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Informational texts, simple animal fantasy, realistic fiction, traditional literature (folktales)
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Some informational texts with a table of contents and/or a glossary
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Narratives with multiple episodes and little repetition of similar episodes; more elaborated episodes taking place over time; some short chapter books
•
Underlying organizational structures used and presented clearly
(description, compare and contrast, problem and solution)
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Some unusual formats , such as letters or questions followed by answers
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Both familiar content and some new content children may not know
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Variety of dialogue – perhaps between more than two characters
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Most texts told from a single point of view; some with multiple POV
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Contain a few abstract concepts/themes that are highly supported by text and illustrations
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Longer sentences that can carry over to two or three lines, and some over two pages; use of compound sentences
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Use of commas for direct address (Sam, let’s go), qualifiers (however,) and items in a series (nouns, verbs, or adjectives)
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Many two-to-three-syllable words from all parts of speech
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Some complex spelling patterns and letter-sound relationships
•
8-16 pages of print ( some easy chapter books of 50-60 pages)
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3-8 lines of text per page
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Able to process mostly short texts (8-16 pages); some easy illustrated chapter books
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Able to sustain attention and memory over longer periods of time
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Can process longer (ten words or more) and more complex sentences
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Have a large sight-word vocabulary
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Able to use word-solving strategies for complex spelling patterns, multisyllable words, and words with inflectional endings, plurals, contractions, and possessives
•
Read many texts silently , following text with their eyes and without pointing
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Oral reading reflects appropriate rate, stress, intonation, phrasing, and pausing

All-Star Examples: Fly Guy (series), Dragon (series), The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe
Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (Audrey Wood)
Books titles at my level include:
TITLE
Airport
All Tutus Should Be Pink
Apples and Pumpkins
Are You My Mother?
Baby Dolphin’s First Day
Barney’s Horse
Ben and the Bear
Big Dog, Little Dog
Big Fat Enormous Lie
Bike Lesson
AUTHOR
Byron Barton
Sheri Brownrigg
Anne Rockwell
Philip Eastman
Roop
Syd Hoff
Chris Riddell
Philip Eastman
Sharmat
Berenstain
TITLE
Leo the Late Bloomer
Little Toot
Lola
Messy Bessey
Mice at Bat
Mrs. Brice’s Mice
My Visit to the Dinosaurs
The Little House
The Napping House
Night in the Country
AUTHOR
Robert Kraus
Hardie Gramatky
Anna McQuinn
McKissack
Kelly Oechsli
Syd Hoff
Aliki
Virginia L Burton
Audrey Wood
Cynthia Rylant
Carry Me! Animal Babies … Susan Stockdale
Cassie’s Word Quilt Faith Ringgold
No Good in Art
Quick as a Cricket
Danny and the Dinosaur Syd Hoff
First Grade Friends Grace Maccarone
The Quilt
Spot’s Birthday Party
Froggy
Girl Named Helen Keller
Jonathan London
Karen Schmidt
This is the Place for Me
Tidy Titch
Miriam Cohen
Audrey Wood
Ann Jonas
Eric Hill
Joanna Cole
Pat Hutchins
Handa’s Hen
Happy Birthday, Sam
Hattie and the Fox
The Kissing Hand
*Bold titles are Series books.
Eileen Browne
Pat Hutchins
Mem Fox
Audrey Penn
The Very Busy Spider
White Rabbit’s Color Book
Willie’s Wonderful Pet
Eric Carle
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Michael Rosen
Alan Baker
Mel Cebulash
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.