Reading gurus Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell came together to develop an entire system of leveling books for K-8 students. This leveling system is the crux of the Reader’s Workshop model and is used to tailor instruction to the individual student’s ability. Texts should not be chosen to simply teach a specific strategy. Rather, the texts should be of such high quality that students can apply a wide range of reading comprehension strategies throughout the reading. "One text offers many opportunities to learn; you must decide how to mediate the text to guide your students' learning experiences" (Fountas and Pinnell).
While leveling texts is not a new concept, Fountas & Pinnell are certainly most popular. Their system levels books from A-Z (literally). By the end of 8th grade students should be reading on Level Z. The expectation is that high school students will graduate from the Fountas & Pinnell system and move into adult literature. Leveling systems are based on four criteria:
· Vocabulary. Books are leveled not solely on the difficulty of specific vocabulary words, but rather how they explain difficult words. For example, Lemony Snickets might use the following; “he was a malicious man, in other words he was very cruel”. In contrast, Harry Potter might describe Professor Snape as malicious while readers would need to infer what the author meant. This explains why Level A-D books may use words like “rhinosaurus” or “dinosaur”, because there is usually a picture accompanying the word.
· Content. Typically, Level A-J books are age appropriate for Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
· Length. Not only do teachers consider the length of the book, but they also consider the length of the chapter as well. Because of Winn-Dixie is an emerging reader’s best friend because of the short chapters.
· Structure. Level A-D books are very structured and usually repetitive. “Dad eats jam. Mom eats jam. I eat jam. We love jam!” Once students begin reading Level M and above books, plots are no longer simple. Problems are multiplied and solutions are not always offered.
Here’s a guide to using their system:
Level A & B
Readers are using meaning and structure to read, not phonological cues.
Guidelines for readers include:
1. Using the picture as source of information
2. Need to be working on one to one match
3. Directionality (read left to right)
4. Know a handful of sight words
5. Can continue a pattern after reading the first page
Level C & D
Similar to A & B Levels, but now unknown words need to be something the reader can figure out graphophonolgocial cues (or using beginning and ending letters).
Guidelines for readers include:
1. Beginning to decode
2. Level D books have longer patterns and more sight words
Level E
Guidelines for readers include:
1. Looking through the word to begin chunking words (ex: p-ark=park)
2. Build comprehension
Level H-I
Guidelines for readers include:
1. Developing inferencing skills. (If kids can’t do a little bit of inference, they will not be able to read J level books).
· All print strategies are taught in levels A-J; after J it’s all comprehension.
· After reading about 20-30 books in a level, readers should be moving on to the next level
The Project’s latest approach to levels for older children is called “Bands of Books” or “Bands of Levels”. The idea is that a student can read all levels within their ability. Teachers can also use “Bands” to plan for Guided Reading groups. They are no longer restricted to putting all the “J readers in one group” and the “M readers in another”. Instead they can all be assigned the same book. Here are some examples of the cornerstone texts for each band:
JKLM J-Frog and Toad.........M-Magic Treehouse Series
NOPQ N-Amber Brown Series.........Q- Fourth Grade Rats
RST R- Because of Winn-Dixie.........S- The Great Gilly Hopkins
UVW U-The Lightning Thief.........W- House on Mango Street
XYZ X-Hunger Games.........Z- Begging For Change
Because the RST band begins to deal with social issues and requires students to reading between the lines, I have an example for you to test your “inferencing skills”. The title is The Stolen Party by Liliana Heker.
Also, Scholastic has a quick way to check the level of any title for free! (It’s not perfect, but it is a quick reference when planning a read aloud or guided reading group.)
