What is the average reading level for a 6th grader

What is the Lexile Level for 6th Grade Students?

As students progress towards the start of their high school journey, their Lexile growth will begin to slow and reading habits will have been formed. It is important to ensure that each individual child is on track to achieve their highest potential Lexile scores in a bid to guarantee that they will be ready for college-level reading at the end of their high school career.

In the 6^th grade, higher performers should be looking to achieve Lexile scores of around 1000L by the end of the year, with the average scores being over 665L. Yearly growth in the 6^th grade falls under 100L typically, with expected growth at 1.7L per week. However, there are a number of things that can be done to provide students with the correct reading assistance in an effort to increase these scores further.

Cloze assessments are of high importance, and educators must ensure that students do not dismiss these tests. By answering questions accurately, you will be more likely to determine an accurate Lexile level, which in turn allows for the correct books to be selected for each individual student.

Regular reading is another important factor to consider, and although some reading habits will have already been formed by this grade, educators can encourage daily student reading for at least 30 minutes to help boost literacy skills. Using the correct reading platform will motivate the students to want to read additional time each and every day.

LightSail Education is a comprehensive LexileⓇ and standards-aligned literacy platform with an immense digital e-book library consisting of thousands of books.  Including multimodal learning functionality and featuring books from leading publishers, LightSail holistically assesses and nurtures each student on their literacy journey throughout elementary, middle, and high school.

When making use of the e-book library, readers can find thousands of Lexile leveled books that would be appropriate for their development. Along with the option to purchase or rent books from renowned publishers, readers will also have a wide selection of free books to choose from.

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Average Reading Speed (WPM) by Age and Grade Level

By Age and Grade Level

Why should we be concerned about how to improve our average reading speed? The fact is, reading faster makes learning much easier. Reading speed affects our ability to comprehend text.

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Table of Contents

• Overview
• By Age and Grade Level
• College Student Average Reading Speed
• Adult Average Reading Speed
• How to Read Faster
• Speed Reading Debunked
• Top Ways to Improve Your Reading Speed
• At-Home Online Homeschool Reading Program
• Next Steps

Average Reading Speed Overview

Reading too slowly impairs our comprehension. When you read too slow, it is hard to hold a complete thought in place. The action of reading slowly is inefficient. Reading slowly makes it difficult to understand what you read.

Reading too quickly and speed reading can also lead to poor comprehension. When you read too fast, supporting details are often lost. People sometimes skim while reading and miss important parts. This makes me think of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This chair is too big, this one is too small, ah, this one is just right. 

When your average reading speed is just right, you read fluently with comprehension.

So, the question remains, should we improve our reading speed? The first answer is, yes. If you are a student and not reading at the average rate for your grade level, you should work on improving your reading rate. That will actually be the sweet spot, or as Goldilocks said, “This one is just right.”

Average Reading Speed by Age and Grade Level

The chart below includes the average reading fluency rates by grade level and age.

Please note that the above reading rates do not take into account technical reading. Technical readings will be read slower than the average reading rates above.

In order to improve reading speed, there are specific skills that need to be nurtured. Any student, no matter what their age can learn to read faster.

How fast do you and your kids read? Take the reading speed test.

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We have the perfect step-by-step program to help you improve your child’s average reading speed and comprehension this summer!

Includes: reading speed training, comprehension strategies, read-aloud selections, card games, puzzles, video spelling and phonics lessons, and more.

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Pages Per Hour Average Reading Speed (College Students)

Based on research from Rosalind Streichler, Ph.D., Center for Teaching Development, University of California, San Diego; Karron G. Lewis, Ph.D., Associate Director, Center for Teaching Effectiveness. Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, The University of Texas at Austin; and research conducted at Cambridge University in England; we can assume that the average college student can read 250 words per minute and that the average textbook has approximately 800 words per page. Therefore, it would take 3.2 minutes to read one page, 32 minutes to read 10 pages, and a little over an hour to read 20 pages. 

Adult Average Reading Speed

It has been thought that the average adult reads at a rate of 300 words per minute. However, Marc Brysbaert from Ghent University in Belgium analyzed 190 studies on reading rate. He found that the average adult reading rate has been overestimated.

Silent reading adults average 238 words per minute and adults that read aloud average 183 words per minute.

