The Great Gatsby
I chose this text because I feel this novel is a classic for high school English students and deals with many different ideas and concepts that may be difficult for students to understand. What I love about this text is that while the writing may be a bit easier to understand than something from Shakespeare, it also has the reader connect time and place with their ability to conceptualize the text. Readers have to multi-task by understanding the text with the added variable of time period to consider, symbolism, and understanding human emotion. This is one of those texts you may not understand right away and may require re-reading as I mentioned on my home page. I feel this text is a true-life example of something a student would encounter and could use the strategies of decoding provided to further understand.
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Readability of the Text!
What is readability? Readability is a way to measure the way a text is written to calculate the grade level the text registers at. When checking the readability; you compare the number of words used in a sentence, the average number of syllables per word or sentence, and then it calculates the grade level of that text. Readability can help us determine if the material we are reading is appropriate for the grade level or not, and what complications students may have. I personally have read this novel a few times and I think it is a great read for students at the high school level. This novel is a perfect choice to create many activities from and really delve into.
Two Examples from The Great Gatsby
Chapter 4 Chapter 6
514 words from a random page. 689 Words from a random page
Based on information above...How did I determine the readability of the novel? I selected a section of random words from different parts of the novel, pasted them into Microsoft Word, and then used the Microsoft Word Readability feature to determine what level this novel was reading at. Both times it placed the novel at a high school level, making it a great selection to showcase to students how to tackle reading.
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