Matching Kids with Books:
From Lexiles to Leveling
Virginia State Reading Association
March, 2008
Heidi Anne Mesmer, Ph D.
MATCHING MATTERS
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Without a good textreader match, students:
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will not learn to read.
will not advance.
will not be motivated to read.
will have different chances at
life.
Zone of Proximal Development
Instructional Texts
Texts that can be read with assistance.
95-90% word accuracy
75% comprehension
Independent Texts
Texts that can be read without
assistance.
100-96% word accuracy
76-100% comprehension
Frustrational Texts
Texts that cannot be read with or
without assistance.
0-89% word accuracy
0-74% comprehension
Selecting texts to “move” the zone.
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How do I make match?
Purpose
Reader
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Text
Reader Factors
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Reading Level
Attention
Memory
Motivation
Interests
Self-efficacy
First Language
Prior Knowledge
Print & Alphabetic
Purposes
•  Instruction
•  Beginning reading
•  Fluency
•  Guided reading
•  Self-selected,
recreational
•  At-home
•  Content area
•  Science
•  Social Studies
Text Factors
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Word Difficulty
Sentence Difficulty
Length of book
Ideas & Concepts
Topic
Genre
Organization
Font
Layout
Spacing
TOOLS TO ESTIMATE
TEXT DIFFICULTY
Traditional Readability Formulas
Second Generation Readability Formulas
Beginning Reading Scaffolds
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Traditional Readability
Formulas
•  Deliver grades & increments
(2.3, 2.4)
•  Based on two text factors
•  Semantic/word complexity
•  Word lists (easy words) OR
•  Number of syllables
•  Syntactic complexity
•  Sentence length
•  Use at grade 2+
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New Dale-Chall
First published
Last updated
Syntactic
Complexity/
Sentence
1948
1995
Average number
of words per
sentence
Semantic
Complexity/Words
Number of words
not found on the
New Dale-Chall
List**
Validation
Methods
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•
•
Compariso
ns to other
formulas
Bormuth’s
Passages
(1971)
DARRTS,
Gates/
MacGinitie,
NAEP
passages
Fry Graph
Flesch-Kincaid
Grade Level
1964
1943
1977
1971
Average number of Average number of
words per
words per
sentence
sentence
Spache
Number of
syllables
Number of words
not on a list of
1041 words from
the HarrisJacobson Basic
Elementary
Vocabulary
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Comprehen •
sion Tests
(unspecified
)
•
Oral reading
scores
Comparison
s to other
formulas
Comparison
s to
samples of
basal
readers***
Comparison •
s to other
formulas
GatesMacGinitie
Test
•
Compariso
ns to
samples of
basal
readers*
Compariso
ns to other
formulas
Number of words
not on the Primary
Word List –810
frequently
occurring first
grade words taken
from The
Educator’s Word
List
•
Compared
to the Fry
and Spache
using DRA
passages
(Beaver,
1997).
Increments used
Whole grades
1– 4
Two-grade
ranges for
5-16
(e.g. 5-6, 7-8)
Whole grades
1- 17
Grade Level:
Grades and tenths
0-12
(e.g. 1.2, 2.3)
Reading Ease:
0-100 (0 hardest)
Whole grades
and tenths .8 to
3.9
Whole grades
Advantages
Recently revised
Well-validated
Not copyrighted
Easy to use
Bundled with
Microsoft word
Best estimates
at grades 1 & 2.
Best estimates at
grades 1 & 2
Based on the latest
word list (1995)
Best estimates
at grade 3+
Disadvantages
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Number of
syllables
1953
1974
Average number
of words per
sentence
Primary
Readability
2002
2002
Average number of
sentences per 100
word sample
Weaker estimates Gray Area on
at grade 1-2
graph does not
deliver estimates
of readability
May underestimate Not recently
Not good for
revised
grades 1 and 2.
Underestimates
at grade 3+.
