Alphabetical reading levels
Leveling Chart | Scholastic Guided Reading Program for the Classroom
Use the grid below to shop by Guided Reading, Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), and Lexile® Levels. This chart includes Lexile level recommendations and may also be used as a general leveling guide.
Click on links to shop the Teacher Store!
| Grade | Scholastic Guided Reading Level | DRA Level | Lexile® Levels |
|---|
| Grade | Scholastic Guided Reading Level | DRA Level | Lexile® Levels | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten |
| Beginning Reader | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |
|
| 190L-530L | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |
|
| 420L-650L | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3 |
|
| 520L-820L | ||||||||||||||||||
| 4 |
|
| 740L-940L | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 |
|
| 830L-1010L | ||||||||||||||||||
| 6 |
|
| 925L–1070L |
Back to Top
The Guided Reading Levels Chart and What It Means
Have you ever found yourself using a system, but not really knowing why? Maybe you are using it because someone introduced you to it and you just rolled with it. Maybe you have found yourself using it because you knew there was a purpose but weren’t sure what it was. I know I have been in this place. I have been there with guided reading levels and the guided reading levels chart for sure.
When I first started teaching guided reading, I found myself wondering things like, “What does this guided reading level mean?” Or “What does this have to do with how this child is learning to read?” Or even “Why on earth are some numbers and other’s letters?”
I want to help make things clear for you so I am sharing all I can about guided reading levels, the guided reading levels chart, and what it all means.
What are guided reading levels?
Guided reading levels are simply a system developed originally by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell to help organize reading skills and strategies so that readers are not overwhelmed. The goal of guided reading is to work within a child’s instructional level. Anything above that can cause frustration for the reader and anything below does not allow for enough teachable moments.
The most common system for leveling is Fountas and Pinnell’s guided reading levels system which uses letters to indicate each level. It ranges from levels A-Z with A being the simplest and Z being the most complex of the guided reading levels. Other popular systems are DRA, which uses numbers, Reading A-Z, and Rigby. Lexile levels are another familiar system that uses large ranges. Personally, I have found this system to be the most difficult to work within.
All good teachers teach within a “system” naturally. Never would we dump algebra on a child who is learning basic number patterns, yet the number patterns will set them up for later success in deeper math concepts!
Books are assigned reading levels and as children are assessed, children are given leveled books to work within that do not overwhelm them. The goal is that they have a useful tool that allows the teacher to come alongside them and coach them through.
Remember, children are not assigned levels.
Books are assigned levels. This is something that I am guilty of in the past and while it can be wonderful motivation for some as they work to move up levels, it’s also not great for many.
How do you determine a guided reading level?
Guided Reading Levels for Books
Assigning a guided reading level to a book is complex. Many factors are taken into account. Scholastic lists the following:
Genre: The type of book (here’s your guide to children’s book genres)
Text Structure
: How the book is organized and presented
Content: The subject matter of a book
Themes and Ideas: The big ideas that are communicated by the author
Language and Literary Features: The types of writing techniques employed by the writer
Sentence Complexity: How challenging the syntax in each sentence is
Vocabulary: The frequency of new words introduced in the book
Words: The ease at which the words in the book can be figured out or decoded by a reader
Illustrations: The correlation and consistency of images and pictures in the books to the words printed on the page
Book and Print Features: The physical aspects of the printed word on the page –Mary Doman, A Parent’s Guide to Guided Reading, Scholastic.
com
Just remember there is no perfect book and no perfect system. I know firsthand from leveling my own sets of guided reading books that it’s super tricky and one word can change the whole level! Being aware of your readers’ skills is so important!
Matching Just Right Books with Children
When it comes to matching guided reading levels with readers, there are a few ways you can do this. If you are a teacher, the best way to is to take a running record. This will allow you to get accurate data on the child and really see their strengths and growing points. If you are a parent, you can use a simple five finger test to determine if a book is too hard or just right. Every time a word is missed, the child raises a finger. Once they get to five, they know it’s too tricky right now.
It’s important to remember that when searching for a good fit you take into consideration more than just the text. You must also consider comprehension. If a child is struggling to comprehend the text, then it’s likely too hard.
If the child can comprehend it well and can read it well, then it may be too easy for the child.
What does each of the guided reading levels mean?
So what do each of the guided reading levels mean? I love to look at them from the perspective of what they encourage readers to be working towards and how much a child can do when they advance levels.
In my guided reading resource card FREEBIE, all of the strategies, skills, behaviors, and comprehension focuses are explained at each level. They not only help you, the teacher, meet your readers where they are, but they help you have a roadmap to see where they are going next, too.
I love to use them when planning my guided reading lessons!
Where do I go from here?
