Demystifying Reading Levels

Report cards will be coming out soon, and many school districts had parent-teacher conferences last week.  It’s very common for teachers to share reading levels with parents, and I think they should.  However, there’s more to a reading level than a letter or a number, and all too often the more doesn't get shared.  Reading level assessments give teachers a starting point for instruction and allow them to choose books that kids can be successful reading.  Schools also use them to track student progress, and reading levels should grow during a school year.  They should not be used to pigeon-hole students to certain books, programs or reading groups. 

Schools measure reading levels using a number of different assessments, but generally speaking they listen to a kid read a short text, notice their fluency and how they problem solve difficult words, and ask some comprehension questions.  What reading assessments don’t and can’t measure is student interest or background knowledge.  A child reading on grade level in third grade might be obsessed with soccer and, therefore, able to access a much more difficult text about his favorite sport.  Along the same lines, I’m going to struggle with a book on software development, because I don’t know or care much about it.  Some children are stronger readers of fiction, while others score higher on non-fiction.  Reading levels are like GPS systems.  They can be a very helpful guide, but you still have to use your common sense or it might take you the long way home. 

To further demystify reading levels, here’s a list of the most common systems used and their approximate grade level correlations.   

Grade Level	Guided Reading (Fountas & Pinnel)	DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment)	Lexile
K	A-D	A-4
1	C-J	3-18	Up to 300L
2	I-M	16-28	140L-500L
3	M-P	28-38	330L-700L
4	P-S	38-40	445L-810L
5	S-V	40-50	565L-910L
6	U-Y	50-60	665L-1000L

However, most books aren’t leveled in ways that parents can access them, so you’re better off looking for certain attributes.  For kindergarteners, we want books with minimal text and lots of pictures.  I like Growing Colors by Bruce McMillan.  Each page shows a photograph of a different colored plant and a color word. I also like Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola, almost anything by Eric Carle and, my favorite, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr. 

 

By first grade, kids are starting to use more visual cues, like the first letter of a word, along with the meaning of the story.  They are still relying heavily on the pictures and patterned text, and we should let them.  Look for books like, the Sam series by Barbro Lindgren, the Dear, Dragon series by Margaret Hillert, and the Little Critter series Mercer Mayer.  By the end of first grade, we like to see kids reading books that have more text and rely less on pattern, like Hattie and the Fox and Noisy Nora. 

In second grade, kids are able to read books with more text on a page and follow the meaning of a short story.  The easy chapter books I mentioned in “Chapter Books is Not a Genre” are good fits for second graders.  Also look for the Froggy series by Jonathan Londan, the Little Bear series by Else Minarik, and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (or a Moose a Muffin or a Pig a Pancake, etc) by Laura Numeroff. 

We call third graders transitional readers, because they are transitioning into books with less picture support.  If a student starts third grade with Amelia Bedelia and Miss Nelson is Missing, we want them to end the year with the Magic School Bus, Roald Dahl’s shorter novels, and The Time Warp Trio.  Also look for Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner.  It’s about a boy who enters a sled dog race to save his grandfather’s farm.  Warning – it’s sad, but beautiful. 

As you know, fourth grade is my first love, and Roald Dahl’s novels are perfect for fourth graders, because they’re a little scary, a little gross and the kids always pull one over on the adults.  But for me the quintessential fourth grade books are Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, the If You Lived . . . series, Mr. Popper’s Penguins (it was my favorite in 4^th grade), and Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Few things make nine year olds happier than a boy and his dog.  Andrew Clements’ books, like Frindle and The Landry News are also excellent options. 

By fifth and sixth grade, kids reading on grade level can access most children’s novels.  The challenge now becomes to make sure they appropriate for their age.  I like the Percy Jackson series, the Dear America series, and Darnell Rock Reporting by Walter Dean Meyers.  The last is about a kid who doesn’t like school all that much until he’s forced to join the school newspaper.  Some other authors to look for are Gary Paulsen, Eva Ibbotson, and Jerry Spinelli.  The important thing to remember about reading levels is that every child will make progress at her own pace, and reading levels are just a guide.  They shouldn’t be a prison cell or status symbol.