CRITERIAFOR SELECTING SPECIFIC
TYPES
PART 3

15. POETRY
• First brush of literature for children
– Lullabies
– Verses
– Chants
– Tongue twisters
• Love the funny sounds more than
what they mean
• Nonsense humor is enjoyable

16. Factors that teachers
should consider:
• The most popular contents of
poetry for children are humor and
familiar experiences
• A poem enjoyed in Grade 1 may
also be enjoyed by some other
levels
• Children do not like poems they
cannot understand

17. Factors that teachers
should consider:
• Literary merit is not always a
guarantee that poems will be liked
• Children do not like meditative,
thoughtful poems
• Children prefer “new” poems to
more traditional ones
• Girls tend to like poetry more

18. Factors that teachers
should consider:
• Aside from humor, children love
actions
• They prefer a variety of subject
matter
• They do not like poems with long,
descriptive passages
• They do not like poems that have
unfamiliar figures of speech or
archaic language

19. Factors that teachers
should consider:
• They do not like pedantic-sounding
poems
• Continue from page 132