Session 5: Lexiles and Other Progress Monitoring Tools

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Session 5 Lexiles and Other Progress Monitoring
Tools

• Nancy Moody
• Janice Kite
• Jennifer Smith

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Essential Question

• How do we support teachers developing and using
  common assessments to improve learning?

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
Elementary

• New Revised North Carolina K-2 Literacy
  Assessments (2009)
• Change - current leveled books use a variety
  of numerical leveling system ( 2005)
• To leveled books use the Fountas and Pinnell
  leveling system A N.
• Grades 3-5 need to continue using the Fountas and
  PInnell levels in order to show continuity
  throughout K-5

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
Elementary

• From Metametrics..
• Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell levels
• are not a one to one correlation.
• have variables that are not identical.
• are to be used in conjunction with each other.
• can compliment each other.
• measures student growth and helps match books to
  readers

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
Elementary

• From Metametrics..
• Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell levels
• Can be mismatched from time to time
• Non standard prose The Gingerbread Boy
• With text feature/picture supportFountas and
  Pinnell
• may give it a Level N and the Lexile may be
  equivalent to Level P
• OR with lack of text feature/picture support
  Fountas Pinnell may give it a Level P and the
  Lexile may be equivalent to a Level N

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
Elementary

• Fountas and Pinnell Levels
• Give the Big Picture of a a students reading
  ability as it measures..
• Decoding skills how well does the student read
  orally?
• Reading strategies is the student a strategic
  reader?
• Fluency is the student reading with fluency?
• Comprehension can the student answer in the
  text, beyond the text, and about the text
  questions?
• Show the teacher where the gaps and holes are to
  be used in small group instruction.
• Differentiates much better in the early
  elementary years.

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
Elementary

• Lexile Levels ..
• Give equal interval measurement
• 300 - 350 and 800 850 has equal interval
  measurement
• Measured by Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI)
• Can be administrated to the entire class at once
  in a fast and efficient way
• Measures and graphs growth over the
  yeartypically in six weeks intervals in ACS
• Can help teachers differentiate instruction after
  the student scores above the Beginning Reader
  (BR) Level
• School libraries can match books to readers
  within the school library
• Parents can use Lexile levels and www.lexile.com
  to help match books to their children.

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
Elementary

• Fountas and Pinnell levels measure...i.e.
• Picture/text feature support
• Sentence length and complexity
• Predictability of text
• Language pattern and repetition
• Print size, spacing, number of words per page
• Concept difficulty
• Content difficulty
• Topic familiarity
• Ratio of different words to total words in text
• Ratio of high frequency words total and of low
  frequency words to total words

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
Elementary

• Lexile levels measure...
• Vocabulary frequency frequency of words that
  appear in each book against their frequency that
  appears in the English language.
• The more frequent appearing words the higher
  frequency value they get therefore reducing the
  Lexile level
• Sentences it measures the words in the
  sentence.

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Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI)

• Purpose is to assess a students ability in
  reading, specifically their fluency, rate,
  accuracy, and comprehension
• Provides diagnostic information about the
  conditions in which students can identify words
  and comprehend text successfully and the
  conditions that result in unsuccessful word
  identification, decoding and/or comprehension.

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What does this test tell us?

• The results of this test can help determine the
  reading level of a student. The criteria for each
  level is as follows Independent 90 or above,
  Instructional 70-89 and Frustrational
  below 70.
• If scores for explicit questions are compared to
  scores for implicit questions, a substantial
  difference between these two scores may suggest
  that the student needs instruction in either
  remembering what the author stated explicitly in
  the text or in using clues in the text to make
  inferences, depending on which score is higher.

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Asheboro City Schools Administrative
RetreatAdministrators and LexilesSharpening
Progress Monitoring Tools

• June29th and June 30th

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video

• www.lexile.com

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Essential question Lexiles

• How can we, as administrators, using Lexile
  measures and other progress monitoring tools
  monitor student educational reading attainment in
  relation to performance standards and growth over
  time?

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Lexiles . . .

• The Lexile Framework is a nationally normed
  and research based tool resulting in a unifying
  theory of measurement of reading comprehension.
  The research has resulted in a unifying theory of
  measurement that allows different measures of
  reading to be placed on a common clear scale.
• Main Components
• Lexile Measure numeric representation of a
  readers ability or the difficulty of a text
  selection
• Lexile Scale developmental scale for reading
  ranging from below 200 to above 1700
• Reader and text measures reported on the same
  scale, (Lexile) so users can
• TARGET gt MATCH text with ability to read

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Lexiles

• What is the Lexile Framework for Reading?
• The Lexile Framework is a tool that can be used
  to describe the difficulty of texts (readability)
  and the reading level of the reader (reading
  ability).
• The Lexile Measure is the number reported on most
  standardized assessments as an indicator of
  reading comprehension. score with a the letter
  L beside of the number
• e.g.. 1000L
• EOG, IOWA, English 9 EOC, SAT all report Lexiles
• Understanding the Parent/Teacher Report for the
  NC End of Grade Tests handout section H.
  provides parents and teachers information on
  understanding Lexiles

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Lexile Scale

• The Lexile Scale is a developmental scale.
  There is not an explicit bottom or top to the
  scale, but rather two anchor points on the scale
  that describe different levels of reading
  comprehension and workplace text.
• Lexile Scale 200L to 1700L

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Determining Lexile Measures

• Lexile Measure is based on two factors
• Semantic Difficulty - (word frequency)
• Syntactic Complexity (sentence length)
• Semantic Difficulty - Early reading researchers
  determined that the difficulty of words is a
  continuum based on exposure with frequently
  encountered words being the easiest and rare
  words the most difficult. Analysis resulted in
  more than 50 semantic variables to determine
  which were the most valid indicators for text
  difficulty.
• Syntactic Complexity Reading Researchers have
  found that the best predictor of the difficulty
  of a sentence is its length. Long sentences
  contain more clauses, and therefore communicate
  not only more information and ideas, but also an
  interrelationship between them. The length also
  requires the reader to retain more information in
  short term memory.
• (Lennon, C., Burdick, H., Lexile Framework As
  An Approach For Reading and Success (white
  paper). April 2004.)