With more and more new research on neuroplasticity, we know that even adults’ brains can change their brain structure, make new neuropathways and improve their learning skills. This is done most effectively through consistent practice in short intervals over days. It might be hard to teach an old dog a new trick, but it is possible to improve your average reading speed, even as an adult.

Reading Fluency Training

Homeschool Reading Program

How to Read Faster

How do you improve your average reading speed (without sacrificing comprehension)?

The most effective way to improve your average reading speed is to do reading fluency training. Fluency training speeds up your ability to both decode and retrieve information from memory, RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming). 

A second piece of improving fluency is to strengthen your eye movements (eye training). In order to read with skill, your eyes need to move smoothly across the page from left to right (visual tracking).

So, we should look for a moment at research on eye movements. 

Rayner, in 1997, summarized 25 years of research on eye movements. Reading involves eye movements. These eye movements are called saccades. This is when the eyes are moving rapidly. Rapid eye movements and eye-tracking are separated by fixations when the eyes are relatively still.

Saccade movements typically travel about 6 to 9 letter spaces. They are not impacted by the size of the print. The complete perceptual span is larger, extending to 14 or 15 letter spaces to the right and 3 to 4 spaces to the left. It is the saccade movement to the left combined with the perceptual span length that assures that every letter of every word enters the visual field.

Understanding this visual span perception span combination leads us to realize that efficient readers do this easily. About 10-15% of the time, readers also shift back (known as regression) to look back at the material that has already been read. And as the text becomes more difficult, saccade length tends to decrease and regression frequency increases.

If you skip words, repeat words, or have trouble sounding out words, this throws fluency and meaning of the selection off. However, these skills can improve with fluency training.

Fluency Training Improves RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming).

• A recent study (Wolff, 2014) showed that such training was widely beneficial for reading achievement.
• To help with reading fluency and visual tracking skills, you should have shapes, letters, numbers and/or symbols listed from left to right. Then, have your students read the objects aloud to improve their rapid naming skills.
• Rapid Naming Drills
• Reading Fluency Drill
• Homeschool Reading Program

Speed Reading Debunked

Speed reading per se, the thought of reading at speeds of above 1000 words per minute—much higher than the 200-400 words per minute achieved by the average college-level reader sounds like it would be amazing. The problem though is that it is completely false.

Look back at the example of the visual span. All of the text that is outside of that tiny visual field area is blurry. So the idea promoted by speed reading that we can use our peripheral vision to grasp whole sentences in one go is just…biologically impossible.

Additionally, a study conducted by scientists from the University of California, MIT, and Washington University found that there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy. “Increasing the speed with which you encounter words, therefore, has consequences for how well you understand and remember the text.”

Top Ways to Improve Your Average Reading Speed WPM

So, when we talk about improving reading speed, we are NOT talking about speed reading! We are talking about improving your reading speed and accuracy along with comprehension to a physically sound rate for your age or grade level. 

• Find your baseline or how many words per minute you currently read accurately. Take the free reading speed test to find out.
• Train your eyes with phonetic reading drills (just takes 5 to 6 minutes a day 3 to 5 times a week). 
• Following the practice, read a short selection to continue the progress made with the reading drill and have an opportunity for comprehension practice.
• Set goals and monitor progress.
• Set a goal for 10, 15, 20, or even 25 more words per minute to pass the specific practice drill. It should take 3 – 4 days to pass your goal, otherwise, you have not set the goal high enough. If it takes longer, then you’ve set the goal too high.
• Model reading fluency 
  • Read to your child so they hear the rhythm of a story, book, or selection. 
  • Take turns reading with your child, every other paragraph or page. 
•  Choral read
  • Choral reading is where you read aloud at the same time as another reader.
  • Choral read with your child with both specific reading drills and stories.
  • Choral read selections, rhymes, or poems.

Next Steps

At-Home Online Homeschool Reading Program

This year, your kids can improve their reading speed, comprehension, spelling, and more in our at-home and online homeschool reading program. This program is research-based and results-driven. The program takes 45-60 minutes a day and is 4 days a week with an optional Friday.

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Reading Speed Test

We have put together leveled reading passages that you can use to time yourself or your child. The free reading speed test will help you understand how your student’s reading speed and accuracy, reading fluency, compares to other students in their grade level.

Go to the Reading Speed Test

Reading Fluency Training

Download the first drill of our custom-designed reading fluency training. The first sets of words have extra space between the letters, highlighting or emphasizing the letter or letter combination being studied. In our program, the drills are organized according to phonic rules and letter combinations that are used in reading. Each drill builds upon prior drills, providing continual review and mastery of all concepts.

