The three R’s (reading, writing, and
arithmetic) that definethe most
important foundational skills that
students need to acquire during their
school years are familiar to almost
everyone. But the College and Career
Readiness Standards (CCR) and the Common
Core have given birth to a new trio –
lexiles, literacy and learning. Taken
together, the three L’s strengthen and
bring more meaning to those old
foundational skills. Of the three,
lexile is likely a new term for parents.
A lexile level simply refers to the
difficulty of any particular text and is
determined by a variety of factors
including sentence length and individual
words. We can determine the lexile level
of any type of text – fiction,
non-fiction, newspaper articles , an
appliance manual and so on. For anyone
who has struggled in setting up that new
DVD player you got for Christmas, you
might not be surprised to learn that
those manuals have a pretty high lexile
level! Three times a year, we screen
every student to determine their ability
to read higher lexile levels to ensure
that they are making growth. Next week we will complete the
January screening. In early February we
will send your child’s lexile level home
along with directions for using
www.lexile.com, a free on-line tool
that will help you select reading
material for your child. It is easy and
fun to use!
The type of text students are exposed to
in middle school has a significant
impact on their readiness for high
school and college-level reading. In
fact, the research is quite clear that
not only is the amount of text that a
student reads a large contributor to
their success but also thevariety and
complexity. New York State has outlined,
in the Educator Manual for the Common
Core ELA Test, the range of texts that
students may encounter by the end of
their middle school years. You can see
from the chart below that the notion of
literacy extends beyond required reading
lists. As parents you can help expose
your child to this rich variety by
sharing your own day-to-day experience
with these types of texts.
Working together, our children can learn
to read and use information from sources
other than their textbooks. As the
second half of the school year begins,
in just a few weeks, please remind your
child to check their progress on
SchoolTool. If you need a password,
please contact Mrs. Boise at 672-8381. I
look forward to seeing you here in the
building at one of our great concerts,
sporting events or PTO meeting. Stop by
my office at any time!
We Celebrate Learning!
Beth