Best used with
beginning reading
materials
Web site: Intervention
Central
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www.interventioncentral.org
Title: Boy
Author: Roald Dahl
Total Words in Sample: 99 Total Sentences in Sample: 3
Average Number of Words Per Sentence: 33.0
Words Not Matched to Dale Familiar 3000-Word List: 10
Percentage of Words Not Matched to Dale Word List: 10.10
Dale-Chall Readability Index: 6.86
Raw Score; 7-8th Grade Level
My four friends and I had come across a loose
floorboard at the back of the classroom, and when we pried
it up with the blade of a pocketknife, we discovered a big
hollow space underneath. This, we decided, would be our
own secret hiding place for sweets and other small
treasures such as conkers, and monkey-nuts, and birds
eggs. Every afternoon, when the last lesson was over, the
five of use would wait until the classroom had emptied,
then we would lift up the floorboard and examine our
secret hoard, perhaps adding to it or taking something
away."
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Oleander Solutions
Software
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www.oleandersolutions.com
Directions for Using the Flesch Grade Level on
Microsoft Word
1. Type in three 100-word samples from the
beginning, middle, and end of a document or
book.
2. Configure Microsoft Word to calculate
readability statistics.
Go to the Tools menu,
Click Options,
Click the Spelling and Grammar tab,
In the bottom left-hand corner
select the box that says “Show readability
statistics.”
1. Conduct a spell check. At the end of the spell
check, a box entitled “Readability Statistics” will
report Counts (words, characters, paragraphs,
and sentences), Words, and Readability (percent
of passive sentences, Flesch Reading Ease, and
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level). The FleschKincaid Grade Level will identify the readability
level.
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Use with caution. . .
Second Generation
Formulas: Lexiles
•  Advances the traditional formulas by
harnessing technology and creating
more precise units
•  Breaks readability into Lexile units (L)
•  Books range from 200-1700L•  Based on two text factors
•  Semantic/word complexity
•  Word Frequency
•  Syntactic Complexity
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•  Sentence Length
Second Generation
Formulas: Degrees of
Reading Power
•  Breaks readability into Degrees of
Reading Power (DRP)
•  Ranges from 0-65 DRP
•  Based on two text factors
•  Semantic/word complexity
•  Words on Dale/Chall List
•  Number of letters per word
•  Syntactic complexity
•  Number of words per sentence
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2nd Generation Advantage:
Parallel Text & Reader
Measures
Text Difficulty
Units
Reader’s
level
Text Difficulty
Units
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Reader’s
level
Same Units
Lexile-Leveled
Assessments
•  Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test
•  Iowa Test of Basic Skills
•  Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT-­‐8) •  Scholas9c Reading Inventory (SRI) and SRI Interac9ve (Computer-­‐
based) •  Stanford Diagnos9c Achievement Test 9 & 10 (SAT-­‐9/SAT-­‐10) 18
Lexile & DRP
Translation
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Grade
Lexile Text Measures
DRP
1
200 to 400
40-43
2
300 to 500
44-47
3
500 to 700
48-49
4
650 to 850
50-51
5
750 to 950
52-53
6
850 to 1050
54-55
7
950 to 1075
56-57
8
1000 to 1100
58-59
9
1050 to 1150
60-61
10
1100 to 1200
62-63
11- 12
1100 to 1300
63-65
Common Books in
Lexiles
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750
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
680
Charlotte’s Web
670
Number the Stars
650
How to Eat Fried
560
and Tall
560
Math Curse
560
Superfudge
490
Boxcar Children
400
Frog and Toad are Friends
330
Shoeshine Girl
260
The Cat in the Hat
220
Clifford the Big Red Dog
210
The Golly Sisters Go West
140
Amelia Bedelia
130
Nate the Great
130
Morris the Moose
3
BR
Green Eggs and Ham
Are you my Mother?
Caveats
•  Estimate text difficulty
•  Know the formula.
•  Use with other subjective
information.
•  Use with connected text.
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Caveats
•  Formulas can underestimate
difficulty.
•  Formulas can over- and
underestimate difficulty of
science and social text
materials.
•  Be alert for formulaconforming changes that
increase difficult.
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BEGINNING READERS
Qualitatively Leveled Text
Decodable Text
Vocabularly-controlled/sight word readers
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Formulas won’t work
with beginning readers
•  Texts are too short to get an
adequate sample
•  Formulas lose validity at the lower
levels
•  Formulas do not capture all that
makes text difficult for beginners
•  Beginners need:
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•  Very common words
•  Format adjustments
•  Orthographic simplification
Qualitatively Leveled
Texts
Research
indicates that
levels do not
include
attention to
word
frequency or
letter/sound
complexity
(Cunningham et
al. 2005; Hatcher,
2 005)
Houses by Joy
Cowley
“By the red house
there is. . . a blue
house. And by the
blue house
there is. . . a pink
house.. . And by the
pink house there is.
