Designing Reading and Writing Tasks

Teachers at my school are working to design reading and writing tasks that mimic the ones students will undertake on the PARCC exam, which will engage students in three kinds of reading and writing tasks:

• literary analysis task
• research simulation task
• narrative writing task.

I'd like to share some resources that may help teachers select appropriate texts for students.

Determining the Reading Level

When finding online texts (such as speeches, articles, journals), how can teachers determine the reading level? Here's one simple way:

• Copy and paste the text into Microsoft Word.
• Enable readability statistics (see instructions in photo below).

• Use the chart below to determine if the Flesh-Kincaid reading level falls within the appropriate grade level band stipulated by Common Core State Standards.

Changing the Reading Level

How can teachers change the reading level of a text?  Check out rewordify.com. This FREE site allows teachers to change the reading level of a text, create vocabulary lists, and do some other pretty amazing stuff.

Hopefully, teachers will find these resources helpful.