This afternoon while working on an article that I'm writing for a print journal, I discovered a handy little feature in the Google Docs tools menu. If you select the word count option in the Google Docs tools menu you will find three indicators of the reading level of the document you're creating. Google Docs will calculate for you the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, and the Automatic Readability Index.
Applications for Education
The Google Docs reading level indicators could be useful if you're sending letters to homes of students where English is not the primary language. The reading level indicators could help you formulate your letter so that it can be read by all parents.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Reading Levels in Google Docs
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3 comments:
That's an interesting feature. Though I believe a trained person could do a much better job of gauging readability than any automatic measures, tests like Flesch-Kincaid readability can be put to good use as general guides.
I would also point out that this can be done with most word processors like MS Word.
Thanks for the post.
Wow! That is fantastic. Thanks for noticing and sharing. I'm a big fan of Google Docs but didn't realize this feature existed. It can also be useful for showing the level at which students are generally writing. Very cool. Thank you.
The reason I'm most excited about this feature, whether in Word or in my beloved Google Docs, now (thanks for pointing it out!!!), is that it gives students instant feedback as to what their own writing level is. For example, have them write a simple sentence, then a compound sentence, then a complex sentence, then add in a bunch of adjectives and/or prepositional phrases. They'll be amazed at how the level jumps up!!!
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