Analysis of the reading level of an Entry Level text

An analysis of an Entry Level 3 (E3) Functional Skills reading text about Walter Tull, contributed by  Laura Bell (2018) - see right for the link to Laura's resource.

I analysed the text in order to gain a better understanding of the reading (and spelling) words expected in Entry Level Functional Skills English assessments from September 2019 onwards. I have attempted to base the reading level of each word in the text on the information in the appendix of Subject content functional skills English (DfE March 2018). 

I decided to classify words using my professional judgment and being guided by:

  • the given spelling words in the above DfE document. Unlike the reading words, these are classified into E1, E2 or E3. 
  • whether the word is part of common vocabulary and likely to be familiar to the learner.
  • the number of syllables and/or phonemes in the word.
  • whether the word follows common spelling patterns.

I also considered the:

  • length of the text and the number of paragraphs.
  • proportion of simple, compound and complex /combined sentences.
  • the context / topic of the text.

In addition to the analysis, the document includes useful one page summaries (extracted from the above DfE revised content document) of the reading and spelling expectations for each Entry Level.

Physical format
10 page PDF