Once you know where a reader is working and you know that you have leveled text, you may be looking for some easy to follow guided reading lessons. After years of planning my own lessons and hearing from teachers that they weren’t sure where to even begin, I created guided reading lessons for Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade readers.
The lessons have an easy to follow format, guided reading books, notes about each level and where students are working, word work activities, comprehension activities to follow up the text reading, and even notes for parents.
Shop Kindergarten Guided Reading Lessons
Shop First Grade Guided Reading Lessons
Shop Second Grade Guided Reading Lessons
No matter where you are in your guided reading journey, it’s important to simply begin and keep moving forward. Teachers, myself included, are always learning, growing, changing our practice, and improving! I’m rooting for you!
pin it
Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This FREE guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!
How to learn the alphabet with a child. A few simple tips
When to start learning the alphabet with a child
Some people start teaching their children the alphabet as early as 2 years old, while others don't even start at 5 years old.
Different rates of development of children and the desire of parents to prepare the child for school as early as possible raise many questions and discussions. So at what age should children start learning the alphabet?
Neurophysiology claims that it makes no sense to teach children under 4-5 years old, because only at this age does the active phase of the formation of phonemic hearing begin (hearing, which is responsible for the perception of language sounds, which is necessary for the synthesis and analysis of speech sounds). Speech therapists agree with this. Without the ability to hear sounds in words, it is very difficult to associate them with the image of letters. At the same time, the elementary school program assumes the possession of basic things - an approximate understanding of sounds, letters, words. This makes it necessary to prepare the child for school in advance, so that the learning process is easier for him.
It can be understood that the development of phonemic hearing started when the child begins to ask questions about letters, reading, how to spell the word he pronounces.
There are often sound errors in his speech. This usually happens by the age of 4-5 and means that the time has come. However, if you wish, you can start introducing children to the alphabet from the age of 3, but this must be done correctly, taking into account the peculiarities of age.
Tips for Learning the Alphabet
Many parents and educators choose an approach to teaching their preschool child that is very similar to teaching in elementary grades. Such a didactic method may work in exceptionally rare cases, or if the child is already 6 years old or older. The vast majority of children do not perceive this way of presenting information, because in the period from 3 to 5 years, as noted by I.Yu. Sinitsyna, a leading researcher, their main activity is a role-playing game.* A child learns information better by imagining an interesting situation in which he has his own role, game learning objects with which to perform actions.
Specialized books and manuals for learning the alphabet and reading most often contain standard tasks that are not at all like games.
That is why the process is very long, complicated and inefficient.
In addition, it is of great importance what kind of example adults set for the child. If you read books with him with pleasure, then the child will begin to form an interest in them. After all, a parent in early childhood is the most important figure for a child, he often repeats after them, strives to be like them. When children see that their parents are reading books, they themselves begin to reach out to them - many play, pretending to read and understand what is written on the pages. So gradually there is a desire to understand what is written there, what each symbol means and how it sounds. At this stage (4-5 years or older, depending on individual characteristics), standard bright books with the image of letters, which are customary to see in speech therapists and in kindergartens, are already suitable.
In this article you will find some simple tips on how to help your child learn the alphabet.
Games for learning the alphabet
To make the process of learning letters into a game, you will need cubes with the image of letters (you can make an analog yourself by cutting sheets of paper and writing on them all the letters of the alphabet, one by one). The child will be able to move them independently, forming syllables.
First, concentrate on the open vowels (A, O, U, Y, E), the mouth opens wider when they are pronounced. It will be possible to move on to soft ones (E, Yu, Z) later, when the first ones are fixed. Explain to the child how a syllable is built, for starters, from two letters: one is a consonant, the other is a vowel. We lay out the cubes we need and the next step is to add an element of the game. You can invent games yourself in the likeness of the examples below.
1. Song of birds. Enter several characters: a goose that says "GA", a hen that says "KO", a cuckoo that says "KU" and an owl that says "WU". The child in this game is the spectator who "records" the performance to tell his friends what the birds were singing about.
You are the storyteller. The roles of the choir members are given to toys. Any volumetric surface, for example, a sofa, is a stage.
“One day four birds with different voices met: a goose, an owl, a cuckoo and a hen. And they liked the way their voices sounded so much that they decided to have a concert and invite a special guest (that is, your child)!” - you say and, together with the child, arrange toys on the stage.
«Waiting for the guest, they started to sing a song that they had been rehearsing for a very long time. “GA”, “KU”, “VU”, “KO” ”- you sing and ask the child to sing with you.
“The guest liked the song so much that he decided to write down its words for a friend so that he could later sing it with him” - you say and ask the child to put down the words of each bird, helping in case of difficulties.
2. When the child gets used to the syllables, you can move on to more advanced options. The refrigerator and magnets in the form of letters on it will help you with this.
