An A-level in Harry Potter: Experts fear ‘dumbing down’ as book becomes set text

April 29, 2008 - 9:51am — Blake

Good News For Harry Fans: Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone is being offered as a 'set text' by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), the UK's largest exam board, which is responsible for nearly half of the country's exams. But horrified education experts fear Harry will rob the A-level of credibility.

Comments

April 29, 2008 - 10:49am — effinglibrarian

lexile scores for HP vs. others

not a teacher, but lexile scores are a big deal around here.
from lexile.com, "books in the "Harry Potter" series (which measure between 880L and 950L), "Little Women" (1300L) and "Don Quixote" (1410L) contain longer sentences and more complex words."
quick comparison of random books:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling, J.K.; 940L
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling, J.K.; 980L
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Rowling, J.K;. 880L
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Rowling, J.K.; 1030L
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Rowling, J. K.; 950L
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling, J.K.; 880L
Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone - Rowling, J.K.; 880L
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Rowling, J.K.; 880L
Watership Down - Adams, Richard; 880L
Andersen's Fairy Tales - Andersen, Hans Christian; 860L
Swiss Family Robinson, The - Wyss, Johann; 910L
Black Boy - Wright, Richard; 950L
Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder, Laura Ingalls; 930L
Picture of Dorian Gray, The - Wilde, Oscar; 920L
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury, Ray; 890L

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