Reading Levels: A Key to Success
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The purpose of the Lexile Framework:
• LINK reader to text under a common measure
• FORECAST levels of comprehension
• DIFFERENTIATE instruction
• TRACK growth over time
Reading is a process in which information from
the text and the knowledge possessed by the
reader ACT TOGETHER to produce MEANING.
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Text Characteristics that influence
Complexity
Syntactic Complexity
The number of words per sentence
Longer sentences are more complex and
require more short-term memory
Example: The Pacific Ocean region where the three
storms hit simultaneously late this summer gets an
average of 16.6 major storms during hurricane season,
which starts in mid-May and lasts until the end of
November. Source: http://scienceworld.scholastic.com/EarthScience-News/2015/09/a-swarm-of-storms
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Text Characteristics that influence
Complexity
Semantic Difficulty
The frequency with which words appear in
MetaMetrics’ Corpus of written text (which
contains over 600 million words)
Less familiar words impede reading fluency
and affect comprehensions
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Example of Semantic Difficulty
• The federal debt exploded to an incomprehensible $12.1
trillion, and the nation continues on its path to becoming a
wholly owned subsidiary of the People’s Republic of China.
Yet lawmakers can’t even agree on a modest proposal to
form an independent debt commission and then vote on its
recommendations.
• The debt commission is expected to be voted down
Tuesday morning, as foes on the far left and the far right
unite to form a status quo supermajority. Prospects have
become so bleak that a couple of retired congressional
leaders got together Monday morning in hopes of shaming
their former colleagues into action.
Source: Washington Post (January 26, 2010, p. A-2)
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What Lexile does..
The Lexile Framework places the text and the
reader on the same scale.
Lexiles only measure text readability.
Therefore, input from readers, parents,
teachers, and librarians is always necessary.
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Limitations of Lexile Measures
READER CHARACTERISTICS
Interest and Motivation
Background Knowledge
Reading Content and Purpose
TEXT CHARACTERISTICS
Age Appropriateness of Content
Text Support
Text Quality
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Typical Text Measures, by Grade
Grade
Text Demand Study 2009
25th percentile to 75th percentile (IQR)
2012 GSE/CCSS Text
Measures
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860L to 920L
925L to 1070L
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880L to 960L
970L to 1120L
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900L to 1010L
1010L to 1185L
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Text Complexity: The other two legs
Qualitative Measures:
• The quality of the text.
• Dependence more on our
professional expertise and
common sense.
• Multiple plot lines
• Multiple narrators and
changing perspectives
• Texts that are non sequential
or books that require the
reader to fill in more of the
background information
Reader and Task Consideration:
• "What do I want the student
to learn in reading this text?”
• Cognitive capabilities
• Reading skills
• Motivation and engagement
with task to text
• Prior knowledge and
background
• Content and
Themes/Concepts
• Complexity of associated tasks
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But earthworms’ job isn’t an easy one. All plants
(even dead ones) contain toxins called
polyphenols. These poisonous chemicals give
plants their color. They also act as a natural
defense by making plant tissue hard to digest,
which can help discourage animals from munching
on plants.
So how do earthworms get by on a diet loaded
with toxins? Researchers at the Imperial College
London in England have discovered that the
worms’ guts contain molecules that break down
the plant toxins, counteracting their effects. They
named these molecules drilodefensins.
Source:
http://scienceworld.scholastic.com/Biology-
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Text characteristics you notice in “Dirty
Work”
• List what you see in terms of sentence
structure
• List what you observe in vocabulary
• List what you notice in word count
• List any other characteristics associated with
text accessibility
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Preamble to the United States
Constitution
• We the people of the United States, in order
to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for
the common defense, promote the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United
States of America.
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Text characteristics you notice in
“Preamble to the Constitution”
• List what you see in terms of sentence
structure
• List what you observe in vocabulary
• List what you notice in word count
• List any other characteristics associated with
text accessibility
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First Inaugural Address of George
Washington
Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could
have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which
the notification was transmitted by your order, and
received on the 14th day of the present month. On the
one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I
can never hear but with veneration and love, from a
retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection,
and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision,
as the asylum of my declining years—a retreat which was
rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear
to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of
frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste
committed on it by time.
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Text characteristics you notice in
“Inaugural”
• List what you see in terms of sentence
structure
• List what you observe in vocabulary
• List what you notice in word count
• List any other characteristics associated with
text accessibility
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Math Text
• A zoo wanted to know which animal exhibit is liked the
most by children under 12 years of age. One day, zoo
officials surveyed every 20th person leaving the zoo and
asked them to name their favorite animal exhibit. Of the
people surveyed, 73% reported that the elephant habitat
was their favorite exhibit. The zoo officials concluded that
children under 12 years of age like the elephant habitat
the most.
• Part A: Describe the sample for this survey.
• Part B: If 560 visitors were at the zoo on the day of the
survey, what was the sample size for the survey?
• Part C: Was the survey random? Explain your answer.
• Part D: Explain why the zoo’s conclusion is invalid.
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Text characteristics you notice in
“Math Text”
• List what you see in terms of sentence
structure
• List what you observe in vocabulary
• List what you notice in word count
• List any other characteristics associated with
text accessibility
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Managing Comprehension
Readers can experience frustration when..
Text readability is 100L+ above their Lexile
level
Readers can experience ease when…
Text readability is 50-100 below their Lexile
level
Readers can experience growth when…
Text readability is within their Lexile range.
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General Reading Recommendation
• Targeted text range of 100L below to 50L
above the student’s Lexile level.
Note: This range may vary based on text type,
content and purpose, reading strategies and
support, and motivation.
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Ideas in the Classroom
When addressing a complicated standard, use
articles with various Lexiles for group work.
Group according to reading levels. Have a series
of three articles with one article below the
average Lexile level of the group, one on
approximate level, and one 50L above.
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Ideas in the Classroom:
Comprehension, Vocabulary, Word
Study, Fluency, and Motivation
Incorporate Reading Strategies (Just to Name a
Few):
1. “Making Connections—Self, Text, World”
2. “Key Concept Synthesis”
3. “Tier 2 Vocabulary” Activities
4. Guided Reading, Close Reading
5. Note-taking strategies (Cornell, etc.)
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Seven Habits of an Effective Reader
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Making Connections
Visualizing
Questioning
Inferring
Predicting
Synthesizing and Summarizing
Monitoring
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I need a quick text evaluation
• http://141.225.42.101/cohmetrixgates/Home.
aspx?Login=1
This is a site where you can type in a short text
and get an estimated readability level.
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Mathematical CR Response
• A volcano in the ocean rises approximately
14,000 feet above sea level. Its base is
approximately 20,000 feet below sea level.
• What is the total height of the volcano? Show
or explain your work and write your answer
in the space provided.
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Also, the Lexile Analyzer
• https://lexile.com/tools/lexile-analyzer/step5-analyze-text-and-get-results/
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Remember to check your students’
Lexile scores to Guide YOU1
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The ability to READ, WRITE, and
COMMUNICATE connects people and
empowers them to achieve things they
never thought possible. It truly is the basis
of who we are and how we interact with the
world. Source: http://www.literacyworldwide.org
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