Draw with your child an object or an animal, a bird such as a cuckoo. In the process of drawing, ask the child how the cuckoo sings. He already knows the answer to this question because you played the cuckoo game with him.
Then, together with your child, hang the drawing on the refrigerator and ask him to lay it out of letters-magnets, like a cuckoo sings. Next, add the syllable "Shka". Explain to the child that this is the name of the bird.
In this way, you will turn your child's learning into a fun game where he will be an active participant. This will help to develop interest in him and build associations, thanks to which he will remember more and more syllables and gradually begin to collect them into words.
Conclusion
Thus, the main thing a parent can do to make a child want to learn the alphabet is to show their interest in reading to a child. Preschool children want to be like their parents. Seeing how you read a book with interest, the child will begin to “read” it too, and in the end he will want to understand what exactly is written there and how the text turns into sounds.
If you want to study the alphabet with a child under 4-5 years old, then use the role-playing game format. This method will be much more effective than standard tasks, because at this age it is their main action.
Older children, when you notice that the formation of phonemic hearing has passed into an active phase (the child asks what is written, how to pronounce a certain letter, makes mistakes in sounds), you can teach with the help of familiar bright primers. This option is ideal.
However, if the child has not shown any interest, and soon you need to go to school, and you want to make learning easier for him, you can use the first method.
In today's digital world, children become interested in letters later. There is nothing wrong with that. Studies show that sooner or later the level of reading levels out, regardless of when exactly they began to learn the alphabet.
*Sinitsyna Irina Yurievna Game approach in teaching preschoolers to read // SDO.
2015. No. 8 (60). URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/igrovoy-podhod-v-obuchenii-doshkolnikov-chteniyu-1 (date of access: 12/23/2022).
Teaching preschoolers to read
Teaching preschoolers to read introduces children 5-6 years old to letters and allows them to learn how to put them into words. Forming a list of tasks, the specialists of the Razumeikin development site used traditional methods of presenting material. However, some methodological techniques are copyrighted.
Please note that when we learn consonants in the online tasks for children 5 years old, we call them without a vowel overtone. For example, not [be], but [b], not [ef], but [f], etc. This approach will allow the baby to facilitate the process of establishing the relationship between sounds and letters. And their names the child will be able to learn, getting acquainted with the alphabet.
In order to make the process of learning letters in the form of a game easy for children of 5 years old, it is advisable to use the maximum number of analyzers.
The specialists of the Razumeikin development site tried to take this nuance into account when compiling a list of exercises. When completing online tasks in the “Teaching Preschoolers to Read” section, the child hears the sound corresponding to the letter, sees it in whole and in parts, creates it from wire, lace or plasticine, draws it with a finger. You can design letters from any materials at hand. It can be pebbles, matches, sticks, etc. Such exercises help kids learn letters while playing.
Very useful and effective are games with "rough" letters. They can be cut out of sandpaper or sheet with a velvet surface. At first, you can invite the baby to swipe the letter with his finger. This will help him understand how it is written and remember the direction of the hand movement. Then invite the child to recognize this letter among several others. In this case, the baby's eyes should be closed.
When creating exercises for preschoolers, our specialists tried to make them not only understandable and fun, but also really useful.
Consistently passing online classes from this section, the child learns to read. At first, we learn to read simple and short words in syllables, then gradually the tasks become more difficult. By the end of the lesson, the child will be able to read and, most importantly, understand texts of several sentences.
A few words about the submission of material
In order to make learning to read children aged 5 easy and productive, the specialists of the Razumeykin development site have prepared special thematic pictures and voiced text for each task. Some exercises also involve the motor area. All developmental tasks in the block "Reading for children 5-6 years old" can be completed online by preschoolers.
How are results evaluated?
For the correct performance of tasks-games in the section "Teaching preschoolers to read" there is a whole system of rewards. We are sure that in this way it is possible to increase the interest of preschoolers in learning and form positive motivation.
Toddlers receive a reward by completing tasks in the form of an educational game in the "Reading and letters for children of 6 years" section. For their achievements, they can be awarded medals, cups, pennants and certificates.
Most of the exercises in the section "Reading for children 5-6 years old" are evaluated depending on how the child was able to give the correct answer. If necessary, it is possible to return to any exercise done. By completing the task in the section “Reading for children 6 years old” again, the child will be able to improve the previous result. For this, in turn, he will be awarded a higher award.
Your child may be tested when they start reading. The results obtained will help you understand which tasks you need to dwell on in more detail. In addition, parents will be able to determine which exercises in the section "Reading and letters for children of 6 years" should be performed first.
It is important to take into account that the child needs not just to learn to read, but to learn to understand the meaning of what he read.
