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18 WINNETKA TALK November 14, 1925 CHILDREN ASSIST IN CHOOSING BEST BOOKS Local School Leaders Evolve Scientific Plan for Selection of Reading Material Editor's Note: The accompanying article is the first of a brief series relative to the Scientifically Graded Book List for Children worked out by Superintendent of School Wash- burne and his research assistants. The Winnetka Graded Book List is a scientific study of children's tastes in reading, including a list of 700 books which boys and girls have read and enjoyved, annotated with the children's own comments, and based on the opin- ions of 36,750 children in 34 cities and towns. It is to be published in De- cember by the American Library association. By MABEL VOGEL (Research assistant, Winnetka public schools.) Graded book lists in the past have been based upon guess-work or up- on the observation of teachers and librarians, who know in a general way which books are suitable for chil- dren of different schools grade and ages. Until this 'year however mo scientific investigation has heen car- ried out on a large scale to deter- mine what books are being read and enjoyed by children of various ages and degrees of reading ability." At the request of the Winnetka public schools a grant was made by the Carnegie corporation of New York through the American Library asso- ciation to carry on such a study. The study was conducted in the research department of the Winnetka public schools under the supervision of Carle- ton Washburne, superintendent of schools. The results are being pub- lished as a book entitled "The Winnet- ka Graded Book List" (Amercan Li- brary association, Chicago). Teachers in the Winnetka Public Schools and experts in the field of re- search have assisted in the statistical part of the study. The American Li- brary association has kept closely in touch with the work and experts in the library field have assisted materially in: the evaluating of the library quality (OLISEUM VOUT 722 TUESDAY«SUNDAY = Broadcasting from 10 Stations Feature Contests Daily Everything New in Radio Sets -- Parts -- Accessories DAILY 1PM [1 PM. \DMISSION S0¢ of the books listed and in the correct- ing of-comments used in annotating the book list. 36,750 Children Assist In order to prepare a scientifically graded list we secured the cooperation of 36,750 children in 34 different cities. All types of schools were represented --private: schools, public schools, normal and university training schools and public libraries. A wide range of nationalities was represented. These 34 cities ranged in location all the way from Quincy, Mass. to Santa Fe, New Mexico, giving a fair representa- tion of all section of the country. our Third Floor. To tl -- : j available 0 these 36,750 children ballots were John Cu. John M. Smyth, Jr., President 1 sent. The ballot was found by statistical | checks to be fairly reliable for deter- mining children's interest in books which they read. On each ballot the teacher wrote the child's score as shown by the Stanford Silent Reading test. Before deciding upon this particular test, reading ex- perts at Columbia university, Univer- sity of Chicago, University of Wiscon- sin, University of Michigan, and Leland Stanford university were consulted. Fach expert independently recom- mended this particular test as the best one. Each child who co- operated in the filling out of the ballots | was given one of these reading tests. The test consisted of 29 paragraphs. The child has to read these and fill in blanks where words are omitted. Here are a few sample paragraphs which show the general structure of the test: ' 1. Fanny has a little red hen. Every day the hen goes to her nest and lays an egg for Fanny to eat. Then she makes a funny noise to tell Fanny to come and get the 8. Birds' eggs are almost as different from each other as are the birds them- selves. The robin lays four or five blue eggs. The dove lays two white eggs. The sparrow lays six or eight Smyth ompan Io ay MANUFACTURERS ~ RETAILERS ~IMPORTERS Thomas A. Smyth, Vice President Fireplace Furnishings - To obtain just the proper accessories for your fireplace is easily accomplished in the John M. Smyth Store. We have a wide variety of designs--this display is on Truth in Advertising OPEN EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and SATURDAY EVENING UNTIL 10 O'CLOCK