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Comprehension Level

• When reader and text are appropriately matched a
  reader can enjoy a comprehension rate of about 75
  percent. This rate corresponds to the balance of
  skill and difficulty that allows reading to be
  positive but challenging and encourages growth
  and motivation.

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So if my Lexile is 1000L?
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Text Lexile to Reader Lexile

• 200L-1700 Lexile Scale
• 100 FRUSTRATION
• 50-100L Below EASE
• 50L-100L above TARGET Text RANGE
• Targeted Range 75 Independent Comprehension
• Instructional Level and Purposes Targeted Range
  is recommended
• (50L-100L)

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Special Text Cases

• Fiction for example designed for emerging readers
  are scaled differently due factors such as
  illustrations which scaffolds the instruction
• Nonfiction books with less than 500 words often
  contain repetition

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Should students be allowed to read outside their
Lexile levels?

• Lexiles do not take into account
• Age appropriateness
• Quality of language
• Student interest
• Text support (pictures, pull-outs)
• Background knowledge
• Reading context and purpose
• Dont take the child, teacher, parent, or
  media specialist out of the equation.

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Administrators Tool (some sources)

• All major standardized reading tests in schools
  report their results in Lexiles
• Progress Monitoring resources such as Scholastic
  Reading Inventory or SRI report in Lexiles
• NC EOGs and English 9 EOC report a Lexile Score

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Reading EOG Assessments
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EOG/EOC Levels and Lexiles
9 lt 845
870-1050 1075-1330
gt 1355
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Lexile of 940
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Lexile A Teachers Tool

• Communication tool with parents.
• Predict/Monitor reading growth and progress over
  time.
• Differentiate Instruction
• Matching appropriate text for instructional
  purposes.
• Matching appropriate texts for independent
  student reading.

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Lexile A Students Tool

• Match themselves to accessible texts.
• Allows students to make choices based on their
  Lexiles with flexibility for individual interest
  and background knowledge.
• Monitor and celebrate their own growth.
• Engender a love of reading.

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Lexile A Parent Tool

• Communication tool with teacher and student.
• Participate in childs development.
• Public library resources
• (http//fab.lexile.com/)

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What role does Lexiles play in summer reading?

• Research states Lower income students reading
  level decreases by as much as 2.6 months grade
  level equivalency during the summer months.
• However, with intentional identification of
  targeted texts for summer reading (6-8 books),
  lower income students reading levels show no
  significant loss during the summer.
• Proven gains are seen when reading materials are
  matched to Lexiles.
• Entwisle, Alexander Olson, 1997.
• Kim, James, 2006.

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Administrators Tool (some sources)

• All major standardized reading tests in schools
  report their results in Lexiles
• Progress Monitoring resources such as Scholastic
  Reading Inventory or SRI report in Lexiles
• NC EOGs and English 9 EOC report a Lexile Score

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Uses of Lexiles

• Parent Communication
• Web base resources such as analyzer provide
  strategies for differentiation of lesson planning
• Progress monitoring targeted toward teacher and
  student communication around improvement
• Rigor of curriculum content
• Textbook Lexile information

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Additional resources

• www.lexile.com
• www.ncpublicschool.org/accountability/parents/lexi
  les/?printtrue
• NCDPI Testing and Accountability Handout
  Understanding the Parent/Teacher Report for
  North Carolina End-of-Grade Tests
• http//fab.lexile.com/ (summer reading/find a
  book site)
• Lexile Power
• Parent communication information

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
ElementaryNext Steps

• Next Steps.
• Schools work toward adding Lexile levels to the
  books in their literacy closets to help make
  professional decisions about the book choices for
  small group instruction.
• Use the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) to
  create student reading lists from their school
  media centers

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
ElementaryNext Steps

• MARC Wizard a service in elementary media
  centers.How to use it?
• School media centers can submit their cataloging
  records to MARC Wizard who will then add Lexile
  levels to the schools records to be uploaded
  into their database.
• Then by modifying OPAC to allow search by Lexile,
  students can search for books on their Lexile
  level a level they are given after each SRI
  assessment.
• Students can find all the books in the media
  center and browse for one they would like to read
  or search a specific topic.

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Lexiles and Fountas and Pinnell Levels -
ElementaryNext Steps

• Scholastic Reading Inventory
• Learn how to use SRI better for the content areas
  ( Social Studies and Science)
• Can use ( if available)
• EBSCO, MasUltra, ProQuest to look up articles
  about a subject using the Lexile Scale
• Then using collaboration across the grade level
  to create units in the content area and being
  able to differentiate the reading material.

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Based upon the information shared today, how can
I use data to improve student learning?
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Reflections
What am I squared away with?
What am I still circling around?
What three things do I need to do in priority
order to advance the work?