Treasure Hunt on Readability

Part 1
No matter the size of the classroom, some students have better reading and comprehension skills than others do in their respective class. A teacher must have a general idea of who those students are and provide opportunities for the students to get practice reading complex text. They must also have access to the instructional tools to make improvements to their reading skills. The uses of Fluency instructions also assist students in understanding the text as the author meant it to be (Shanahan, 2011).Teachers must add vocabulary instruction to assist the student with the basic meaning of words with how they appear in the sentence context. They must also teach students about where to pause is necessary and the grouping of words while speaking the sentences aloud and when the raise or lower the voice at the proper time.
Readability uses word and sentence complexity. It dissects the word number of syllables and a number of times the word appears in sentences (CCSS. 2010). The length of the sentence is also important. Analyzing words and sentences with a scientific formula and used to predict the level of student understanding assists the teacher in gauging the level of the student.
Words that have a single level of meaning are in the informational type of word group. These texts with a single level of meaning are easier to comprehend and register as the level of meaning for a specific word. The intricacy the structure of the text is important. The story line is sequential in order and there is a time management.

The script contains a semantic that students recognize as both straightforward and clear or it contains a lot of academic language and words with several meanings. This will affect how easy the text is to read. When text contained is simple, it follows Clarity and language conventions. It is crucial to understand the Theme and Knowledge Demands of specific scripts to ascertain the level contextual knowledge of the student in order to understand the writing (Shanahan, 2011). This kind of wording makes basic suppositions about a student’s capabilities. In conjunction with precise perceptions and students are quick to understand context.
This is how everyone learns to read. It is easier to start with the simple sentences and then works up to the more complex (Lapp et al, 2015). It allows students to understand the basics before moving on to the more complex sentences as they learn the difference. It does expand their knowledge base and assist in gaining confidence to be able to move to the next level.
No student learns exactly the same time and manner as other students. Teachers must gauge what level a student is at before adding more complexity. If they have trouble with basic data, they will lose ground later. Understanding simple first is crucial to understanding information that is more complex (QRLI, 2016). Teachers need to build on the student’s understanding of the concept.
Start with basics and work it until everyone gets the message (CCSS, 2010). Teachers need to show the purpose behind the text. Good reading and comprehension skills create motivation to understand the underlying meaning to sentences, especially in math and science where academic words describe how something works. Second, add small stories that raise the complexity and work with the students understanding more words in small doses.
Part II
The Big Question
The Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
The story opens with a happy calm and pregnant wife waiting for her loving police officer husband to come from work to take her to dinner as they did every Thursday evening.
Results of quantitative evaluation (Readability, 2016)
Using http://www.readabilityformulas.com/free-readability-calculators.php
This website shows a reading ease of 73.4 % and denoted the text as easy to read. Flesh and Gunning fog also report the text as easy to read. Flesh reports a 73.4, and Gunning fog had a 9.6 in the text scale. This site uses seven popular readability formulas to calculate an average grade of eighth using the Flesh-Kincaid scales measurement. The Coleman-Liau Index reported a seventh-grade level. The Smog Index is 5.8 and reports a sixth-grade level. The automated Readability Index reports 8.6 with a grade level of 13-15 years as eighth or ninth grades. The Linear Write Formula is 10.9 and reports a grade level of eleventh grade. This data computes to an average of eighth grade and easy to read, with reader’s ages as for twelve through fourteen years and seventh and eighth’s grades, respectively. Tool analyzed a portion of the story.
Qualitative Evaluation (Lexile Free, 2016) https://www.lexile.com/analyzer/results/4220297/
Lamb to the Slaughter is a short story about a police officer and his pregnant wife. It is a simple story about a man no longer wanting to have this woman for a wife. The author used simple to moderately complex words and sentence. The words and sentences are straightforward. There is little emotion expressed in the short story. The wife is silent on how she reacts to the news. There is no violence other than the husband killed with the leg of lamb. The wife is too calm but no one notices. The story has both basic word and some slightly more complex words. The sentence structure was simple in nature. Most students in grade level eight through ten should be able to understand this story. I analyzed about 851 words of the story. Lexile measure was 940L; with an average sentence of the length of 12.81 words and the mean log, word frequencies were 3.32 words.