. .a yellow house.”
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FEATURES
natural language
predictability
picture-to-text
match
high content
words
low word
counts
limited print/page
Shorter
sentences
Qualitatively Leveled
Texts
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Highly Decodable Text
The Lucky Duck
(Modern Curriculum Press)
“One wet, wet day a
duck got stuck. A duck
got stuck in the mud. A
bug came and gave the
duck a tug. The duck
and the bug got stuck in
the mud.”
FEATURES
•  words
matching
taught phonics
•  words that are
phonetically
regular
clustered and
repeated
•  single-syllable words
(Brown, 2000, Hiebert,
1998, Mesmer, 1999)
Decodable Text
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Research indicates
that students apply
letter sound
information more in
decodable text but
that one-on-one
tutoring with a
strong phonics
component makes
them no different
than other materials
(Jenkins et al. 2005;
Mesmer,
2001;2005)
Vocabulary-controlled/
Sight Word
Fishing
On Saturday I
went fishing with
my grandma.
Grandma and
like to fish. We
fish every
Saturday. We
like to go to the
pond.
FEATURES
•  vocabulary
controlled by
•  the most
frequently
occurring
English words
•  repetition
An illustration
Research
indicates
very few
current
materials
possess this
type of
scaffold
(Foorman et al,
•  Words are introduced and
repeated throughout the set of
books.
•  Repeated words are the most
frequently occurring
•  Ex:
Book 1 Book 2
Book 3
2004)
the
see
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the
see
look
at
•  Use books in order.
the
see
look
at
can
Vocabulary-controlled/
Sight Word Readers
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MATCHING FOR BEGINNING
READERS
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By the end of first grade
readers should be able to:
Read:
2nd
•  At about a
grade
level
•  Have a reading
vocabulary of 300-500
words (Snow et al. 1998)
•  High Frequency
words
•  Decodable words (50
sounds/minute)
Fluency:
•  Read 40 words correct
per minute (Hasbrouck &
Tindale, 1997; Good &
Kaminski, 2002)
Vocabulary:
•  Learn the meanings of
860 new root words
(Anglin, 1993; Biemiller, 2005;
Biemiller & Slonim, 1993)
Comprehension
•  Answer comprehension ?
s based on text
•  Predict and justify
answers
•  Discuss how, why, and
what-if ?s (Snow et al.
1998)
Phonemic Awareness:
•  Segment (35 sounds per
minute) (Good &
Kaminski, 2002)
Concept of Word
•  Texts to use when students are
mastering letter knowledge and
concepts of print
Sounding Out
•  Texts to use when students know
enough about vowels to sound out
words, but not enough to handle the
full range of vowel spellings.
Fluency
•  Texts that will build sight word
knowledge and fluency
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Concept of Word
CONCEPT OF WORD
Point
The cat sits by the tree.
1
cat
1
tree
1
She sees a bird.
0
She
1
sees
0
The chases after the bird.
0
chases 0
after
0
Total:
4/9
INITIAL SOUNDS
O
H
X
V
Y
T
B
Q
Total: 13/26
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Finding Words____
S
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W
R
E
M
Z
C
G
J
U
F
P
D
A
N
K
L
Qualitatively Leveled
Text
Major Reading
strategies
•  Memorizing
•  Using syntax
and semantics
•  Using sight
words
•  Using some
letter/sound
knowledge
Instructional
Purposes
•  At very early
stages
•  Voice-to-print
match
•  Concepts of word
•  when readers
know some
letter/sound
correspondences
Highly Decodable Text
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Major Reading
Strategies
Use letter/sound
knowledge
blending
word by word
rely on sight
words
Instructional
Purposes
•  scaffold letter/
sound application
•  to follow phonics
instruction
Sight Word Readers
Major Reading
strategies
•  Relying on
sight
vocabulary
•  Relying on
repetition
•  Using pictures
Instructional
Purposes
•  to build sight
vocabulary
•  to build fluency
•  at early stages
Teachers reportedly use some
text types for specific purposes
Leveled books
Children’s Literature
Big books
Predictable books
Decodable print
Vocab-controlled
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
PRINT
CON
SOUND
OUT
SIGHT
COMP
FLUENCY
STRUGGLING
ELLs
(Mesmer, 2006)
MATCHING FOR
INTERMEDIATE READERS
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Class Text Organizer
•  Managing data on class reading levels
to make matches for large groups,
small groups, & individuals
Matching for SSR or Dear
•  The unique text-matching demands of
student-driven selections
High Interest/Low Level Books
•  Books for struggling readers that aren’t
babyish
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Class Text Organizer
•  Obtain Instructional and
Independent reading levels
•  Organize the information to
find texts for:
whole class (independent)
whole class (instruction)
novel groups
individual (reading workshop or
recreational)
•  classroom library
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Making Matches for SSR
Student-driven choices
require different
considerations
•  Reading Level
•  Interests
•  Genre
•  Accountability
•  Metacognitive skills in
text choices
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Reading level
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•  Label reading
levels of books.
