Leveled Series
Orca Book Publishers has three series which are leveled: Orca Currents (books for reluctant middle-school readers), Orca Soundings (books for reluctant teen readers) and Orca Sports (high-interest sports stories for readers twelve and older). These are all high-interest books with controlled vocabulary that appeal to students striving to read.
The leveling method used for rating Orca Book Publishers reluctant-reader series is the Fry Readability Formula.
Fry Readability Formula
The Fry Readability Formula (or Fry Readability Graph) is a readability metric for English texts, developed by Dr. Edward Fry. The reading level is calculated based on the average number of sentences and syllables per hundred words. These averages are plotted onto a graph: the intersection of the average number of sentences and the average number of syllables determines the reading level.
Reading levels for all three reluctant-reader series (Orca Currents / Orca Soundings / Orca Sports) range between grades two and mid-four, although the age of the targeted readers vary.
Guiding Your Readers
There are myriad readability-level formulas available and this may confuse educators. Some companies will use their own readability formula based on averages of several different leveling sytems. Some reading programs, like Accelerated Reader, also assign their own levels. While others, like Scholastic Reading Counts, use the Lexile Level. The Fry Readability level was chosen by Orca Book Publishers because it is relatively simple to understand and is a basic measure of word and sentence length. For our early chapter books, we have had our books rated with the Guided Reading method.
We have assigned reading levels to our books as a guide for teachers, librarians and educators looking for texts that are suitable for their students. In general, the Fry readability Formula does not take into account difficult concepts or constructions and is to be used as a guide only. Orca Book Publishers employs a stringent editing process which ensures linear storylines, clear context and understandable storylines for the reluctant reader. There are few characters in these stories and no flashbacks or confusing situations. The vocabulary used is limited.
Accelerated Reader
AR Quizzes are available from Renaissance Learning. Please see www.renlearn.com
Lexile
For more information on Lexiles, please see www.metametricsinc.com
Guided Reading
A leveling method developed by Fountas and Pinnell. Please see www.fountasandpinnellleveledbooks.com
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