How to determine lexile level of a student

Assessing a Student's Level | Reading A-Z

Digital

Running Records
on Raz-Plus

With our online running record tool, Raz-Plus or Raz-Kids members can:

Assign a Benchmark Book from Levels aa-J
Assign a Benchmark Passage from Levels aa-Z2
Listen to students' recordings from reading aloud a book or passage.
Score all student recordings using an online running-record tool.
Listen to students' recordings of retellings.
Score retellings using an online rubric.
See quiz questions missed and a report on which comprehension skills to support or re-teach with each student.
Reward students' progress through awarding stars to spend in the RAZ Rocket.

Track your students' progress over time.

Reading A-Z provides a three-part assessment process to help you place students in instructionally appropriate level texts.

Find out at which level to start a student.
Determine when a student is ready to move to the next level.

Part 1: Students read Benchmark Passages or Benchmark Books (Levels aa-J), and you capture their reading behavior on Running Records.

Part 2: Students retell the text, and you use Retelling Rubrics to score their comprehension.

Part 3: Students take an oral or written Comprehension Quick Check Quiz, and each question's answer tells what skill it assessed to help you identify comprehension skills for additional practice.

Part 1: Start with Benchmark Passages & Running Records or Benchmark Books & Running Records (Levels aa-J). Select a passage or book that best approximates a student's reading level. Use the running records that accompany each passage or book to score a student's reading behavior. (Initially you may have to take more than one running record to determine a student's instructional level.

) To assess a student's instructional level in Spanish, use printable versions of the Spanish Benchmark Passages, or Pasajes estándar.

Review About Running Records to learn about the details of taking, marking and scoring a running record.

Parts 2 & 3: Retelling Rubrics and Comprehension Quick Check Quizzes provide details about a student's understanding and comprehension of the Benchmark Passage or Book.

Retelling Rubrics provide details that identify strengths and weaknesses students might have comprehending fiction or nonfiction texts; including analysis of text structures.
Benchmark Passages and Benchmark Books (Levels aa-J) have multiple-choice Comprehension Quick Check Quizzes and answer keys. Use the skill tags on the answer key to see comprehension strengths and opportunities for additional instruction.

The three-part process establishes a baseline of your students' levels. Assign leveled books from Reading A-Z's extensive collection for small group practice at students' instructional levels.

Allow students to choose books below their instructional levels for independent practice.

How Do I Monitor Students' Reading Progress?
Use Benchmark Books or Benchmark Passages and their associated resources for progress monitoring as students' reading at their instructional levels improves.

Assessment Schedule

Developmental Level	Reading Level	Schedule
Beginning readers	Levels aa-C	every 2 to 4 weeks
Developing readers	Levels D-J	every 4 to 6 weeks
Effective readers	Levels K-P	every 6 to 8 weeks
Automatic readers	Levels Q-Z	every 8 to 10 weeks

Students who are not progressing at the expected rate should be assessed even more frequently than the Assessment Schedule suggests.

The scores your students achieve on running records, retellings, and comprehension quizzes give you valuable information about their reading behavior and comprehension. Use it to inform your instruction in addition to placing students and monitoring their progress.

Use the chart below along with the other information you learn from the three-part assessment process to determine if students are ready to move up a level.

Scores

Running Record	Quick Check Comprehension Quiz	Action
95% +	100%	Advance Student a Level
95% +	80%	Instruct at this Level
95% +		Lower a Level, Assess Again
90-94%	80-100%	Instruct at this Level
90-94%		Lower a Level, Assess Again
	N/A	Lower a Level, Assess Again

For Raz-Plus members, results from the printable running records can be entered to display in a student's Reading Rate report in your Kids A-Z management hub.

That way, you have not only the digital running records and assessment information, but also the results from printable running records—all in one place.

How Do I Match Learning A-Z Levels to Other Leveling Systems?
For your convenience, Learning A-Z correlates its levels to other leveling systems. If you've already placed students in levels according to another system, please reference the Level Correlation Chart to determine how another system's levels best match Learning A-Z's levels.

The correlations are not official levels assigned by the other leveling systems, but rather an approximate correlation based on a comparison of attributes in books assigned official levels by both the other leveling system and Learning A-Z.

Lexile Levels: What to Know

If your child comes home from school with a report on Lexile level or measure, you may wonder what that number means. This measure, which is called the Lexile score, assesses your child’s reading level.

