Key 1: Read at Advanced Levels in Grades K-2: Seven Keys To College Readiness
Key 1: Read at Advanced Levels in Grades K-2: Seven Keys To College Readiness
Key 1: Read at Advanced Levels in Grades K-2: Seven Keys To College Readiness
COLLEGE READINESS
www.mcps7keys.org
Spring 2009
Table of Contents
Elementary Reading Text Level Description.page 1
Teaching reading to young children is a complex process. Young children develop reading skills
and strategies at different rates and reach benchmarks at different times. This document provides
examples and characteristics of texts at levels 4, 6, 16 and M. Text levels are used to plan and
deliver reading instruction. Provide feedback on this document to the Department of Curriculum
and Instruction, Elementary Reading Language Arts Department, 850 Hungerford Drive,
Rockville, Maryland, 20850, Room 256, or at 301-279-3154.
Leveled texts are an arrangement of books, both literary and informational, from easiest to
hardest defined by a set of characteristics. Literary texts are stories, poems, and plays.
Informational texts convey or explain. Assigning levels to texts assists teachers in selecting
books that match readers skills to the supports and challenges in the text.
Text characteristics determine whether a text is easy or hard for a student to read. There is a
degree of variation within each level. The challenge of one book might be figurative language,
while the challenge of another book at the same level might be sentence length, vocabulary, or
advanced concepts.
In MCPS, two leveling systems are used:
Reading Recovery Text Levels 116
Guided Reading (Fountas and Pinnell) Text Levels JZ
The Reading Recovery numerical system is used to designate kindergarten and first grade
level-appropriate text in all MCPS schools and aligns with Reading Recovery. Reading
Recovery is a first grade intervention that is implemented in selected elementary schools. The
transition to the Guided Reading alphabetical system occurs at the second grade level.
Text levels indicate a progression from easiest to most challenging and are not limited to a
specific grade level. However, to provide guidance to teachers, a Reading Targets Text Level
Chart has been developed.
End of
First Quarter
End of
Second Quarter
End of
Third Quarter
End of
Fourth Quarter
Kindergarten
(Not
Applicable)
Level 1 (A)
Level 23
(BC)
Level 4 (C)*
First Grade
Level 57
(DE)
Level 811
(EG)
Level 1215
(HI)
Level 1617
(I)
Second Grade
Level J
Level K
Level L
Level M
Third Grade
Level M
Level N
Level O
Level P
Fourth Grade
Level QR
Level ST
Fifth Grade
Level TU
Level VW
* Text level 6 has been identified as the stretch goal for the end of kindergarten, in accordance with the
7 Keys to College Readiness Advanced Reading in Grades K2.
Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs, 2009
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Familiar booksLevel M:
A Picture Book of Thurgood Marshall,
David Adler
Sharks, Gail Gibbons
Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey
Familiar booksLevel M:
A Picture Book of Thurgood Marshall,
David Adler
Sharks, Gail Gibbons
Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey