Leveled Readers (and how to spell Requadt)

[jeffreyrequadt]

Finally, yes, my name is now being spelled correctly. Thank you, Internet World.
I wanted to clarify a little more on the leveled readers. In my classroom, my students are expected to be reading books at their level (not exclusively, but much of the time). This is only possible because our school library has hundreds of books at any given level. This allows many children who are at the same level to read a variety of books that are within their control of language and text features. When this level becomes too easy for them and they are clearly reading through it fluently and with comprehension (based on their ability to summarize and talk about what they read), then it is time for them to move on to another level. But it would be insane to have them just read through a "level 1" text a few times and then expect that they would be ready for level 2. They need to read many different texts at level 1 until level 1 is clearly mastered. This takes a few weeks for some, a few months for others. And of course, I am dealing with children who are still developing their brains. I've never used leveled readers with adults. I just think the principle might transfer and provide a very useful resource for people learning to read Greek (and their teachers). But for it to really be useful, you need many different texts at any particular level.
I think a place to start might be to take some of the gospel narratives and reduce them to very simple texts, much like Mark did with Hebrews 10:19-22, but doing this with many different passages. Of course you have to take out much of the vocabulary and probably all of the elegance that makes the original text what it is. But if you see it in a broader perspective, it's a footstool on the way to proficiency in reading Koine Greek.

None of the actual real breathing native Greek speakers have said anything about this. Perhaps they might speak up about how the modern Greek educational system works. How do Greeks teach their own children to read? How do their methods compare with those in American education (for those who have experience with both)?

[Jonathan Robie]

I split this off because I think it's separate from Method 3.

[Jonathan Robie]

Jeffrey - would something along the lines of Athenaze make you happy?

[jeffreyrequadt]

That was really interesting. I am so proud of myself for answering 100% on the first passage. I couldn't have possibly done so without looking at pretty much ALL of the clues given in the text. Essentially, this level is too advanced for me! This might be what educators call an "instructional level," but certainly not my "independent level." Mostly that is due to the vocabulary. The syntax was about right for me. The sentence structure was manageable. Modern punctuation certainly helped. But I would have had to look up most of the words in a lexicon. On the other hand, if there was an illustration to accompany it, I suspect that much of the vocabulary would be covered. But for anyone who tries this, wouldn't having read this text multiple times, along with many other texts at this basic level, allow one to progress to a more difficult text, perhaps even one περι τον Σοκρατην.
I should also add that a system of leveled readers works best as part of a balanced literacy curriculum. And when it comes to learning a foreign language, which is true for most of the people that would be using them, they would function best in an active language learning environment. Reading naturally makes more sense when other parts of your brain are used to making sense in the same language. That's why we don't teaching English Language Learners to read by simply giving them lots of texts at their level. That's just one part of learning the language.