I used the Fry method to determine that the eighth grade American history textbook, The American Journey published by Glencoe (2009) falls on the readability scale of grade eight. I expected the readability to be at the eighth to tenth grade . The school that uses this text is led by reading specialists, who also provide training and purchase curricula. Care is taken to choose reading material at the appropriate level. Their training explained that most textbooks are written with a high readability for use in classrooms. Although this textbook is used in an eighth grade classroom, the students' instructional reading levels range from fourth to eighth grade. Teachers must provide significant support in order for students to be successful.
