How “old” are your students? Breaking down barriers to reading

• Session E

The concept of a graded reader book has long been established, as well as the CEFR levels. But recently the industry has started to introduce new ways to categorize them. Next to the different “levels”, lexile measures, “book bands”, and “reading age”, we now can see “interest age”. Each child can then be described by several “ages” as we start to take into consideration all their interests and special needs. We will explore the different “ages” but also what makes these books special and how they help the teachers to attract struggling and reluctant readers into the world of reading. Finally, we will present a few books by independent publishers leading the way to make the reading world more inclusive.