Preparing for the Common Core Standards:
Using Lexiles to Locate
Literary/Informational Texts
Nashua School District Library Media Specialists
Fall 2012
College and career readiness
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“Students must read widely and deeply from
among a broad range of high-quality,
increasingly challenging literary and
informational texts.”
Common Core State Standards
Broad Range
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Students gain literary & cultural knowledge
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stories, dramas, poems, and myths from diverse
cultures and different time periods
Students build a stronger foundation of
knowledge
By reading texts in history/social studies, science,
and other disciplines
 also give them the background to be better readers
in all content areas
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Common Core State Standards
High Quality
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CCSS Text Exemplars Appendix B
Literary texts
 Informational texts
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Print sources in
media center
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Including primary
sources & reference
books
Online Databases
Increasingly Challenging
National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment
Lexile Framework – MetaMetrics (1984)
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A scientific approach to reading and text measurement
Lexile scores match reader ability and difficulty of text.
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If we know how well a student can read and how hard a specific
book (article) is to comprehend, we can predict how well that
student will likely understand the book.
A developmental scale
Beginning Readers/texts
200
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Advanced Readers/texts
1700+
Target students to books (articles) in a range around a 75%
comprehension rate.
Sample Lexile measures
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Days with Frog and Toad, Arnold Lobel
Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney
Hatchet, Gary Paulsen
Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
Call of the Wild, Jack London
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Source: MetaMetrics, Inc.
Sample Lexile measures
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320
640
810
810
950
1020
1030
1120
1180
1420
Days with Frog and Toad, Arnold Lobel
Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney
Hatchet, Gary Paulsen
Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
Call of the Wild, Jack London
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Source: MetaMetrics, Inc.
Lexile Score
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Lexile Test – measures student comprehension level
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Avoids labeling reading expectations for a particular grade
level.
Reading abilities differ broadly within any grade.
iReady provides lexile scores for
students in grades 3-8.
Text Complexity Grade Bands
Common Core Standards Appendix A
Common Core Standards advocate a "staircase" of increasing text
complexity so that all students are ready for the demands of college and
career level reading no later than the end of high school.
• Lexile levels have been adjusted.
The Reading-Writing Connection
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“By placing reading and writing on the same developmental
Lexile scale, MetaMetrics has discovered that students typically
write about 300L lower than they read.”
Smith III, Malbert. MetaMetrics Position Paper
Why so much emphasis on text
complexity & Lexiles?
Lexile Framework® for Reading Study
Summary of Text Lexile Measures
Interquartile Ranges Shown (25% - 75%)
Text Lexile Measure (L)
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
High
School
Literature
College
Literature
* Source of National Test Data: MetaMetrics
College
High
School Textbooks
Textbooks
Military
Personal Entry-Level
Use
Occupations
SAT 1,
ACT,
AP*
Sample Personal Use/Adult Role Reading Materials
Lexile Analysis
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Form W-4 Employee Withholding 1260L
Product Manuals 1360
Apartment Rental Agreement 1380
Benefits Package [Aetna U.S. Healthcare] 1280
Insurance Policies 1310 - 1410
Car Buyers Contract 1370
Real Estate/Legal Contracts 1420
International Center for Leadership in Education
Entry-level Occupational Reading
Materials – Text Measures
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Architecture/Construction 1210 – 1340
Arts/AV Tech/Communications 1100 – 1190
Business and Administration 1210 – 1310
Education and Training 1320 – 1370
Health Science 1260 – 1300
Human Services 1050 – 1200
Law and Public Safety 1420 – 1740
Manufacturing 1200 – 1310
Retail/Wholesale Sales & Service 1180 – 1270
Scientific Research/Engineering 1190 – 1250
International Center for Leadership in Education
ACT: The Condition of College
& Career Readiness, 2011
Only one in four (25%) 2011 seniors met all four College Readiness Benchmarks
Where to find Lexile levels
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Lexile.com
Destiny Online Catalog – results page
Webpath Express
Online databases – SIRS and EBSCO
Lexile.com
Log–in
Search Title
Lexile Tools
- Analyzer
- Spanish Analyzer
- Lexile map
Lexile.com
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Find a book's Lexile score by typing the title in
the Quick Book Search box
Results show different lexiles for
various editions
Lexile.com – Lexile Analyzer
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The lexile measures these types of resources for
text complexity
Newspaper and magazine articles (if not listed in database record)
 Books
 Short stories and reading selections
 Passages, interviews and plays for tests
 Web pages
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The lexile does not measure student writing, reading, achievement
OR poems, songs, questions or non-prose.
How to use Lexile Analyzer
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Create an account (free)
Upload article as a .txt file
Copy & paste text (1,000 word max) into a Word
document
 Edit out any
headings/phrases
 Save as a Plain text
file
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Submit your Text file
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Click Browse to search for text file
Then click Submit
Sample results from Analyzer
Webpath Express
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Lexile scores on search results screen.
Locating informational texts
in online databases
• The following databases provide Lexile scores for
many magazine & newspaper articles
• EBSCO – high schools, middle schools &
elementary schools
• SIRS – high schools
• They can be accessed through the school’s media
center website
Value of Online Databases
Online Databases vs
Google
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100% curriculum relevant
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10% curriculum relevant
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Written by experts
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Only some written by experts
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High quality content
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Must evaluate websites
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Faster searching overall
Easier to determine reading
(Lexile) level
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Time consuming for quality info
Not able to determine reading
level
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Univ. of California. Berkeley
EBSCO is Huge!
Actually made up of 10 Databases
Differentiate Instruction
Student Research Center
Easy to limit your search
(bottom of Search page)
Differentiate Instruction
Results Screen
You can:
• select one type
of resource
• narrow results
by subject
• sort by date, lexile,
or relevance
Click on title to
open article.
Full-text article starts with
bibliographic & lexile info
Works Cited
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"Appendix A: Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards Glossary of Key Terms."
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/. N.p., 2010. Web. 9
Nov. 2012.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and
Technical Subjects. Common Core State Standards Initiative, June 2010. Web. 9 Nov. 2012.
"The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2011." ACT. American College Testing, 2011.
Web. 9 Nov. 2012.
Hess, Karen, and Sue Biggam. "A Discussion of 'Increasing Text Complexity'." The National Center
for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc. NCIEA, 2005. Web. 9 Nov. 2012.
The Lexile Framework for Reading. MetaMetrics, 2012. Web. 9 Nov. 2012.
Smith, Malbert, III. "The Reading-Writing Connection." The Lexile Framework for Reading.
MetaMetrics, 2008. Web. 9 Nov. 2012.
"Text Measurement Study Using the Lexile Framework for Reading." International Center for
Leadership in Education. N.p., Apr. 2009. Web. 9 Nov. 2012.