1. The Lexile Framework® for Reading “Matching readers to text” A Presentation for Librarians and Educators by Lorena Wilder Library Media Teacher Creekside Middle School 1330 Creekside Drive Monument, CO 80132 November 2006 --The Lexile Framework® for Reading MetraMetrics, Inc.

2. What are Lexiles? “Scientific approach to reading and text measurement” “Matches reader ability and text difficulty, allowing individualized monitoring of progress.” Research shows improves reading skills MetraMetrics website.

3. Who developed Lexiles? Program developed in 1984 in with a grant from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Gary L. Williamson, Ph.D., educational researcher associated with the University of North Carolina. –Founding member of Lexile research team –Co-founder of MetaMetrics, Inc.

4. Who developed Lexiles? MetraMetrics, Inc. –a for-profit company. –run by a team of “psychometricians” –has about 50 employees –charges publishers for lexile information on text documents –test publishers pay royalties when students take lexile tests

5. How do Lexiles work? 2 parts to Lexiles: Lexile measure Lexile scale

6. How do Lexiles work? Lexile measure (the TEXT): Reading ability or text difficulty score followed by an “L” (e.g. “850L”) Measures how difficult a text is to comprehend: semantic difficulty (word frequency) syntactic complexity (sentence length) MetraMetrics website.

7. How do Lexiles work Lexile scale (the READER): Developmental scale for reading Range from below 200L (beginning-reader material) to above 1700L (advanced text). MetraMetrics website.

8. How does Lexile compare to grade level? Lexile scores in a range of numbers More accurate than grade level Compare to “shoe size”

9. What Lexile does NOT measure: Content - –complexity of plot –complexity of character(s) Quality - –“good” books –books to “hook” reluctant readers Developmental suitability –Age-appropriateness –Prior knowledge required for comprehension

10. How do we measure the students?

11. Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing program. –“nonprofit assessment organization that provides testing to more than 1,900 U.S. schools” Pearson’s PASeries® (Progress Assessment Series® –“first formative assessment product line designed to forecast student growth toward state performance standards” Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) –“research-based, computer-adaptive reading assessment … that measures students’ level of reading comprehension and reports it using the Lexile Framework® for Reading”

12. Which books are lexiled? “Over 450 publishers Lexile their titles” “Tens of thousands of books” “Tens of millions of newspaper & magazine articles.” MetraMetrics website.

13. How can you find these books? Metametric’s website: http://www.lexile.com http://www.lexile.com EBSCO & ProQuest (online subscription databases) NoveList (online subscription database) Most public libraries do not show lexiles in OPAC system.

14. How can you find these books? Many school library management systems include Lexile as an option. Example: about one-half of Creekside Library Media Center’s total collection is lexiled: –80% of fiction –30% of biography –25% of other nonfiction

15. Some Lexile observations: Nonfiction tends to score higher than fiction. Most middle school fiction books fall in the 600L to 1000L range. Fantasy fiction tends to score high Mystery fiction tends to score low

16. More Lexile observations: Most authors tend to be consistent in their lexile scoring No apparent correlation between book length and lexile score. Not necessarily a correlation between target audience and lexile score.

17. And now for a look at not-so- random sample of “middle school” books and how they rank in the lexile ratings…

18. And Then There Were None (Christie) 8 A 570 Fever, 1793 (Anderson, Laurie Halse) 580 Artemis Fowl (Colfer) 600 Timeline (Crichton) A 620 Cirque du Freak series (Shan) (avg) 710 Eragon (Paolini) 710 The Giver (Lowry) 7 760 Uglies (Westerfeld) YA 770 Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt) 6 770 Inkheart (Funke) 780 A Child Called It (Pelzer) YA 850 The Da Vinci Code (Brown) A 850 Warriors series (Hunter) (avg) 850

19. 850 Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) UG 860 Redwall seris (Jacques) (avg) 860 Hunt for Red October (Clancy) A 870 Stephen King books (avg 5) A 895 Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Gantos) 970 Eldest (Paolini) 970 Hatchet (Paulsen) 6 1020 Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (Rowling) 1030 Wizard of Oz books (Baum) (avg 7 titles) 1060 Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) 8 1080 Series of Unfortunate Events (Snicket) (avg) 1090 Never Cry Wolf (Mowatt) A 7 1330

20. Conclusions Don’t rely on lexile stickers (numbered or color-coded) placed on the books Teach students how to use OPAC or programs such as NoveList to search for books in lexile range. Respect confidentiality And remember that…

21. Lexile is a good measuring tool, but it is just one factor in great book selection! Mystery Fantasy “Boy” books Middle Grades Young Adult Biography Quality literature Interest Recommendations Awards

22. References & Suggested Reading The Lexile Framework® for Reading. MetaMetrics.. "Andrew Kyngdon Joins Durham-Based MetaMetrics Inc. as Senior Research Scientist." dBusinessNews: Daily Business News Delivered to Your Desktop. 24 Oct 2006. dBusinessNews. 6 Nov 2006. Ezarik, Melissa. "Text Demands on Students Don't Meet Life's Demands." Curriculum Update June 2005. Glick, Andrea, and Renee Olson. "Company Touts System to Match Students and Books." School Library Journal Sep 1998: 94. Jones, Chip. “Measure of Difficulty." Richmond Times-Dispatch 4 May 2006. Reid, Calvin. "Lexile Ratings Catch On." Publishers Weekly 6 Sep 2004: 8.