What is the curriculum readability level of Somos, Vamos, or Nous sommes?

Evaluating the readability of a curriculum is a crucial practice for schools as they consider adoption because it ensures that instructional materials are accessible and appropriately challenging for students at a given developmental level. Schools evaluate readability to confirm that the language used in the materials aligns with students’ reading abilities. There are a number of standard evaluative tools used by schools to calculate readability scores based on quantitative dimensions. When considering the readability of texts in world language curriculum, however, it is important for reviewers to understand that linguistic features of the English language do not align perfectly with linguistic features of other languages, such as Spanish or French. Readability scales like the Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level and Reading Ease were developed based on English language structures, and so the scores may not accurately reflect the true readability of the texts in world language curriculum, and this should be taken into consideration when reviewing the scores. Some of these differences include:

1. Phonetics: Spanish is highly phonetic, meaning there is a consistent correspondence between letters and sounds. Words are often pronounced exactly as they are written, making decoding easier, even for beginners. French, while less phonetic than Spanish, still has more predictable rules for pronunciation compared to English. Native speakers of Spanish typically learn to read fluently in their first language several years before Native speakers of English. Readability calculators do not take into account the phonetic ease of Latin-based languages.
2. Word Length: Readability scores in English often penalize texts with longer words because long words are generally more difficult to process (e.g., "extraordinary"). In Spanish and French, longer words are common due to the grammatical structure (e.g., conjugations, gender agreements), but they are not necessarily harder to understand due to predictable and consistent patterns. 
3. Sentence Structure: Readability formulas place significant weight on sentence length. While it is true that longer sentences are typically more challenging to read, regardless of the language, the grammatical structure of Spanish and French sentences makes long sentences easier to follow, generally speaking, than long sentences in English. This is due to the use of clear grammatical cues like verb conjugations and agreement markers.The penalization for readability scores in English is more severe than it should be in French or Spanish. 
4. Target Audience Familiarity: Readability scores assume the audience has native or near-native proficiency in the language being measured. For language learners, different factors like vocabulary familiarity, grammar simplicity, and contextual support (like pictures or repetition) are more important than traditional readability metrics.

For all of these reasons, readability scores calculated using English-based formulas should be supplemented with qualitative analysis and educator expertise when evaluating student materials in Spanish or French. The best way to evaluate the readability of texts in curricula from The Comprehensible Classroom is to evaluate both qualitative factors and quantitative dimensions through the lens of the target language.

Readability Scores of Sample Texts

This resource contains calculated readability scores using the Flesh-Kincaid scale for a variety of sample texts from The Somos and the Nous sommes Curriculum, published by The Comprehensible Classroom. These scores are available for any districts that are required to demonstrate readability scores for curriculum review proceedings. However, nearly 100% of all texts in each curriculum are written in the target language (French or Spanish). For that reason, these readability scores should not be considered an accurate representation of the true readability of the texts in the curriculum. All texts in curricula from The Comprehensible Classroom are designed to have a high level of reading ease for students at both (a) the target level of proficiency and (b) the lowest target grade level. Readability supports language acquisition by optimizing linguistic processing and lowering the affective filter.

SAMPLE TEXT 1: SOMOS 1 UNIT 1 (CLASS STORY)

Typically taught in Week 1 of Spanish

Score: 5.95 

Reading Difficulty: Fairly Easy

Grade Level: 6th Grade

Age Range: 11-12

SAMPLE TEXT 1: SOMOS 1 UNIT 5 (ASSESSMENT)

Typically administered in Year 1 of Spanish

Score:         7.37 

Reading Difficulty: Average

Grade Level:     7th Grade

Age Range:         12-13

STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS SAMPLE 1: SOMOS 1 UNIT 13

Typically taught in Year 2 of Spanish

Score:         8.39 

Reading Difficulty: Average - Slightly Difficult

Grade Level:     8th Grade

Age Range:         13-14

STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS SAMPLE 1: NOUS SOMMES 1 UNIT 2

Typically taught in Year 1 of French

Score:         2.87 

Reading Difficulty: Very Easy

Grade Level:     3rd Grade

Age Range:         8-9

STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS SAMPLE 1: SOMOS 1 UNIT 5

Score:         5.32 

Reading Difficulty: Fairly Easy

Grade Level:     5th Grade

Age Range:         10-11