Transcript Northwest Evaluation Association

Taking Lexiles to the
Next Level
Phil Collins
REPORTS
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.
2
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
3
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 pretaught.
 Interest
 Students will tend to be more motivated when they
can self-select reading material or it is a topic that
interests them.
4
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
5
The Lexile score represents…
NWEA
RIT
Lexile
650L
202-208
500L
…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
instructional level.
The book, After the Rain by Norma
Mazer is a 600L text.
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Look at the Lexile as a range
of scores…
NWEA
RIT
Lexile
650L
202-208
600L
500L
The upper part of a 500650L 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
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Guided instruction
vs. independent reading
NWEA
RIT
Lexile
650L
202-208
600L
500L
} Guided instruction (+50)
75% Comprehension
Independent (-100)

}
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Lexile Codes
BR – Beginning Reading
NC – Non-Conforming Text
AD – Adult Directed
IG - Illustrated Glossary
Handout Page 15
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Examples of Lexile Measures
of Some Popular Newspapers
and Literature
www.Lexile.com
Approx.
Lexile
RIT
The Firm – John Grisham
680
205
Harry Potter Series – Rowling
880
216
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People – Stephen Covey
1080
225
1380
1200
1330
243
233
240
N.Y.Times
USA Today
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathon Swift
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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
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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
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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)
Matching Readers and Text
www.lexile.com
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Tour of www.lexile.com
 To explore…
 Search by subject matter or Lexile range
 Literature for differentiated thematic units
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Lexile.com Homepage
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Search Feature
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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
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Topic Example
 6th or 7th grade
 Pick a topic
 Pull a list of reading materials on
that topic
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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
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How can content area teachers use
Lexiles?
 to compensate for disparities
between student reading
comprehension levels and the
readability of assigned texts
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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
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District 34 Textbook Lexiles
 Science






SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE
-
Astronomy - 970
Environmental Science - 1050
Weather & Climate - 1100
Motion, Forces & Energy - 990
Chemical Interactions - 1000
Sound & Light - 1010
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District 34 Textbook Lexiles
 Social Science





4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
Explore Our Land – 670
Build Our Nation - 930
America Will Be - 1070
American Nation - 880
World Geography - 1040
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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
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Dynamic Reporting Suite
Resources
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Lexile Report
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Activity 1 Revisited…
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Projected Performance
Category by Subject
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30
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Create a Custom Booklist
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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?
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Lexile Resources
www.Lexile.com
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Tour of www.lexile.com
To explore later…
Teacher tool box
Lexile Analyzer (textbooks)
Power Vocabulary
Specialized Pathfinders available
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Text Analyzer
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Lexile Teacher’s Toolbox
37
W = Words, Vocabulary list
S = Student word lists,
activities, and assessments
T = Teacher answer keys
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Communicating with
Parents
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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?”
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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!
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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
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Questions
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