A practical class session on what defines complex words and sentences. Simple group conversations about why words and sentences are complex or not. The teacher can use scaffolding to gauge the level of understanding of the class. It is easy to understand from an adult point of view. Children might not grasp the concept as easily, but that might depend on the age of the student (CCSS, 2010).
The instructor should evaluate each student with a pre-evaluation in the form a worksheet and class discussion to gauge the abilities of the students in the class. This will allow the instructor to understand where the reading skills fall for each student. The level of meaning is simple. The Clarity and language are age appropriate as there are relatively simple words and the language is in proper syntax (CCSS, 2010). The sentence and word structures are simple to mildly complex. The theme appears at first to a story about a happily married couple expecting their first child. It is a story of perfidy, as the wife did not have a clue that her husband was unhappy. The husband seems unemotional and the wife is in shock but act like it no big deal. She goes to the freezer and returns with the leg of lamb. The grade level is believed appropriate because the numbers base on today’s students and the fact that they are over exposed to all media types. They learn earlier than past students do.
“Lamb to the Slaughter” falls between is a grade level eight and tenth. This is due to the simple complexity of the word and sentence structures. The story uses old fashion style grammar. Students might find that a little disconcerting at first, but many of the old classics are the same way.
Rationale for grade level chosen
The word and sentence structure are a mix of simple and low complexity (CCSS, 2010). There is no hidden meaning to most of the words. It was easy to read for an adult and perhaps easy to read as an eight to tenth grader. The storyline is simple and based on a married couple that appears to have no conflicts. Until the husband decides to leave his wife, then this happy little wife watches her world crashes around her. The reasons are not very clear as to why, at least for her it is not. Most students have seen many movies and television shows by eighth grade to figure out was is going on in this story.
Part III Reflective essay
How long did it take?
The search for the answers took about an hour. Most of the answers were in the two articles supplied. They were very straightforward. Earlier parts of this class paved the way for this hunt. This process took about ninety minutes. I was making sure I had the correct answers. I also looked at the supplied links to confirm these answers. The first goal was to understand the questions. The second is to find the correct answers and executes a cross-check of other sources to confirm the information.
What was the easiest?
The answers were easy to find because the questions were very straightforward. One just had to read and understand the context of the questions and look for keywords in the articles. Being a competent reader makes this task easier. It was easy to use tools like the free version of Lexile and has the availability of a free readability calculator already now available online (Lexile Free, 2016). The hardest part was the file conversion due to technical difficulties with the computer.
What difficulties did you have?
I had some trouble with some of the links at first. The Lexile tool was time-consuming because of having to convert the PDF to text format and the word count was limited. Teacher and students need to sometimes step back and reassess each problem separately. Sometimes it also helps to take a break and walk away from the problem.
How did you deal with it?
The difficulty factor lessened as more collaborating data confirmed information in the internet searches. Is a very good thing there are education standards involved in the process of understanding what information was necessary to complete the task (Lapp, et al, n d). It was a struggle at first, but the collaboration with fellow students helped.
How well do you think you did?
The best way to understand is to make mistakes during the process. Mistakes have a great way of solidifying information in a way that most will not forget it for a long time. Humans make mistakes and no one is perfect in all actions. If we humans did not make any mistakes, we would be bored. Most humans have never been bored, though I would like to be. It is all about paying attention and asking many questions until the assignment comes together in a form one can comprehend. It is just like learning to read, we all have to start somewhere.
What would you do differently?
By taking the time to stop and think about the assignment. Read the directions more than once and always verify information. Ask as many questions up front as possible. Of course, no one plans to have technical issues with the computer and or the internet. It takes a little patience to figure out what is not working, humans, well, being human tends to cause most of their own personal frustration. The thing we mostly forget is we learn more about problems, systems, the internet, or computer failures tend to teach us way more about how stuff works when it does not work. In the course of learning, we learn what has to happen in the proper sequence of event is when it is broken. Perhaps that is excessively technical, but we never notice the details when the process works perfectly. It is the wisdom of understanding what went wrong and how to fix it. The thing would have been easier if it worked the first time every time. That is just not real life, is it? It is the human element of the equation, which gets us into trouble because it can be unpredictable. In the case of reading complexity, the tools are there but the wrench in the works is the learning level if the individual student. It is definitely one size fits all in how a child reads for a particular grade level.