The Lexile measure is part of the Lexile Framework for Reading. It’s used with students from first through 12th grade.

There are a number of systems that match readers with texts at the right level of difficulty. But Lexile is widely used, and many students will find the books in their classroom organized by Lexile levels.

How Lexile matches readers with reading materials

The point of the Lexile system is to find the right level of reading material for students. The match is based on reading ability, not grade level in school. To make the match, the program assigns levels both to readers and to texts.

Students get a Lexile score after doing a reading assessment. Books and other texts get a Lexile level of difficulty that’s generated by special software. To find a book at the right Lexile level, a student will look for a book with a Lexile level that falls within a certain range — from a little below to a little above the student’s level.

Lexile can give you a sense of your child’s reading ability. But it shouldn’t be used as a way to compare your child to other kids the same age. Also, your child’s score doesn’t take into account other factors that go into finding a good match. These include motivation, interests, and background knowledge.

Lexile assessments and results

Your child’s Lexile level can be generated from various assessments. Each one looks at a different aspect of reading. The Scholastic Reading Inventory tests measure reading comprehension, for instance. The Aimsweb fluency assessment looks at how many words a child is reading correctly per minute.

If your child’s Lexile falls within a range that concerns you, ask the school which test or tests it used to come up with this level. If one assessment shows that your child reads slowly, it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem with understanding the text.

The Lexile system isn’t a test to identify learning and thinking differences. It’s simply a guide to help kids find books at the right reading level. But Lexile level can be one way to monitor the reading progress your child makes over time.

When kids have trouble with reading, it’s important to know why. A full evaluation can pinpoint exactly where your child struggling. This might lead to targeted specialized instruction in reading through an .

Learn about the types of tests used to identify a child’s reading challenges. And watch as an expert talks about how to choose books for kids who struggle with reading. You can also discover tips to improve your child’s reading comprehension and learn more ways to encourage reluctant readers.

Key takeaways

The Lexile system can help predict which books a student will be able to read and understand.
Lexile assessments can’t identify learning and thinking differences.
Lexile measures are one way to help monitor your child’s reading progress.

How to determine the level of an English student without a test? They keep coming and coming, and you keep typing the same English test.

What if I say that you can remove all formalities on paper and determine the level of a student just by talking to him? If you already know how to do this, you are super , if not, join us and determine the level of any student like a pro.

Why didn't you like the test?

It's no secret that very often a written test fails us, and the student either blindly guesses the answers, or selects the most “sounding” one from the already proposed options. So we get the "elementary", who guessed at the "intermediate". (Lucky, damn it, I would be so lucky when I passed the session). At the same time, the dialogue with such a student will never let you down and you will see his real and active store of knowledge.

How to determine the level without a test?

Start your acquaintance with general questions that will require the student to answer with certain grammar and vocabulary - here he will not be able to peep on Google or beautifully go into the sunset to meditate, drink tea, think and answer later.

The logic is as follows: at the Beginner level, the student must link at least a couple of words, at Elementary, actively use Present Simple, Past Simple, Comparative and Superlative adjectives, at Pre-Intermediate, be able to speak in Present Perfect and use basic Modal verbs, and so on incrementally .

You can also use these sets of questions that correspond to English levels:

Beginner

What’s your name and surname? Spell it, please.

Talk about your family members.

Describe your typical morning on a weekday.

Name 3 things you can do. Do you like doing it?

Describe the area where you live. What is there near your house?

What did you do last weekend / on your last holiday?

Elementary

How do you spend your free time? Name a few things you're doing now.

When was the last time you were at the cinema?

Who is your mother's brother in relation to you?

Who is your brother's daughter?

My aunts is (my mother's sister)

My cousin is (my uncle's son/daughter)

What's the past form of buy, go, sleep, hear, leave, lose.

Describe your last holiday.

How much water do you drink a day? How many photos do you have on your mobile?

Is it better to study English in class or online?

What's the happiest moment in your life?

Pre-Intermediate

What were you doing this time two days ago / before this interview?

Tell me about your plans for the future.

What will our live look like in 50-year time?

How long have you studied English? Have you ever been to an English-speaking country?

What rules do you have at your work / school / university?

What will you do if you can't get to sleep tonight?

Intermediate

How long have you been studying here?

What task have you been able to complete recently?

As a child, what did you use to be frighten of?

What are the best three things that have been invented in the last 25 years?

If you went back in time, what year would you go to? Why?

