Readability

I don't actually use a textbook in my Latin I class -- my mentor teacher doesn't use Latin for Americans I (LFA) except as an occasional source for readings, and I've followed her lead. I also left my (falling apart) copy of LFA at school over the weekend.

Instead, I chose Wheelock's Latin, which is one of the most widely known and respected introductory Latin books. It's the standard text at UTK for 100 level Latin classes, and I know that my old high school teacher sometimes uses it as a Latin III textbook instead of LFA II.

I chose the Flesch Method to calculate readability, and I typed in the first paragraphs of two chapters of Wheelock: Chapter 1, which introduces verbs, and Chapter 18, which introduces passive voice and the ablative of agent. (Wheelock has 40 chapters total.) I received a readability score of 53.4 for "Flesch Reading Ease" and a score of 11.0 for "Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level." This is several grade levels above the recommended level, although high school students would likely not use this book until after they have taken a few semesters of Latin, at which point their reading level would be closer to this.