Personal thoughts about the complexity of this short story by Roald Dahl
This short story was a very interesting timeline that starts out to be about a very happily married mother-to-be. It was all sweet and happiness until the husband comes home. She is ever being the dutiful wife by having his favorite drink waiting for him. He is the center of her life. It is Thursday night, the night they always go out to dinner. It does not take long before she realizes that something is not right wrong in her happy little world. Dahl fails to give background detail and a lot is left up to the reader to read between the lines.
She tries her best to please him, but he is having none of it. He does not want out go out to dinner with her. He has plans with someone else. After commanding her to sit as she does so promptly. She waits practically anxious while he finishes his drink in almost one swallow. She offers to get him another, but he decides to get it himself. Already the reader should feel some tension in the room.
It seems he is bolstering his courage because he has bad things to tell her. She is getting more apprehensive as she waits for him to continue. She has absolutely no idea he unhappy in the marriage. As he talks, she feels her world start to crumble. He calming says he does not want her anymore, but he will pay to take care of her and the child. She is in total denial and refuses to believe what he has just said. She jumps up, and goes downstairs to the freezer and gets the leg of lamb. He has his back to her glad to not to meet her eyes and states he has to go out. Dahl builds on the tension and she just loses it as she takes in the tone of the words. Dahl is very good at getting the reader to read between the lines. I thought she would hit him, so Dahl was successful in conveying her anger.
Now the shock and humiliation wash over her and she is livid with hurt and anger at being tossed aside. She does not even slow down, but walks right up behind him and smashed his skull with the frozen leg of lamb. Dahl achieved his goal to suck the reader into the story. Most eighth through tenth graders would come to the correct conclusion here.
Ever so slowly, the realization of what she has just done washes over her. She had just murdered her husband. This can be construed as a crime of passion. She is with child and flushes with all those hormones pulsing through her body. No woman likes being dumped. His decision has destroyed her life, and so she destroys his life, but permanently. As she wonders, what will happen to her and her baby and idea slowly creep to the surface. She goes to the kitchen puts the meat on to cook in the oven and goes upstairs to tidy up. Classic human behavior, act first, think after. Dahl was masterful in the use of the simple word and sentence complexity.
She goes downstairs and exits the house on her way to the grocers. While there, she puts on the greatest acting job and smiles sweetly at the grocer. She is still acting when she returns to the house and dead husband. The rest of the evening is spent watching the police try to figure out what happened and who the suspect could be. Dahl’s structures were right on spot, for today’s eighth through tenth graders. I doubt it would work for the same age group at the time it was written by Dahl.
This short story resonates with all those scorned women who were dumped by a boyfriend or husband. It is truly amazing that they could be in a similar situation and do the something to another human being. So where should one’s sympathies lie? He was cold and heartless when he told her they were finished. The fact that she never saw that coming, anyone in that position would be devastated, but would they kill, and work deviously to cover up the facts? Eighth through tenth grade was understood the plot and read between the lines.
The police officers knew her through her now deceased husband. She probably was just the sweet little thing to them. They would never suspect her as the killer. She was sheer genius at the market and at the house. They never even considered her as a suspect. They felt sorry for her and she was a master at playing them. Dahl used this assumption admirably and this is somewhat creepy, and shows his complete understanding of human nature.
Wow, this story is fiction, but it has roots in reality. There are women who kill. This has happened throughout time. Women scorned are very unpredictable. Dahl was a master of telling short stories that represent real human interactions. It makes one wonder how he was inspired to write the creepy story and was it from personal experience.
The crowning glory was when she convinced them to take a drink and eat the murder weapon. They never had a clue that the killer was a sweet looking pregnant woman. If I were she, I would be giggling too. Dahl is excellent in how he chose to relate this short story. It really gives one pause for thought.
Unfortunately, this short story by Roald Dahl in the 1950s probably put the fear of God in all men who would even think about leaving their pregnant wife in the lurch of shame. However, the reason the husband wanted to leave is never really fully disclosed. One would just have to assume it was for another lover. This story gives goose bumps to many males as to what might happen if they try to pull this off. Dahl’s first books were for children. Dahl composed 19 children’s books and nine short story collections. He also wrote several and movie and television scripts. Not everyone was happy with the themes of his books because they had a dark side.
