Independent (“Just Right”) Reading Descriptions
Level G
Characteristics of Level G Books
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Informational texts, simple animal fantasy, realistic fiction, traditional
literature (folktales)
Some longer texts with repeating longer and more complex patterns, and
more episodes included
Some unusual formats, such as questions followed by answers,
compare/contrast, or letters
Some texts with sequential information
Familiar content that expands beyond home, neighborhood, and school;
concrete themes and ideas
Some texts with settings that are not typical of many children’s
experience
Some sentences that are questions in simple sentences and in dialogue
Sentences with clauses and embedded phrases, even introductory
(The boy who came is his cousin. Because he was hungry, he ate.)
Some complex letter-sound relationships in words
Some content-specific words introduced, explained, and illustrated in the
text
Complex illustrations depicting multiple ideas
Most texts 3-8 lines of print per page
Slightly smaller print
Characteristics of Readers at Level G
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Able to internalize more and deeper knowledge of different genres
Early reading behaviors now completely automatic
Recognize a large number of high-frequency words
Able to attend to more complex story lines and ideas
Use a range of word-solving strategies (letter-sound information, making
connections between words, using word parts) to read unknown words
Read texts with some content-specific words
Demonstrate appropriate rate, phrasing, intonation, and word stress
Sample Texts
Level G
All-Star Examples: Mittens Series (Schaefer), I Am… Series (Marzollo), Harry the
Hippo Series (Ziefert), The Carrot Seed (Kraus), Each Peach, Pear Plum
REMEMBER: You can sometimes find titles at your level or check the level of a book you already have
on Scholastic’s Book Wizard site. Look for the initials GRL (meaning Guided Reading Level) – this is the
level we use at school. www.scholastic.com/bookwizard
Nancy Giansante is a librarian who keeps a nice leveled book list at her website:
http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/
This site is searchable by grade level suggestions, titles, and author names.