Modify a Text to Easier Reading Lexile Level

In last calendar week's post, I showcased three resource I use that offer the aforementioned text at multiple reading levels to help you scaffold reading tasks for less proficient readers.  Sometimes, though, you lot don't have the luxury of choosing your own texts for utilize in the classroom.  Or, you may have a specific text you want to use written at a level not yet accessible to some students.  In that scenario, these resources can be helpful.  While yous may take to annals for access, all of these tools are online (no downloading or installation of apps) and they're FREE.

REWORDIFY (rewordify.com)

This website lets you copy and paste existing text (or key it in if there's no copy option), highlighting difficult words and substituting simpler alternatives.  For example, if a text reads "A roughshod cold descended on Chicago…" Rewordify translates this to, " A fierce/hard common cold move downward/originated upon Chicago…"  Every bit you tin can see, it's helpful for identifying words struggling readers are likely to stumble over, and for suggesting a simpler way to say each one.  Unfortunately, the resulting text still needs to exist reviewed by human being eyes and a brain and tweaked to produce the more than readable "A terrible cold moved down into Chicago."  Frankly, I apply this more to place vocabulary words I desire to teach explicitly than as a translation tool.  Some teachers like to teach students to use it themselves as a vocabulary-building/support tool.  Rewordify likewise has a library of 300 simplified classic texts.

PROS:  Ease of utilize; identifies challenging vocabulary and suggests simpler word/phrase substitutions; automatically generates word lists and vocabulary-building activities.

CONS:  Translations are ofttimes cumbersome and brand information technology difficult to follow the passage'due south railroad train of idea.

SIMPLISH (simplish.org)

Similar Rewordify, this site allows users to input text past typing, copying and pasting, or by providing a URL.  With a click of the button of your selection, the text is then simplified or summarized.  I know teachers who dearest this tool, merely my tests yielded less than stellar results.  (It kept "sensing" that my English-language sample text was Italian and therefore required a premium account.)

PROS:  Speedily translates a given text into simple English.

CONS:  Inconsistent results; unable to "read" and translate some texts correctly.

TEXT COMPACTOR

Using a elementary formula that measures how many times a key give-and-take is used in each sentence, this website condenses text into a tight summary.  It doesn't actually substitute words, merely it does analyze the passage, eliminating what it perceives as unimportant details to focus readers on the primary letters.  It'due south a time-saver for summarizing news articles (where writing tends to be more formulaic), but don't even bother using it with narrative texts.

PROS:  Helpful for summarizing, peculiarly when teaching students to determine central idea in nonfiction.

CONS:  Doesn't work with literature.  Does not reword text, just eliminates elaboration and detail.

D-I-Y TEXT MODIFICATION

If you teach Language Arts, chances are you already have stiff writing skills.  Plus, who knows your students–and which words they're likely to stumble over–better than you exercise? If yous want to modify a given text yourself, you'll find the following tool helpful for measuring the text's original level and checking the readability of your redrafts.

Lexile Analyzer

Input the text y'all desire to analyze, click a push button, and this tool tells y'all the Lexile range, mean judgement length, mean log discussion frequency, hateful log word frequency, and discussion count.

To simplify the text utilize the following techniques:

• Substitute complex words for uncomplicated words (ex. "brutal cold" becomes "very cold").
• Shorten complex sentences into two or more than simple sentences.
• Delete unnecessary details (ex. "an entomologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey" becomes "a scientist")
• Employ simple Subject area-Verb-Object sentence structures.

PROS:  Speedily analyzes texts and reports Lexile range.

CONS:  Results are reported in a 100L range rather than a specific Lexile level.

Making complicated texts accessible to those students who struggle to read on grade-level text is critical to their long-term success.  Hopefully these suggestions will help reduce the burden of delivering such scaffolding, leaving you more fourth dimension to focus on building relationships and creating lessons that inspire!

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Source: http://www.allstarela.com/reading/simplify-text-for-struggling-readers-2/

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