Below you will find answers to the following questions:
What Are Reading Levels? How Is My Child's Reading Level Found? How Do I Help My Child Find Appropriate Books? How Can I Help My Child Grow as a Reader? What Are Reading Levels? Books and comprehension complexity are leveled from top to bottom, so that children are matched to book and instruction that is appropriate for their abilities, and will allow the reader to grow. At Torrence, we have two systems for reading levels: Guided Reading Levels (GRL) and Lexile Levels. GRL are arranged by letters from Fountas and Pinnell. Lexile levels are arranged by numbers. You can find out lexiles of books by going to www.Lexile.com Your child will have an instructional GRL and a Lexile reading range. You will find your child's Lexile level on their MAP results. How Is My Child's Reading Level Found? Reading levels are assigned to your child based on reading assessments. At Torrence, we have a variety of reading assessments that we use to find your child's reading level. To find your child's GRL, we use mCLASS TRC (Text Reading and Comprehension) and running records. Teachers formally assess students three times a year with TRC. Students will then be progressed monitored in-between. Running records are an informal assessment tool teachers use to listen to children read, and then talk to the child about their comprehension of the book. Your child's lexile level is found using MAP test, which is administered three times a year on a computer. How Do I Help My Child Pick Appropriate Books? Your child's reading level is NOT set in stone. This means that your child SHOULD NOT only read books that are in their GRL or in Lexile range. However, books that are at or near their reading level will be the best books to help your child grow as a reader. Books that are far below your child's reading level can still be enjoyable, and that means those books are still wonderful books to read. Books that are too hard can be a challenge, but sometimes children really want to work through them. Consider helping your child with those books. So, please remember they will need to have a book on their instructional level at school, but they may also read a book for pleasure. At least 20-30 minutes a night. Your child should think about these questions when selecting a book to read: ** Why do I want to read this book? (reading purpose) ** Am I interested in reading this book? Do I want to work through this book? ** Do I comprehend the story? ** Do I know and understand most of the words? ** Use the five finger rule: open to the first page, put five fingers up. Read. For each word they don't know or understand, they put a finger down. If all fingers are down, then the book is probably too hard. How Can I Help My Child to Grow as a Reader? Use the reading level targets (by GRL) to give ideas for what to talk about with your child when they have read a book. These targets are arranged by GRL, however you can use your child's reading targets with books that are not at their level. These targets are designed to help your child develop deeper comprehension skills. The GRL targets can be found by Reading Level from A-T on the right. The GRL targets were compiled by Michelle Vanston using The Continuum of Literacy Learning (2007) by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell as well as the Common Core State Standards. |