The view is these stories rang too true for many people and they were loath to realize that children see and hear many things they are not meant to hear. Dahl used simple words and sentence structure designed for children of a certain age. Most children who have read his short stories, as well as his books, understood most of the undercurrents of married life because they experience it all the time in movies, games, and television in their own sphere every day. They may not understand the total concept was, but they get it eventually. Dahl leaves a lot up to the assumption of the reader. Everybody, including eighth, ninth, and tenth graders have seen enough television and movies to figure out why a man would leave his pregnant wife. Dahl takes a few leaps of faith that children reading this creepy short story have both seen and heard things about personal relationships in their personal sphere of reality.
The sad part is she did not have a clue he was not happy in his marriage. Life is not all balloons and birthday parties. Children and adults need to understand that concept. Dahl has a way of doing this in his short stories. No one would know times are good if there is never a downside. Life is both good and bad and children need to learn that concept in reality. The fact that he is not very graphic in describing how she killed her husband tends to show he thought about it before writing the dialogue. It is through the process of coping, and everyone copes differently with situations that cause hurt and pain. Life is about what the right thing to do, is and what is easy, and having the wisdom to know the difference. People die, but they should not be murdered and especially not by a member or their own family. He was quite callous about her feelings, but that how men were in the 1950s. Women were a property that could be easily disposed of. Unfortunately, he underestimated his quiet little wife and lost his life over it.
This story assumes the reader will fill in the lacking information as to why he is leaving her to details. The story got more complex after the murder. The reader had to have an understanding of actions and repercussions along with some irony thrown in. She had a brilliant idea to get rid of the evidence by having the police eat the evidence. Thought it really helped to get them to drink the whiskey first. She definitely played the helpless windowed pregnant female to the hilt. They never for a second thought that she could be the murderer.
The irony is obvious to that nefarious giggling coming from the living room where the bereaved wife is sitting at the end of the story. It did feel somewhat creepy at the end of the story. Dahl was descriptively age appropriate in his narrative. He did this before there were fancy tools to assist today and all the future educators doing this assignment now. This irony is not lost on this student. The 1950s barely had television and movies for children to learn about the seedy side of life. Today, few students in the eighth through tenth grades do not fail to learn about life because it has splattered everywhere, in all the forms of media. Children learn these nuances and life much earlier that child of that era. It is a story about failing to communicate how one feels to one’s significant other and the horrible consequences that can occur. These are the ones that there is no coming back from. It is a good lesson to learn for these students in grades eight through ten.
This was not the only dark story by Dahl. The remarkable part is he wrote them without any formal training. Now there is no way to know if in the 1950s, it was students in the eighth to tenth grades actually read this story back then. This student did an internet search asking the question of “Did eighth-grade students read Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter” when he first wrote it in 1953? “ Probably not, but I did not find concrete answers. Probably not until recently, but was unable to confirm it. Not all of Dahl’s stories were this creepy. He wrote quite a few that never attained the level of this story. Good writing is very hard to come by today. Though I have not read his other stuff, it is on the list of authors to read for this student. This story met many of the criteria that modern educators look for in making stories part of the must read environment for that student in the grade level of eighth through the ten grade. I suspect is quite interesting reading for today’s students. I have learned much by accomplishing this assignment and look forward to many more along this same level of learning. It provided a different view of what literature is appropriate each student grade level.
References
Common Core State Standards, CCSS (2010). Common Core State Standards for English
Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Sciences, Science, and Technical Subjects:
Appendix A: Research supporting key elements of the standards and glossary of key
terms. Retrieved from
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A. pdf
Lapp, D., Moss, B., Grant, M. and Kelly Johnson (2015) Close Look at Close Reading:
Teaching Students to Analyze Complex Texts, Grades K–5 Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/114008/chapters/Understanding-and-Evaluating-Text-Complexity.aspx
Lexile Framework for Reading (2016) Retrieved from
https://www.lexile.com/analyzer/results/4220297/
Qualitative Rubrics for Literary and Informational Text.pdf QRLI (2016) Retrieved from
http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/Text%20Complexity/Take%20it%20for%20a%20Spin/Qualitative%20Rubrics%20for%20Literary%20and%20Informational%20Text.pdf
Readability Formulas (2016) Retrieved from
http://www.readabilityformulas.com/free-readability-calculators.php
Shanahan, T Text Complexity (2011) retrieved from
http://mhreadingwonders.com/pdf/Text-Complexity.pdf