Obviously, because this article was written by MetaMetrics (the developers of the Lexile program), it is clearly skewed in favor of lexile use. It makes statements like, "Implementation of the Lexile Framework has led to reading success and improved reading enjoyment at all levels of proficiency" (3). I'll be interested to see if they can in any way prove that "improved reading enjoyment." Based on my own experiences and the anecdotes told by my colleagues and parents than I know personally, it seems that lexiles have served to frustrated students more than improve their enjoyment.
This document contained an explanation of the basics of the lexile system, some of which I had come to understand through hands-on use but had never had formally explained. Other parts were brand-new information to me. Some significant points include:
* "When reader and text are appropriately matched, a reader can enjoy a comprehension rate of about 75 percent. The 75-percent comprehension level corresponds to that balance of skill and difficulty that allows reading to a positive but adequately challenging experience, and encourages the reader to grow in proficiency and motivation" (3).
* "A unique feature of the Lexile Framework is that both student ability and text difficulty are measured on the same scale, in the same units, which are called Lexiles. . . . By putting readers and texts on the same scale, Lexiles allow readers to make consistent and highly accurate book selection judgments" (3-4).
* "Lexile measures are based on two factors: Word frequency and sentence length, which are more formally called semantic difficulty and syntactic complexity" (4).
* "It should be noted that word frequency is not the number of times a word appears in a specific passage, but the frequency of the word in the corpus of nearly 600-million words that is employed by the Lexile Analyzer" (4).
* "Long sentences are likely to contain more clauses, and therefore communicate not only more information and ideas, but also an interrelationship between them. Researchers also speculate that longer sentences require the reader to retain more information in short-term memory. Sentence length is a powerful indicator of the syntactic complexity of a passage" (5).
* "The Lexile Analyzer is the engine that powers the Lexile Framework. It is a software program designed to evaluate the reading demand, or readability, of books and test items.. . . . The Lexile Analyzer measures text by breaking down the entire piece and studying its characteristics, such as sentence length and word frequency, which represent the syntactic and semantic challenges that a text presents to a reader. The outcome is the reading difficulty, expressed as a Lexile, along with information on the word count, mean sentence length, and mean log frequency" (5).
* "Longer sentence lengths and words of lower frequency lead to higher Lexile measurements; shorter sentence lengths and words of higher frequency lead to lower Lexile measures. Texts such as lists, recipes, poetry and song lyrics are not analyzed because they lack conventional punctuation" (5).
* "During the calibration process, the Lexile Analyzer extracts slices from the text. A slice is a piece of text containing a minimum of 125 words. If the 125th word falls within a sentence, the Lexile Analyzer continues adding words until it finds the sentence-ending punctuation." (6) The Lexiles of various slices of a text are averaged to assign a Lexile to the text as a whole.
* "Lexile text measures above 200L are based solely on semantic difficulty and syntactic complexity. When determining the Lexile measure of a text that was designed for emergent, early and transitional readers (generally below 200L), other characteristics of the text must also be considered" (6).
* Concerning fiction picture books: "Since the reader has two modes of receiving the information--text and illustration--students may be able to read more difficult books that provide the scaffolding necessary to overcome difficult text. Therefore, when calibrating the Lexile measure of a fiction picture book, 120L is subtracted from the initial Lexile measure of the text based on the semantic and syntactic features of the text" (6).
* Concerning nonfiction books with less than 500 words: "Books with less than 500 words are designed for emergent readers. These books are often written in a style that is not found elsewhere--considerable repetition of words and/or phrases, long sentences that include definitions (almost a dictionary format), and pronunciation cues of new and/or difficult vocabulary. When calibrating the Lexile measure of a nonfiction book with less than 500 words, 120L is subtracted from the initial Lexile measure of the text based on the semantic and syntactic features of the text" (7).
* "The student's Lexile measure establishes a range of readability levels, which extends about 50L above and 100L below the student's measure on the Lexile scae. Considering the 1000L student as an example, he or she would have a reading range of between 900L and 1050L. If the student attempts material above 1050L, the level of challenge is likely to be too great for the student to be able to construct very much meaning from the text. Likewise, material below 900L will provide that student with little comprehension challenge" (9).
* "One important way that Lexiles enhance the educational environment is by allowing a student's Lexile range to be communicated without the stigma often attached to grade-level assessments. Teachers and students can set goals for reading achievement using numbers that apply equally well to the student and the text; and parents can receive reading lists and other support materials that help them encourage their children's development" (11).
Lennon, Colleen and Hal Burdick. "The Lexile Framework as an Approach for Reading Measurement and Success." MetaMetrics, Inc., 2004.
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