Leveled texts are books that cover similar topics over a variety of reading levels and give every learner access to the content at an appropriate level of challenge. Leveled texts help teachers respect students' unique learning paths and help students become more proficient readers. The use of leveled texts improves comprehension at varying degrees of student ability. It can also help students deal with the frustration of reading difficult material by providing challenging text at a manageable level for the student.

• Collect a set of leveled texts (some campuses have purchased sets of these books) or select books from your library that can be leveled.
• Use an assessment tool to determine students' reading levels. Some examples include:
  • Guided Reading Level - At the beginning of the school year, the student sits one-on-one with the teacher and reads from a benchmark book. Teachers may ask students to answer questions about the text or retell the story.
  • Developmental Reading Assessment - At the beginning of the school year, the student will read a benchmark book to the teacher and then retell the story.  The teacher then scores the student on a range of skills such as accuracy of reading, comprehension, and fluency.
  • Lexile Measures - The student will take a school-administered Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) or a standardized level reading test that will generate a Lexile measure of reading ability.
• Match students to books that are on or close to their determined reading level. Again, students should not be frustrated while reading the text but challenged at a manageable level with some new vocabulary, text structure, and/or content.
• Assess students’ progress and determine when it is time for advancement to the next level. Students need to be re-assessed regularly to ensure they are progressing.