The Language Levels of Beginning
Readers
Familiar Books
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Familiar Language Level 1:
o May or may not act familiar with the text
o Attends to illustrations but may go off topic
o Names labels or objects
o May not connect one page to another
o Does not relate events earlier in the story with what is going on then
Conferring Ideas: Elaborate using picture clues and background
knowledge. Give them strategies to remember the story.
Familiar Language Level 2:
o Expresses familiarity
o Attends to pictures and illustrations
o Names objects and actions with more detail
o Connects one page to another
o Relies on prior exposure in the text
Conferring Ideas: Model for them reading with fluency & expression and
transitioning smoothly between pages.
Familiar Language Level 3:
o High level of familiarity
o Attends to illustrations
o Names objects and actions with more text-based detail
o Relies on prior exposure to the text to read in a way that’s more
accurate content-wise
Conferring Ideas: Support elaboration and thoughtful attention to the
graphic elements in the text.
Unfamiliar Books
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Unfamiliar Language Level 1:
o Attends to illustrations
o Names and labels without elaboration
o May not connect one page to another
Conferring Ideas: Encourage the student to use as much language as
possible naming things in the illustrations.
Unfamiliar Language Level 2:
o Attends to illustrations
o Names & labels w/some elaboration
o Connects pages with and or then
o Infers character’s feelings
o May incorporate dialogue
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Conferring Ideas: Support elaboration, to add more details and
descriptive language. Help them imagine what the characters are saying
to each other.
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Unfamiliar Language Level 3:
o Elaborates more on each page
o Reading more sentences per page
o Infers feelings and events that aren’t on the page
o Imagines what characters might say
o Editorializes
Conferring Ideas: Help students use more literary language, transition
words, read smoothly and with storyteller language.
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Informational Books
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Familiar Language Level 1:
o Attends to illustrations
o Names labels or objects
o Labels objects without elaboration
o May not connect one page to another
o Does not reveal schema
Conferring Ideas: Support elaboration and thoughtful attention to the
graphic elements in the text.
Familiar Language Level 2:
o Expresses familiarity
o Attends to pictures and illustrations
o Names objects and actions with more detail
o Connects one page to another
o Relies on prior exposure in the text
Conferring Ideas: Build upon what they are already able to do so they
can do that work with more consistency,
Familiar Language Level 3:
o High level of familiarity
o Attends to illustrations
o Names objects and actions with more text-based detail
o Relies on prior exposure to the text to read in a way that’s more
accurate content-wise
Conferring Ideas: Help students build content knowledge and domain
specific vocabulary, show them how to read text features and show how
reading one book on a topic can lead to reading another book on the same
topic.
From I Am Reading by Kathy Collins and Matt Glover, 2015.