Reading Ability vs. Interest Level
How do you bridge the gap between a student’s reading ability and their interest level?
For example, what is the best way to engage an older pupil, who has interests and consumes content (films, video games, etc.) of teenage maturity, but has a lower reading ability and so cannot engage with books and written entertainment in the same way?
Story Scribbler offers one solution to this problem: powerful AI writing tools for writing stories with appropriate content but language customisable for any reading ability.
In this guide, we’ll explore the first draft tool, which lets us define reading and interest levels for your stories, and the rewrite tool, which allows us to update the language of an existing story to fit a new target audience.
Getting started
Creating a first-draft
To use the first draft tool, we just need to create a new project. From here, we can select the intended reading ability and interest level of our audience:
Reading Ability
Picture books Early-level readers First chapter books Middle-grade Pre-teen Teen Young adult New adult Adult
Interest Level
Picture books Early-level readers First chapter books Middle-grade Pre-teen Teen Young adult New adult Adult
You’ll notice that both the reading ability and interest level options use the same variety of options - let’s break down the broad age ranges and interests / themes associated with each option:
Picture books - Ages 0-5 years, Interest Level basic life concepts, friendship, and imaginative play, Reading Level simple vocabulary, emotional concepts like sharing and kindness.
Early-level readers - Ages 5-7 years, Interest Level familiar experiences like school, friendship, and small adventures, Reading Level basic sentences and simple plots, positive behavior focus.
First chapter books - Ages 6-9 years, Interest Level simple adventures, family, and friendship, Reading Level introduction to chapter structure with basic emotional stakes.
Middle-grade - Ages 8-12 years, Interest Level independence, identity, morality, and adventure, Reading Level more complex plots and emotional depth, but positive resolutions.
Pre-teen - Ages 10-12 years, Interest Level identity, social dynamics, and early romance, Reading Level deeper emotional complexity and moral challenges.
Teen - Ages 13-15 years, Interest Level coming of age, relationships, rebellion, and mental health, Reading Level complex emotional dilemmas and exploration of identity.
Young adult - Ages 15-18 years, Interest Level self-discovery, romance, societal issues, and independence, Reading Level intense emotional and psychological narratives, mature themes.
New adult - Ages 18-25 years, Interest Level transitioning to adulthood, career, relationships, and identity, Reading Level explicit content, adult responsibilities, and emotional struggles.
Adult - Ages 25+ years, Interest Level personal relationships, societal issues, and life challenges, Reading Level wide range, from light entertainment to complex psychological and philosophical content.
Our first draft tool uses these definitions as guidelines when drafting your stories - we recommend defining the themes, interest level and language expected in your story summary to fine-tune this further.
Using the rewrite tool
The first draft tool will often get you 90% of the way towards a great story, and to go that final 10% we recommend using the rewrite tool.
This freeform tool allows us to describe any edits - minor or major - and have our AI co-writer make the changes for us.
- Rename a character, or remove them from the story entirely (and have someone else say their lines!)
- Generically ask for simpler language, or be more targeted and target specific phonics! (your mileage may vary - AI doesn’t understand language the same way as a human, so it won’t be consistent when talking about phonics and the building blocks of language - although it can often suprise you!)
- Change the “mood” of a story - make it faster paced, more or less descriptive, a different genre, etc.
You’ll find the rewrite tool will try to retain elements of original story it’s not told to change - this is useful behaviour for edits, but if you find yourself needing to completely change a story it’s recommended to start a new project.