What is a Level M?

Some of you might be asking What is Level M?

Here’s some background information about book levels that might help.  Every school district uses a reading program and measures to determine the progress students are making as they learn to read.  One of these reading programs, Guided Reading, was developed by Fountas and Pinnell.  They also developed a system to compare texts to determine what made some harder and some easier.  Level M is the reading level that typically correlates to the end of second grade or the beginning of third grade.

Many teachers use something called the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) to test students’ reading abilities.  Students read the text provided, provide a summary and answer questions about the plot.  Based on their fluency (how smoothly they read); the effectiveness and variety of strategies they employ use to solve for unknown words; their ability to retell a story with specific details in the proper order while focusing on the key parts of the plot; and their ability to answer questions about the text, they are assigned a reading level. There are many charts out there that will correlate DRA reading levels to Fountas and Pinnell’s letter system, because many school districts use the DRA for assessment while they use Fountas and Pinnell’s reading program.

There are many places to find book leveling information, but it can be hard to find anything comprehensive and definitive. Fountas and Pinnell have a website that will tell you the level of all the books that they have officially leveled.  They currently charge $25 for a yearly subscription.  The site is found at: http://www.fountasandpinnellleveledbooks.com.  But just because they developed the system, it doesn’t mean they are the only players in the game.  Scholastic notes the Guided Reading level (that would be Fountas and Pinnell’s system) and/or the DRA level for many books via their Book Wizard site.  Scholastic charges no fee.  There are lots of other online resources where you might be able to dig up reading levels as well. But book leveling is a tricky science.  I frequently run into books leveled by Scholastic or even the experts, Fountas and Pinnell, which don’t quite seem to line up with others of the same letter or level.  For example, I often see Matt Christopher’s longer chapter books about sports listed as a Level M but in my experience they are harder than that.  If you compare one of these books to another Level M book, you will see why!  The text is smaller, the book is longer.  There are no illustrations and there is a lot of difficult vocabulary which is highly specific to the topic he’s writing about.

Based on a snap analysis I’m going to say that Scholastic tends to rate things as a harder reading level than I’ve seen elsewhere and what I would, in my professional opinion, assess. For example, they show the Cam Jansen series as a Level N, rating it harder than Junie B. Jones or Magic Treehouse.  In my experience, I’ve always seen it rated as a Level L, a bit easier than those two series, which makes a lot more sense to me given the text and my observations of students’ ability to read it.  Update 3/22/15 – I found Scholastic’s Leveling Chart which explains some of the discrepancies I noted.  For example, they list an M as a DRA 20-24 whereas I’d usually seen it as corresponding to a DRA 24-28.  They list an N as a 28-30.  So basically, some books they level as M are clearly what I would mark as an L and some of their Ns are really what I’d mark as an M.

You may have noticed that comparing books is one of the tools I use to draw my personal conclusions about a book’s level.  This is a really practical way and simple way to give yourself a basic idea of whether a book is suitable for your child.  I have found over years of teaching that students who have tested at a Level M are very successful with both Magic Treehouse and Junie B. Jones.  Therefore, I use my knowledge of those two series to help me determine the level of other similar books.  I look for the size of the text and words per page.  I look at the overall length of the book. I read a bit of it to determine the complexity of the sentences and vocabulary.  It’s surely not as precise as what the experts do, but it is something anyone can do while standing in a bookstore or library. I will do my best to provide you with choices that a student who is reading at a Level M could master.  By talking to your child and really looking at the books they are selecting, you will get more and more comfortable scanning a book and being able to tell if it is the right reading level.  In the meantime, help your children self-monitor by checking in with them about their comprehension.

Tomorrow:  Reading Comprehension…How Hard is Too Hard.

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