By Connie Briggs

Leveled books are essential in any reading program. Designed to build on each child’s strengths, levels help teachers meet students where they are as they teach students with differing backgrounds, experiences, and paths to reading proficiency. 

This blog will bust myths surrounding text levels and set the record straight on three important points: that high-quality leveled books provide rich teaching opportunities, that levels are for teachers, not children, and that books can be arranged in a reliable text gradient for assessment and instruction. 

High-Quality Leveled Books Provide Rich Teaching Opportunities 

 A literacy teacher uses an engaging little book to teach a small group of readers how to control early reading behaviors.  The book starts like this, 

Page 1. The little turtle 

              can see the grass. 

Page 2. The little turtle  

              can see the trees. 

 Page 3.  The little turtle 

               can see the flowers. 

A recent EducationWeek piece criticized short, predictable texts like these. However, a child’s entry to print needs to build on his ability to use knowledge and language while at the same time learning important concepts about how print works.  These specially designed early-leveled texts should only be used temporarily to help students transition from the oral language they bring to school to reading the precise print on a page.  

The goal of very early leveled books is to orient a child to how books and print work. Such texts are sometimes used for only a few days, usually in kindergarten, if needed, to develop the child’s foundation of early reading behaviors, and include:  

• how to hold a book,  

• reading the black marks instead of the white spaces,  

• reading a left page before a right page,  

• reading left to right across a line of print and returning to the left to read a second line of print, 

• matching the spoken sounds in a word to the letters that represent them (voice-print match),  

• pointing under each word for accuracy and monitoring, and 

• how to attend to the distinct features of letters, (e g. T, t). 

This book teaches children the complexity of matching voice to print because they will need to hold their finger under each of the words, little, turtles, and flowers to say a word with more than one syllable.  In addition, these simple beginning texts give children the opportunity to confirm what they read in print with illustrations that support their vocabulary, language, and meaning-making.   

The child is not taught to guess; in fact, the child is taught how not to guess as the teacher continually directs the child to the print and teaches the child how to check on himself to ensure an accurate reading. What I have just described consists of a large body of early, but critically important, understandings about print that are often assumed or neglected. 

At the same time, the child has the opportunity to learn the role of sound to letter match in easy to hear sound relationships. For example, in the turtle book, the child learns high-frequency words such as the (16 repetitions) and can (8 repetitions) and notices the difference between The as an upper-case letter and the as a lower-case letter, so the child learns the letter has two forms. The word can is a CVC word and an important pattern for the early reader to learn.  

There are even more opportunities in this text for instruction in this “simple” book as the child learns how to notice initial consonant sounds as in the words, little, turtle, grass, see, trees, flowers, and also to notice some ending letters. As a small instructional group of children becomes more skillful and confident, the teacher chooses texts that place increasing demands on the reader.  Next, they move to more complex texts at a higher level that require precise analysis of letters and sounds left to right across each word. 

Levels are for Teachers, Not Children 

 Students are not sorted into levels; levels designate books, not children. This is a misconception: a leveled book is simply a book. The books have been analyzed according to a specific set of characteristics (including decodability of words) for the approximate supports and challenges. The teacher uses leveled texts in small, temporary, instructional groups. As children develop differently from each other, the teacher regroups to ensure children are working at the cusp of their competencies. As student competencies grow every day as they read with proficiency, teachers assess student learning regularly comparing it to the increasing demands of the texts.   

It is not possible to proficiently process texts without close attention to print.  The teacher continues to select books that build on readers’ strengths and include opportunities to develop their phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.   

Books Can Be Arranged in a Reliable Text Gradient for Assessment and Instruction 

 The Education Week article shared the misconception that text levels are not accurate. There have been many studies of text difficulty over the years.  Some people refer to the predictive validity of leveled text assessment without administering the assessment as designed.  With appropriate administration, leveled texts are highly reliable for instruction. Teachers need to be able to rely on a valid leveling system and the relationship of successful instruction to students reading on a particular level. 

 Jerry D’Agostino, professor at the Ohio State University, and I have recently completed a validation study of leveling texts appropriate for students in grades 1-2. Using a statistically-sound, integrated, leveling process with validation data from reading books with children in the field, we have shown scientifically that it is possible to design and test a text scale for assessment that can be trusted, and thus, can be used to accurately measure meaningful reading of connected texts.  

Since the 1940s, leveled texts have been an important addition to the types of texts used in schools.  It would be unfortunate if any perpetuation of misinformation would diminish teachers’ ability to use different books with different children and avoid the damage of limited reading of texts by children, one-size-fits-all instruction, as well as any form of tracking children in schools. I am hoping that all educators who advocate for investing in teacher expertise and high-quality books will re-examine the many benefits of leveled books for instruction.  

Thursday, back on the blog to learn three actionable ways to integrate leveled texts into your literacy classroom. 

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References: 

D’Agostino, J.V. (2023). Test packet replacement study: Final report. Columbus, OH. 

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Connie Briggs is an Engaged Emeritus Trainer and Professor Emeritus at Texas Woman’s University