Books to inculcate good reading habits!

Teaching young children to read easily is important for overall development and academic success. The market is full of books and publishers have ensured that every genre has been covered. But the challenge is to choose the correct book for your child. Bombarding young readers with stories or information that is beyond their comprehension and grasping power will create disinterest and frustration.

Thanks to research and development, ATOS and Lexile Methodologies help you decide which level of book to pick up for your child.

This is also crucial for schools and institutions that have to provide reading material to children of various age groups. Also, before stocking your library, do consider these scores of the book or carry out a task to evaluate the books.

What exactly are ATOS and Lexile Methodologies?

Taking into consideration the length of sentences + variation in the vocabulary used + the number of words+ average words in a sentence, the ATOS score is set.

The level of comprehension of the content is measured with the LEXILE method. One must not confuse easy vocabulary with understandability. A story may have a simple vocabulary and short sentences but the content can be complicated to understand.

These are methods of measuring content just like we measure temperature, height, etc. Similarly, a student’s score on the Atos and Lexile scale can be assessed and the correct books will help them better their English language skills. So, it is very important to choose books that have been developed keeping in mind these grading levels.

Purple Turtle Graded Readers – 3 levels spread across 36 books have been developed following the ATOS and Lexile Methodologies. The books score 1.5 on the ATOS scale and 200L on the Lexile methodology scale. This is the ideal level for pre-school children and develops the undermentioned skills that are essential for early learners.

• Listening skills: The stories are age-appropriate and interesting. This contributes to a part of unconscious learning through visualisation.
• Reading skills: Reading is one of the many ways to master a language. Since the story has been developed not only on creative lines but with the help of a methodology, it is more effective.
• Speaking skills: Finally, moving up gradually from level 1 to 3 will give a better understanding of the language and build confidence to speak.

Picking a story that is beyond or below the readability levels or which fails to match the interest levels especially of preschool children can cause more harm than not reading at all.

Apart from preschool learning and laying the foundation of good reading, Purple Turtle Graded Readers are a great learning tool for all irrespective of age. For beginners learning the English language or to better their English language skills these books are valuable additions.

Matching readers with books are very important in a day and age where books are easily available at a low cost. The main aim is to instill a lifelong love for reading.