Taking Lexiles to the Next Level

1. Taking Lexiles to the Next Level Phil Collins

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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 pre-taught. • Interest • Students will tend to be more motivated when they can self-select reading material or it is a topic that interests them.

5. 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

6. NWEA RIT Lexile 650L 202-208 500L The Lexile score represents… …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 instructionallevel. The book, After the Rain by Norma Mazer is a 600L text.

7. NWEA RIT Lexile 650L 202-208 600L 500L Look at the Lexile as a range of scores… 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

8. Guided instruction vs. independent reading NWEA RIT Lexile }Guided instruction (+50) 75% Comprehension } Independent (-100) 650L 202-208 600L 500L

9. Lexile Codes • BR – Beginning Reading • NC – Non-Conforming Text • AD – Adult Directed • IG - Illustrated Glossary Handout Page 15

10. Examples of Lexile Measures of Some Popular Newspapers and Literature Lexile Approx. RIT The Firm – John Grisham 680 205 Harry Potter Series – Rowling 880 216 The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey 1080 225 N.Y.Times 1380 243 USA Today 1200 233 Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathon Swift 1330 240 www.Lexile.com

11. Lexile Literature 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

12. Lexile Texts 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

13. Personal Use • 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)

14. Matching Readers and Text www.lexile.com

15. Tour of www.lexile.com • To explore… • Search by subject matter or Lexile range • Literature for differentiated thematic units

16. Lexile.com Homepage

17. Search Feature

18. 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

19. Topic Example • 6th or 7th grade • Pick a topic • Pull a list of reading materials on that topic

20. 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

21. to compensate for disparities between student reading comprehension levels and the readability of assigned texts How can content area teachers use Lexiles?

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. Dynamic Reporting Suite Resources

27. Lexile Report

28. Activity 1 Revisited…

29. Projected Performance Category by Subject

32. Create a Custom Booklist

33. Think ahead… • 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?

34. Lexile Resources www.Lexile.com

35. Tour of www.lexile.com • To explore later… • Teacher tool box • Lexile Analyzer (textbooks) • Power Vocabulary • Specialized Pathfinders available

36. Text Analyzer

37. Lexile Teacher’s Toolbox

38. W = Words, Vocabulary list S = Student word lists, activities, and assessments T = Teacher answer keys

39. Communicating with Parents

40. 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?”

41. 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!

42. 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

43. Questions