Teacher book selection

We have all participated in this University and have shared our stories of terribly dense readings that took hours to comprehend. I can say with utmost confidence that these were no one's favorite readings. The struggling through the vocabulary and the bleak word choice, make these readings difficult. Let me ask you this, which sentences to you comprehend better?

• Pontificating on preferred film choice, a macabre film presented itself successfully. Regarding the antipathy, every filament on my arm piloerected in trepidation.

• I thought about what movie I wanted to see, and the scary movies looked the best. While watching it I got goosebumps.  

We all understand the second sentence perfectly, and I'm sure some of us needed to use our dictionaries for some of the vocabulary from the first. The second paragraphs readability is at a level that is easily understood. In other words, it is easy to read, and more enjoyable for the reader as an end result.  The reading I chose for this week was the Fry article Readability versus Leveling. It compared readability with leveling and how the two help in book selection. We've already discussed how readability shows how easy literature is to read. It is objective and is easily quantified. Leveling is more subjective and coincides more with how the book aids in the lesson, how the images inside help the story, and if the word choice is challenging enough, but still understandable. As teachers we have to include books that challenge our students and ones that are enjoyable. We all need to improve our vocabularies, but to do so, we need enjoyable books.