[JodyJS Posts: 1,396 Status: Offline IT'S A FIELD TRIP, BUSY BUS! Preorder now! WWW]

When I want to know the ATOS level of a manuscript I'm writing, I cut and paste my text into the ATOS analyzer. I'm wondering if there's a similar tool for determining Guided Reading Levels (A, F, J, K, etc). Also, how are ATOS and GRL similar to or different from a Flesch-Kincaid reading level?

Free cookies to anyone who can explain!

Jody

[Vijaya Posts: 8,465 Status: Offline LISTEN. Let all mortal flesh keep silence ... WWW]

I use a Lexile analyzer typically and it's been very reliable for targeting the complexity of a sentence. I can't find the website where they compared the text using different algorithms but here's a chart for conversion (but it doesn't have ATOS) http://help.pearsoncmg.com/xl/mfdl/instructor/ccng/Content/assign_mngr/lexile_conversion.htm

I think if you're looking for a particular way a publisher grades their books, I've not seen anything like it.

A quickie google search brought up something I could download, comparing FK to F&P: http://www.minnehaha.biz/nfo/flesch-kincaid-comparison-to-fountas-and-pinnel/

So, do I get a cookie?
V

[KatyD Posts: 904 Status: Offline www.katyduffield.com WWW]

Here's another conversion chart, but it does not include ATOS. https://www.readinga-z.com/learninga-z-levels/level-correlation-chart/

I don't know what ATOS level you're targeting, but in my experience, ATOS 2.0 to 3.0 ROUGHLY correlates to about J through O in Reading Recovery and Lexile 550 to 650. I figured this out through my own convoluted process, so proceed carefully.

Is that cookie worthy? :-)

[JodyJS Posts: 1,396 Status: Offline IT'S A FIELD TRIP, BUSY BUS! Preorder now! WWW]

Cookies for two!

Thanks, ladies. I was just using ATOS as an example. I'm really wondering if there's a tool like ATOS analyzer to establish GRLs. I'll check out the links you mentioned. [Edited] Vijaya, does Lexile mean F-P GRLs? Maybe I'm just unfamiliar with the lingo.

Thank you for the useful comparison charts!

[KatyD Posts: 904 Status: Offline www.katyduffield.com WWW]

Jody, to my knowledge, there is not an analyzer for F&P Guided Reading Levels. If you run across one though I hope you'll share! I've found the F&P levels difficult to figure out.

[kwlarson Posts: 258 Status: Offline Books for curious kids WWW]

Jody,

There is not tool that I know of. Whenever I've had a text with Guided Reading Levels, the publisher has used an outside expert to determine the book's levels. My understanding is that GRL has just as much to do with the text itself as the pictures, charts, etc., which is why we can't run it through an analyzer.

Hope that helps,

Kirsten

[JodyJS Posts: 1,396 Status: Offline IT'S A FIELD TRIP, BUSY BUS! Preorder now! WWW]

Katy,

I was poking around this morning and found this tool, http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/, for which you can enter an existing book title and find results for a variety of leveling systems.

And you'd have to hunt and peck a bit here, but on this tool, https://www.rcowen.com/BYL-FP-BC.htm, you could find out word counts for different F-P levels (purple box on the left-ish side).

I'm still looking for a tool that will analyze my work in terms of F&P.

[Vijaya Posts: 8,465 Status: Offline LISTEN. Let all mortal flesh keep silence ... WWW]

Good links to have, Jody. But my experience is similar to Kirsten's. When I'm in that writing mode, so much is intuitive and I can usually hit the mark. I found Alijandra Moligner's Word Book to be a huge help when I first began writing leveled readers. I only run my text through an analyzer if the specs demand they be a certain lexile level. For F&P levels I just sat down and read a whole bunch of them to get a feel for how the grading is done. Always, it's the publisher that assigns the actual level.

Thanks for the cookie!
Vijaya

[JodyJS Posts: 1,396 Status: Offline IT'S A FIELD TRIP, BUSY BUS! Preorder now! WWW]

Thanks, Vijaya. I know what you mean; after you've read a few, you understand what level works for the target audience.

I also posted this question on Yahoo's Nonfiction for Kids list, and here's some more help. I didn't realize the ATOS-to-F&P connection.

Hi Jody,
I'm also working on a project with a target F&P level, and was told by the publisher to use the ATOS analyzer and a conversion chart like this one:
http://www.speedingstar.com/supplied_html/RL_Chart.pdf
(Guided Reading Level corresponds to F&P, and no, my project isn't actually with Speeding Star).
 A search for "reading level conversion chart" will turn up many such charts.
Hope that helps!

[jennifer-bryson Posts: 12 Status: Offline]

Wow, what a fantastic tool! Thank you for sharing it! I'm writing a piece for elementary age children and when I ran my text through it I was able to see that I am writing just where I want to be. I did find this link showing the grade levels that correspond to ATOS levels, if it helps:
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/E0813_Appendix_A_New_Research_on_Text_Complexity.pdf

It looks like it takes the ATOS scores by grade level, Lexile, Flesch-Kincaid, and reading maturity. I didn't see the Guided Reading levels but I think you can cross-reference those with some of these measures.

Thank you again! It made my day!

[JodyJS Posts: 1,396 Status: Offline IT'S A FIELD TRIP, BUSY BUS! Preorder now! WWW]

Thanks, Jennifer! If we look in enough places, we'll eventually get what we need. 

[Vijaya Posts: 8,465 Status: Offline LISTEN. Let all mortal flesh keep silence ... WWW]

What a useful thread. We not only have great information for our current and future projects but cookies as well   Thanks for asking the question Jody.

Vijaya

[JodyJS Posts: 1,396 Status: Offline IT'S A FIELD TRIP, BUSY BUS! Preorder now! WWW]

Here are some extras for the weekend. 

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 6,330 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

My favorite tool for this is a reading teacher. Those ladies know intuitively what level a text is.