Lexile Project Guidelines for Data Collection and Analysis

What is a Lexile?  A measurement used to describe the complexity of a text.  Proprietary measure based mostly on sentence and word complexity.  Used in education to describe a student’s reading ability and match that student to books that are within that student’s ability

Goals for Project  Understand sampling methods and create a method to generate a simple random sample  Participate in data collection and respect the importance of using appropriate methods to produce an unbiased sample  Use data to analyze a known sample  Use sample data to extrapolate information about the population using Central Limit Theorem  Accurately create confidence intervals from data  Compare sample statistics to make assumptions about unknown population parameters based on known population parameters

Step 1: Getting Started  Pick a partner. The two of you will need to collaborate, but most of it can be online.  Create a folder on Google Drive and label it “Lexile Project – LastName1 and LastName2”. Example: “Lexile Project – Johnson and Avery”  Share the folder with your partner allowing them editing rights.  Share the folder with your teacher allowing them editing rights.

Step 2: Creating a sampling method Due Friday 1/8  In the data collection phase, you will need to be picking SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLES (or as close as possible) of 100 words in a book and of 50 sentences in the same book. You will be recording the lengths of these words in letters and the lengths of these sentences in words.  Create a document in your folder called “Sampling Method”.  Write a paragraph or two describing how you will create these samples.  Things to consider:  How will you deal with proper nouns?  How will you deal with incomplete lines or pages?  Any other exceptions you anticipate?

Step 2: Creating a sampling method (continued)  Suggestions for random number generators   Random number generator on graphing calculator  Random number generator in Excel

Step 3: Pick a book to analyze Due Monday 1/11  A list will be shared with you containing books with known Lexile scores.  From the list, you and your partner should pick a book to analyze. Preferably, it would be a book that each of you own or of which you could check out the same version from the library.  Claim the book by writing your names on the Google Doc.

Step 4: Collect Data on the Book Due Friday 1/22  This step will take a SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF TIME.  Create a spreadsheet called “Known Lexile – Word Analysis”  Create a spreadsheet called “Known Lexile – Sentence Analysis”  Take 10 random samples of 100 words and 10 random samples of 50 sentences  In each respective spreadsheet, organize your data collection and record your results. Make sure to title your columns or rows.

Step 5: Analyze your Data Due Friday 1/22  Create a sheet on each spreadsheet and name it “Calculations”  Calculate the mean of each sample.  Calculate the mean of the sample means.  Calculate the standard deviation of the sample means using 9.7 letters for σ letters and use 14.5 words for σ words.  Find the 95% Confidence Intervals for your data analyses.  Add your confidence intervals to the shared document that you originally chose your book from.

Step 6: Collect Data on a Given Book Due Friday 2/5  This step will take a SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF TIME.  Create a spreadsheet called “Unknown Lexile – Word Analysis”  Create a spreadsheet called “Unknown Lexile – Sentence Analysis”  Take 10 random samples of 100 words and 10 random samples of 50 sentences  In each respective spreadsheet, organize your data collection and record your results. Make sure to title your columns or rows.

Step 7: Analyze your Data Due Friday 2/5  Create a sheet on each spreadsheet and name it “Calculations”  Calculate the mean of each sample.  Calculate the mean of the sample means.  Calculate the standard deviation of the sample means using 9.7 letters for σ letters and use 14.5 words for σ words.  Find the 95% Confidence Intervals for your data analyses.

Step 8: Evaluate your Data Due Friday 2/5  Create a document and name it “Analysis”  Write a paragraph or two analyzing your results.  Begin the analysis by estimating the Lexile score of the book by comparing your data to the confidence intervals provided on the shared document by your peers. Identify which books, scores, and confidence intervals you considered in your estimation.  Look up the actual Lexile score on  Describe any differences that exist between your estimation and the actual Lexile score. How could you improve your data collection method to improve your estimation?

Rubric Students describe an acceptable sampling method to provide an unbiased, random sample (5 points) ______/5 Students took 10 appropriate word samples of chosen book. Data was presented in organized tables. Tables had clear titles and labeling. (10 points) ­______/10 Students took 10 appropriate sentence samples of chosen book. Data was presented in organized tables. Tables had clear titles and labeling. (10 points) ______/10 Students correctly calculated confidence intervals for known Lexiles. All calculations were shown in a clear, step-by-step manner. (15 points) ­______/15 Students added confidence intervals to the shared document. (5 points) ______/5 Students took 10 appropriate word samples of assigned book. Data was presented in organized tables. Tables had clear titles and labeling. (10 points) ­______/10 Students took 10 appropriate sentence samples of assigned book. Data was presented in organized tables. Tables had clear titles and labeling. (10 points) ______/10 Students created the correct confidence intervals for the averages. All calculations were shown in a clear, step-by-step manner. (15 points) ______/15 Students analyzed results and compared to known Lexile scores. Students discussed using mathematical language and justification. (20 points) ______/20