› Download the Free Reading Drill

Download Free Reading Drill

Research Supports Reading Fluency

Students who read slowly typically have difficulty sounding out words, focusing, and attending to reading content. As a result, both their comprehension and writing skills are impacted.

Multiple studies by Palmer, Bashir, and Hook found a strong positive correlation between reading fluency, reading comprehension, and writing skills.

If a reader does not recognize words quickly enough, the meaning will be lost.

Reid Lyon, Ph.D., stated in 1997, “While the ability to read words accurately is a necessary skill in learning to read, the speed at which this is done becomes a critical factor in ensuring that children understand what they read. As one child recently remarked, ‘If you don’t ride a bike fast enough, you fall off.’ Likewise, if the reader does not recognize words quickly enough, the meaning will be lost… If the reading of the words on the page is slow and labored, the reader simply cannot remember what he or she has read, much less relate the ideas they have read about to their own background knowledge.”

A 2017 study by Taylor, Davis, and Rastle showed that learning to read by sounding out words (phonics) has a dramatic impact on both the accuracy of reading aloud and on comprehension. Researchers tested whether learning to read by sounding out words is more effective than focusing on whole-word meanings. Their results suggest that early literacy should focus on phonics (letters-to-sounds) rather than on teaching sight-word strategies (whole language approach).

What is your child’s reading level?

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How many words per minute a child should read - standards

Every person learns to read from an early age. How well he has mastered this skill is directly reflected in both his school performance and success in adulthood. That is why many parents try to develop reading speed in children, because it allows not only to get good grades in literature, but also makes it easier for the child to cope with homework and preparing for exams.

Reading practice

Literacy is the foundation of everything learned in school. Until a person masters it, he will not be able to move on to more complex learning tasks. That is why kids learn to read already in the first grade or even before school.

Gradually they develop their skills, reading first by letter, then by words and whole sentences. Over time, the speed of acquaintance with the text increases, and by the end of the first grade, the children undergo a control test of reading technique. It measures the number of words a child can read in one minute.

The ability to read quickly is very important for both schoolchildren and adults. The faster a person gets acquainted with the text, the less time he spends on his own tasks. That is why the measurement of the number of words that a child can read in one minute is already carried out in elementary school.

There are standards by which reading speed is tested in primary grades. It is on them that the teacher relies when giving an assessment. From the fifth grade onwards, such checks are not carried out, but it is still important to improve the skills of acquaintance with the text.

Schoolchildren's reading speed by grade - basic norms

Reading is one of the most important skills that we learn at school. At the same time, it is necessary to master it at a sufficient level, because it is thanks to the knowledge of literacy that a person learns most of the curriculum. It is very important to monitor the development of the abilities of each individual student, this is why reading technique is tested.

Giving an assessment, the teacher relies on generally accepted standards. Of course, they are advisory in nature, but still give an idea of ​​the average level of skills that a student should have. So, at the end of the first grade, to get "satisfactory", you need to read more than 25 words in 60 seconds. But the standards are growing every year, and by the end of grade 4, reading 85-90 words per minute would be the minimum acceptable result.

Starting from the fifth grade, students stop checking their reading technique, but there are other equally important criteria by which one can judge a child's skills. These include the ability to memorize and retell what is read, to highlight the main idea of ​​the work. Therefore, you need to work both on the speed of reading and on the quality of perception of the text. Only such an approach allows significant progress in improving the skills of schoolchildren.

At the end of the 4th grade, it is important to develop a reading speed at a sufficient level so that the child, becoming a 5th grader, can cope with the increased study load. But for this it is not enough just to do homework - in order to achieve a decent result, you will have to read additionally, outside the school curriculum.

How many pages per day to read

Enthusiasm for literature has a huge number of benefits. A regular reader analyzes text information better, gets to know it more productively. In addition, reading books develops intuitive literacy, which is very useful for students. The ability to know at the subconscious level how a particular word is spelled is useful both in childhood and in adulthood.