What is something you can't stand doing? Talk about some difficult choices you have made recently.

Upper-Intermediate

Do you follow fashion? Why/Why not?

What are the main environmental issues and are there any practical solutions to them?

Good things come to those who fly. Do you agree with this statement?

Is there anything you are getting used to now? Is it easy for you to do? What adjustments have you had to do?

What do you think the most common crime in your country is? Is it possible to root it out?

How does advertising influence your consumer ability?

Advanced

Choose one topic from the list below. Talk about it for one minute:

Beauty gets the attention. Personality gets the heart.
The language we use influences the way we think.
Money is not the only answer but it makes a difference.

What do the following idioms mean: out of the blue, a red herring, to be caught red-handed;

Talk about your most exciting travel experience.

What’s the difference between lie and lay, beside and besides, affect and effect?

How can these questions be supplemented?

Option 1. If you don’t want to seem like an investigator who only does what he asks questions and for some reason asks where the student lives and with whom and what time he goes to work and whether he has an angry dog ... In general , if you do not want to look suspicious, you can offer a simple Power Point game called Spin the Wheel.

Option 2. For those who have enough time, I can offer a written assignment. It can be both an essay on a topic, and editing the text and working on mistakes. As a material for correction, you can use the compositions of other students (why not, if you accidentally fell asleep yesterday and forgot to prepare for the lesson, there will always be a couple of old compositions). But just in case, catch ready-made tasks - edit worksheet, edit worksheet -2 , make the spelling corrections.

You shouldn't abandon good old tests completely - they are useful. But remember that the light did not converge on them like a wedge. The more assessment methods you use, the more complete the picture of your student's knowledge and background will be, and the more productive your collaboration will be.

save the first texts and works of your student to later show him how much he has grown and learned English! He will be pleasantly surprised and this motivates him to develop and improve his skills!

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How to determine the level of knowledge in the first lesson

The first and main stage in the first lesson with a new student is to determine the level of knowledge and goals. Read more in the article Setting learning goals. And today we will share a checklist of how to determine the level of current knowledge. For convenience, we divide the checklist into three stages: what needs to be done, before, during and after the lesson.

Before the lesson

If the student came to you after the introductory lesson, and you already know something about his level, select the most appropriate material for the first introductory lesson. But be prepared for the fact that the material may be too difficult or easy. Therefore, it is better to always have two more lessons ready: one level up and one level down, so that you can quickly switch to the right one if necessary.

If you don't know anything about the student's level of knowledge, send him a placement test before the lesson. Ask to complete without using any prompts and send the results to you. The test may not give you a complete picture of how well each skill is developed by the student, but at least you will understand what to build on.

Materials that may be useful:

Cambridge Placement Test
Straightforward Placement Test (for different levels)
Inside Out Placement Tests
Online English Test
English Level Test

Introduce yourself, get to know the student. Any small talk questions will do for this stage of the lesson. And already during this stage, you will understand whether the lesson material that you have prepared is suitable, or whether it will need to be simplified / complicated.

If the student's level allows, the first lesson can be made entirely conversational. And by talking to a student in English and paying attention to the mistakes in the student’s speech, you can evaluate his speaking skills. Ask questions of different levels of complexity: those that can be answered briefly and using simple grammar and vocabulary, and those that need to be answered in detail (examples of such questions are on the links below).

What to assess:

Fluency: whether the student speaks fluently, whether it is easy for him to express his thoughts in English.
Pronunciation: whether the student pronounces the sounds correctly, whether his mistakes interfere with the understanding of what was said, whether he makes the correct stresses and accents.
Vocabulary: How rich is the student's vocabulary, is it easy for him to find the right word, does he make lexical mistakes.
Grammar: what grammatical mistakes he makes, what grammar he uses correctly.

Notice how easy it is for the student to hear what you are saying. Formulate your questions in different ways: some are short, simple and clear, using simple constructions, and some using more complex vocabulary and grammar. Keep track of which questions the student understands and which he does not.

There is usually a lot to discuss in the first lesson, so there is not enough time to test reading and writing skills. Therefore, after the lesson, it is better to send additional tests to the student. They can also include tasks for listening, grammar and vocabulary, if you still do not fully understand what level the student's skills correspond to.

After the student completes the tests and sends you the results, make a table in which you write down in detail what the student’s strengths and weaknesses are, which skills are better developed, which ones are worse, which topics need to be repeated, and so on.