Following on from our analysis of the KS2 2019 SATs Reading Paper, we used Lexile Measurements to determine the complexity of the texts used in the reading papers from 2016 – 2018.
The Lexile Framework for Reading is a scientific approach that places both the reader and text on the same developmental scale. The Lexile Analyzer generates an algorithm that measures the complexity of the text, expressed as a Lexile measure, along with information on the word count, mean sentence length and mean log frequency. Generally, longer sentences and words of lower frequency lead to higher Lexile measures; shorter sentences and words of higher frequency lead to lower Lexile measures – click here for more information.
Text 1:
The Lost Queen (2016) – Fiction
Gaby to the Rescue (2017) – Fiction
The Giant Panda Bear (2018) – Informational
The first texts from all three reading papers are the lowest Lexile ranges from each of their papers. Text 1 from the 2017 text is showing to be the most accessible, with a range of 600L – 700L and a word count of almost half of the 2018 text. Text 1 from the 2018 paper is showing to be the most complex with a range of 900L-1000L which measures at the readability of Year 7. In comparison, Text 1 from the 2019 paper measures at the lowest range out of these papers, with 500-600L, a dramatic drop compared to the previous year’s paper.
Text 2:
Wild Ride (2016) – Fictional
Swimming the English Channel (2017) – Informational
Grannie (2018) – Poem
We can now see a big jump in the complexity of the 2016 and 2017 texts
Text 3:
The Way of the Dodo (2016) – Informational
An Encounter at Sea (2017) – Fictional
Albion’s Dream (2018) – Fictional
