AND THE ANSWER IS...(Do not open this thread until you have opened the thread "Let's play a game")

[FourScore]

Last edited Wed Apr 8, 2015, 03:02 PM - Edit history (2)

THIRD GRADE!!!

That's right. NYS believes Leo Tolstoy is 3rd grade reading material.

Here are the corresponding questions:

Why does the hare stop at the road?
A He is afraid of a dog.
B He is waiting for carts to go by.
C He cannot remember where he wants to go.
D He wants to play with other hares.
Key: B

Based on the story, which two words best describe the hare?
A sad and lonely
B funny and loud
C careful and playful
D lazy and unwise
Key: C

In which scene does the hare reach his goal for the day?
A when he watches peasants on the road
B when he plays with other hares in the fields
C when he eats on the threshing-floor
D when he outruns the dog
Key: C

Read the following sentence from the first paragraph:
“The snow lay in waves and glistened like sugar.”
The author uses the word sugar to show that
A the hare was thinking about food
B the snow looked sparkly
C sugar was on the snow
D the snow tasted sweet
Key: B

Then the third grader moves on to the next reading excerpt from nasa.gov about soil...(sigh)

Please discuss.

On Edit: The real purpose of posting this game is to show how ridiculous this testing has become. Starting this year, a whopping 50% of the teacher's performance evaluation is now based on the results of these tests. Even if a person could read at this level in the 3rd grade, is it truly representative of the average third grader? I think not. These tests have huge impacts on schools, teachers, school funding and, ultimately, though indirectly, the children.

[salin]

1. I tagged fifth grade per reading difficulty, but

would expect more sophisticated questions at that grade level.

So my response would be that the vocabulary and difference in time (terms thus are archaic) make it a more difficult read than what I would expect for third grade. However, the assessment of comprehension in terms of what students are asked to see if they understood, seems appropriate for third grade.

The challenge for the kid taking the test, would be to not 'give up'/go passive while attempting the passage because of the vocabulary and abstractness introduced by using text that is so archaic. But if they can get the basic idea of what the characters are doing in each paragraph - then they could handle the questions.

[F4lconF16]

2. Holy shit.

I read at that level in 3rd grade, but I was always way ahead of the curve. That's insane. These tests need to be boycotted.

Edit to add that I do agree with the post above. The material is challenging for that level, because of the structure and vocabulary, but the questions are about the right level. Problem is, the questions only make sense if you understood the story, and I could easily imagine that many students, in addition to getting stuck on the archaic writing and not having enough time (because you know they'll be timed) might just give up entirely under the pressure.

[FourScore]

3. Exactly! Well articulated, F4lconF16!

[CurtEastPoint]

4. I put it in Word and the Flesch-Kincaid grade level is 4.4, FWIW.

[FourScore]

5. Interesting. I think 4.4 is even high.

I think the archaic language makes it more difficult.

One thing's for sure -- it ain't 3rd grade level!!!

[panader0]

7. What language is archaic?

[FourScore]

8. It is a style of writing that is more indicative of the 19th century.

That's not a bad thing. I'm just not sure it will hold a third grader's attention for very long.

[NOLALady]

6. I was correct!

I read at this level in the third grade.

[FourScore]

9. Ding! Ding! Ding! And it only took 20 wrong answers

before someone got it right!!!!

[herding cats]

10. I missed it by a grade level.

It's difficult looking back as an adult trying to imagine if I could have understood it as a child. I read Heidi by Johanna Spyri in the third grade and loved it, but that was the year I was placed in advanced reading classes. Which would have made it fourth grade level at the time. Also, while Heidi had a more expanded vocabulary than what I was used to, and was a different style than the usual children's books I had been reading, it's still not The Gray Hare in regards to complexity of sentence structure.

I can see the value of teaching children to understand more complex reading material at a younger age. It expands their thought process at an age when they're most receptive to the concepts. However, unless they've been being prepared for this since kindergarten I understand how it could easily overwhelm a child of that age.

[Blue_Tires]

11. I got it correct...

It reads like something I would have read in 3rd grade, but then I was also an accelerated reader...

[Orrex]

13. So was I, and that would have bored the shit out of me.

[demmiblue]

12. It seems to me that the goal of the question is to assess reading comprehension...

not word knowledge. If you strike out the words that make the text seem difficult, you can still make meaning, infer and develop main ideas/themes.

I also think that many respondents in the poll may be swayed by the author, Leo Tostoy. The author really doesn't matter.

P.S. Not a fan of standardized tests. Way too many variables that can affect the outcome.

[FourScore]

14. If this were the only question, then I might agree with you.

But it's not. It's a 3-day test, 1.5 hours /day. That is grueling for a 3rd grader.

[PowerToThePeople]

15. I had that question about the same time

I am much older than the new "tests." It quizzes retention.

[Zorra]

16. I didn't vote, I thought it was about 2nd grade.

Which is what it would be in a human centered democratic world.

Judging from what I've observed, at approximately half to three quarters of US high school seniors today would look at that passage and think, uh, tl;dnr, and do not have the vocabulary to be able to even remotely comprehend that passage.

This is not the fault of teachers, it is the fault of a corporatist system that does not want its citizens to be able to read beyond a rudimentary level.

Citizens with well rounded educations are the mortal enemies of corrupt governments.

[CTyankee]

17. I guessed 6th grade...way off!

My reasoning was not vocabulary as much as it was complexity of sentence structure. It was a style of writing that is not that much used today.