•  Stock collections
based on reading
levels of all.
•  Give students
information about
their reading
levels.
•  Teach students
the metacognitive
skill of judging
difficulty
Books for ____________
My Zone of Proximal Development is
__________________________________.
The best books for me are these
colors_____________________________.
My reading goal is
__________________________________.
* This card is laminated and filled in using
dry erase markers so that changes can be
made as students grow.
5 or more?
. . . the choice
is poor
The difficulty meter
•  Rate the
difficulty of the
book from the
hardest 10 to
the easiest 1
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Interests- ASK
Current study of 2-5th grade boys book
preferences. . .
•  Animorphs, Bionicles, Pokemon, Star
Wars, Captain Underpants, and Bone.
•  Holes.
•  Topics
What students
like to read
isn’t in school
(Worthy,
Moorman, &
Turner, 1999)
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•  baseball, basketball, football, BMX,
snowboarding, animals, how things work,
jokes, and game manuals.
•  Newspapers (55% v. 27%)
•  Comics (64% vs. 40%)
Good SSR Practices
(Kelly & Clausen-Grace, 2006)
R5
•  Read & Relax
•  Books ready
•  No getting up
•  Reflect & Respond
•  Rap
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Best SSR Practices
•  Read & Relax
•  Books must be ready
•  No getting up (not a bathroom or water
break, no chats with teacher)
•  Teacher circulates & supports
•  “State of the class” taken at the beginning
•  Reflect & Respond
•  Log: date, title, author, genre, and a brief
response OR
•  Post-it: Your favorite part and a part that
made you go hmmmm?
•  Rap
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•  Share reflections with the class OR
•  Conference w/teacher
Courtesy of K. Dredger
This Stinks!
•  Students put
books in this
box that
“rock”!
•  Attach a post-it
telling why.
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•  Students put books
in this box that
“stink!”
•  Attach a post-it and
tell why they didn’t
like it.
•  Rule: Have to have
read the book
High Interest/Low Readability
High/Low Books
•  Topics that interest
students in the upper
grades, but readabilities
that match below grade
level performance
•  Apply formulas to help
readers
•  Can be good “whole
class” texts
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High Interest/Low
Readability
•  Wright Group-X-Zone
•  Rigby-Gigglers
•  MCP Comix
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Accelerated Reading &
Reading Counts
ADVANTAGES +
These programs may motivate apathetic
readers who enjoy competition.
DISADVANTAGES -Extrinsic rewards based on point totals
may lead children to believe that reading
has little intrinsic value. Motivation may
wane when rewards are removed.
The use of Reading Counts or AR can
These packages are not comprehensive
increase the time and attention that
reading programs. They are
schools give to periods of sustained
supplemental and should not replace
reading.
active teaching.
The quizzing component may help
These programs rely heavily on literal
teachers judge whether or not a child has questions.
actually read a book.
When overused, these programs can
narrow the curriculum squeezing out rich
responses to literature like creative
interpretations, written responses, and
literature circles.
If a school does not have a great many AR
or Reading Counts books, students may
limit themselves to reading only program
books.
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Accelerated Reading &
Reading Counts
DON’T
•  Use points to determine grades
•  Treat AR as a reading program
•  Let AR stop book discussions
because the discussions would
allow students to “cheat” the
quizzing
•  www.trelease-on-reading.com
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Thank you!
http://www.soe.vt.edu/elementaryed/mesmer/index.html
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