Book Leveling and Readers

Abstract

Book leveling, a way to organize texts to match them with readers, has been widely implemented in primary classrooms. This article questions whether the often excessive attention to leveling leads to the neglect of other factors that influence the reader-text match. The authors present findings from a small study that aimed to determine the uniformity and variability of texts purported to be at the same level for instructional or independent reading in a primary classroom. Specifically, the authors analyzed data related to book and print features; language and literary features; representation of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; and criteria that fit with their views on reading as a relationship between readers and texts. On the basis of their findings, they make recommendations for more critical examination, as well as appropriate use, of leveled text to support reading instruction.

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