Phil Collins
REPORTS

A Lexile is…
A unit for measuring text difficulty that is linked to the RIT score,
Northwest Evaluation Association’s unit for measuring reading comprehension.
These links allow teachers to use the student’s RIT score to find books, periodicals, and other reading materials that will be appropriately challenging for each student.
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What Lexile measures…
 Semantic Difficulty
 As measured by the frequency with which each word in a measured text appears in Lexile’s database of 200 million words
 Syntactic Complexity
 As measured by sentence length
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The Lexile doesn’t evaluate…
 Genre
 Students moving to a new genre may need more teacher support to read effectively.
 Theme
 A low Lexile score doesn’t mean the book’s theme is appropriate for the reader.
 Content
 Students encountering new content or topics may need to have new vocabulary and concepts pretaught.
 Interest
 Students will tend to be more motivated when they can self-select reading material or it is a topic that interests them.
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A number (Lexile) can’t be the only guiding factor for helping students select books; other factors include:
 Age-appropriateness of content
 Background of experience
 Familiarity/knowledge of subject
 Vocabulary
 Developmental level
 Purpose and motivation
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The Lexile score represents…
NWEA
RIT
Lexile
202-208
650L
500L
…the level of text that a student can read with 75% comprehension. For a student with a RIT of 205, books with a 600 Lexile provide an excellent match with the student’s
instructional level.
The book, After the Rain by Norma
Mazer is a 600L text.
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Look at the Lexile as a range of scores…
NWEA
RIT
Lexile
202-208
650L
600L
500L
The upper part of a 500-
650L range might be used for the student’s group reading program – guided instruction .
The teacher might use the lower part of this range as a target for the student’s independent reading
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NWEA
RIT
Lexile
202-208
650L
600L
500L
}
} Guided instruction (+50)

75% Comprehension
Independent (-100)
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 BR – Beginning Reading
 NC – Non-Conforming Text
 AD – Adult Directed
 IG - Illustrated Glossary
Handout Page 15
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Examples of Lexile Measures of Some Popular Newspapers and Literature www.Lexile.com
The Firm – John Grisham
Harry Potter Series – Rowling
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People – Stephen Covey
N.Y.Times
USA Today
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathon Swift
Lexile
680
880
Approx.
RIT
205
216
1080
1380
1200
1330
225
243
233
240
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1500 - On Ancient Medicine
1400 - The Scarlet Letter
1300 - Brown vs. Board of Ed.
1200 - War and Peace
1100 - Pride and Prejudice
1000 - Black Beauty
900 - Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders
800 - The Adventures of Pinocchio
700 - Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery
600 - A Baby Sister for Frances
500 - The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth
400 - Frog and Toad are Friends
300 - Clifford’s Manners
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1500 - The Making of Memory: From Molecules to Mind; Doubleday
1400 - Philosophical Essays; Hackett Publishing
1300 - Psychology: An Introduction; Prentice Hall
1200 - Business; Prentice Hall
1100 - America: Pathways to Present; Prentice Hall
1000 - Writing and Grammar Gold Level; Prentice Hall
900 - World Cultures: A Global Mosaic; Prentice Hall
800 - Word 97; Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
700 - World Explorer: The U.S. & Canada; Prentice Hall
600 - Science (Grade 4); Addison-Wesley
500 - People and Places; Silver Burdett Ginn
400 - Imagine That!; Scholastic Inc.
300 - My World; Harcourt Brace
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 Aetna Health Care Discount Form (1360)
 Medical Insurance Benefit Package (1280)
 Application for Student Loan (1270)
 Federal Tax Form W-4 (1260)
 Installing Your Child Safety Seat (1170)
 Microsoft Windows User Manual (1150)
 G.M. Protection Plan (1150)
 CD DVD Player Instructions (1080)

Matching Readers and Text www.lexile.com
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 To explore…
 Search by subject matter or Lexile range
 Literature for differentiated thematic units
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Author Study Example
 4th grade
 Pick an author
 Pull the list of novels by that author
 Using your list of student results, make an instructional reading level match between title and student lexile level
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Topic Example
 6th or 7th grade
 Pick a topic
 Pull a list of reading materials on that topic
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Activity Option 1
 Pick an upcoming author, topic or genre you will be studying
 Review the Lexiles of the students in your class
 Review the Lexile levels of reading resources available
 Develop a plan to integrate the reading resources available into your instruction
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How can content area teachers use
Lexiles?
 to compensate for disparities between student reading comprehension levels and the readability of assigned texts
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District 34 Textbook Lexiles
 Science
 5th DW-Light & Sound - 980
 5th DW-Pop. & Ecosystems - 920
 SE - Inside Earth - 1060
 SE - Cells & Heredity - 910
 SE - From Bacteria to Plants - 1220
 SE - Chemical Building Blocks – 950
 SE - Electricity & Magnetism - 890
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District 34 Textbook Lexiles
 Science
 SE - Astronomy - 970
 SE - Environmental Science - 1050
 SE - Weather & Climate - 1100
 SE - Motion, Forces & Energy - 990
 SE - Chemical Interactions - 1000
 SE - Sound & Light - 1010
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District 34 Textbook Lexiles
 Social Science
 4th Explore Our Land – 670
 5th Build Our Nation - 930
 6th America Will Be - 1070
 7th American Nation - 880
 8th World Geography - 1040
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Activity Option 2
 Pick an upcoming unit you will be studying
 Review the Lexiles of the students in your class
 Review the Lexile levels of content reading of the upcoming unit
 Identify the students in your class who are likely to struggle with the content reading based on their Lexiles
 Develop a plan/strategies to help these students be successful
 Research the availability of alternative content reading materials at a more appropriate Lexile level
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Dynamic Reporting Suite
Resources
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Lexile Report
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Activity 1 Revisited…
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Projected Performance
Category by Subject
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Create a Custom Booklist
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 How will you use Lexiles to change what you are currently doing with students in your classroom?
 How can you collaborate with other staff (teachers, librarians, etc.)?
 What resources can you access in your building and across your district?
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Lexile Resources www.Lexile.com
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 To explore later…
 Teacher tool box
 Lexile Analyzer (textbooks)
 Power Vocabulary
 Specialized Pathfinders available
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W = Words, Vocabulary list
S = Student word lists, activities, and assessments
T = Teacher answer keys
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Communicating with
Parents
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Otis Fulton, Vice-President,
MetaMetrics
The number 1 question parents (and students) ask about the Lexile
Framework is “My child scored _____. What does this mean?”
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Communicating with Parents
 Don’t get too focused on numbers – ranges are important.
 Give examples of books and other text materials.
 Talk about where the student is now, but also where they are going!
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Communicating with Parents
 Emphasize that the Lexile Framework doesn’t address:
 interest
 age appropriateness
 text support (pictures)
 text quality
 It looks only at text difficulty – books should always be previewed.
 Is a tool for matching readers with appropriately challenging text, not a reading program
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