There is no specific standard that regulates how many book pages a child should read per day. This is due to the fact that the speed of reading in children differs depending on their age, so the volume of reading during the day will differ for a first grader and a fifth grader. But in order for the enthusiasm for literature to bring only benefits, it is important to follow the general recommendations:

• you need to make sure that the child reads in good light. The text of the book should be large so as not to spoil the eyesight. Eye health is very important, which is why health professionals recommend no more than one hour a day of extra reading for grades one through four. It is also important to monitor the posture and the distance from the eyes to the text, so you can avoid all sorts of negative consequences.
• it is important not to force the child to read, but to instill in him a love of literature. Parents should remember that extra reading is not part of the curriculum, so the tastes and interests of children should be taken into account when choosing books.
• For additional reading to bring visible results, it must be regular. But the school load and the amount of homework a child has change from day to day. If the student is tired, then it is better to give him a rest.

When students read outside of school it is very helpful to develop their skills. But there are other, more advanced techniques that allow you to learn to get acquainted with the text much faster.

How to improve a student's reading skills

The ability to read quickly and remember well what is read is very important for a modern person. That is why speed reading techniques that allow a child to learn to get acquainted with a whole page of text in a matter of moments are gaining popularity all over the world. This level of skill can significantly reduce the amount of time a student spends doing homework. Given the workload of students, this is very important.

An undoubted advantage is that the skills acquired through the method of speed reading remain with a person for life, even if he does not spend much time getting acquainted with literature later on. The ability to quickly work with textbooks in a higher educational institution or with documentation at work allows you to unload your schedule and spend more time on vacation. All this makes speed reading training in child supplementary development centers very popular among parents.

But for courses to be truly useful, preference must be given to those that are delivered according to best practices and have proven to be effective. You also need to remember that classes should be held in small groups so that the teacher has time to pay attention to each student. This way you can achieve maximum learning efficiency.

This approach will not only increase the reading speed of schoolchildren, but will also give them the opportunity to learn to read up to 1000 words per minute and memorize the text perfectly. This level of information processing skills will be a definite plus and will be useful both when doing homework and preparing for entrance exams to a specialized educational institution.

Reading technique. Norms 1-4 class.

Since many parents stubbornly refuse to understand what is the point of testing reading technique in elementary school (grades 1-4), I give up and publish reading norms. At the same time, I ask you to carefully read not only the quantitative norm of words per minute, but also my explanations both in the table and below it.

→ Number of words may vary slightly depending on the curriculum. Increased rates are given in parentheses.
→ Grade 1: No grade, student “passed” or “failed”. In the first half of the year, the reading technique may not be carried out.

Grade	at the end of the first half of the year	at the end of the second half of the year
1 cl.		Reading is conscious, correct, simple words are read as a word. Words with a complex syllabic structure can be read syllable by syllable.
2 cl.	Reading consciously, correctly, in whole words. Compliance with logical stresses. Words of a complex syllabic structure can be read syllable by syllable.	Reading consciously, correctly, in whole words. With observance of logical stresses, pauses and intonations. Syllabic reading is undesirable.
3 cells	Reading consciously, correctly, in whole words. With observance of pauses and intonations, through which the student expresses understanding of the meaning of what is being read.	Reading consciously, correctly, in whole words. With observance of pauses and intonations, through which the student expresses understanding of the meaning of what is being read.
4 cl.	Reading consciously, correctly, in whole words. With observance of pauses and intonations, through which the student expresses an understanding of the meaning of what is read, and his attitude to the content of what is read.	Reading consciously, correctly, in whole words. With observance of pauses and intonations, through which the student expresses an understanding of the meaning of what is read, and his attitude to the content of what is read.

- Reading by syllables or word completely,

- Availability of errors when reading,

- number of words per minute,

- expression,

- awareness.

can be clicked to enlarge

As you can see, the number of words read is not decisive.

That is, parents need to understand that such a concept as reading speed is only one of the criteria for determining the level of reading technology . way of reading is being checked : the child reads by syllables or the word is read by him smoothly, in its entirety. It is mandatory to check reading comprehension , in other words, whether the student understands what he has read or not. To do this, after reading, a question can be asked about the text, most often “What did you just read about?” and requires a simple answer (a detailed retelling is not needed 😉)

The expressiveness of reading, the presence of errors and / or stammers are also taken into account. Sometimes there is a return to re-reading the previous word, this indicates a lack of awareness and is considered a mistake.

It should also be taken into account that the standards for the speed (rate) of reading may differ depending on the educational institution, the requirements for a student of a gymnasium will be higher, for a student of a correctional class - lower.

The frequency of checking reading technique in elementary school is usually 2 times a year: the end of the first half of the year and the end of the second half of the year.

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