Chris -

I'm now a grad student at JFKU in museum studies, and an evaluator, but in
my former life, I used to teach elementary school.
I absolutely agree with Deb and her methods, but will also point you to a
tool you can use to get samples of various types of writing at various grade
levels.  Note that it only breaks down to small grade ranges (i.e. grade
3-5).  This is at least partly because this is not a hard-and-fast science,
and has lots and lots of wiggle-room inherent in it.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/literaturelist/litsearch.asp

This is a reference list developed by the California Department of Education
and is fairly current.  I especially like that you can get examples of books
in various categories (including narrative non-fiction, non-fiction, and
fiction) since our label-writing is more like what you might find in
non-fiction or narrative non-fiction rather than a novel.

Please do test your copy on real children in your area anyway - it's the
only way you'll really know if the kids liable to come to your exhibit are
likely to be able to read your labels.  In fact, here's a vote to testing
ALL labels on random people, to at least find out what terms common to your
field are not generally known to the public in your area.  :-)

-Mary Kidwell




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