Reading Levels | Page Range | Lexiles | Publication Year | Format

Reading Levels

We realize that reading abilities within a given class vary widely. We also acknowledge that determining a book's audience/grade level is a somewhat subjective process. For example, you might view a title record in NoveList that has two different reviews. One review may suggest that the book is excellent for grades 3-5 while the other review proclaims that the title is appropriate for grades 4-6. As such, these reading levels are fairly broad and should be used as a general guideline. This will most impact you if you are teaching students that "border" our ranges. For example, you will find appropriate titles for sixth graders in both the Childrens' and Young Adult levels.

NoveList uses three broad age-related levels for the titles in its database. A book appears at only one level.

For example, the Harry Potter books are contained at the children's level. If you search for Harry Potter titles at the Young Adult level, you will get a "no books found" message.

By default, NoveList searches all three reading levels. Selecting one or more levels in the Limit Your Results section of the search page (see example below) causes NoveList to search ONLY those levels.

NOTE: Once you have limited your search to one or more levels, NoveList will preserve those limiters for subsequent searches.

Page Range
NoveList’s page range limiter allows you to search for titles of the length you prefer. Enter both the lower page limit (which must be at least 1) and the upper page limit (up to 10,000) to restrict your search to titles within that range. For example, a range of 1-100 would return a list of titles anywhere between 1 and 100 pages in length.

Lexiles
NoveList’s reading levels are determined by age, but reading abilities and interests vary widely within a specific age group. MetaMetrics is a North Carolina-based company that developed Lexile ratings, a scientific measure of how difficult a book is to read. The Lexile Measure is a number indicating the reading demand of the text in terms of semantic difficulty (vocabulary) and syntactic complexity (sentence length). The Lexile scale ranges from 200 to 1700 Lexiles. Metametrics also uses additional Lexile Codes, or alphabetic designations to indicate special charateristics of the text.

You can use Lexiles to find books that are at an appropriate level of difficulty for your child or student.

For example, a father whose twelve-year-old son
is a reluctant reader but has read and enjoyed Louis Sachar’s book Holes could use NoveList to discover that Holes has a Lexile score of 660. This father could then use the Lexile limiter to only retrieve titles that are within his son’s reading ability: one hundred points below and fifty points above the score of 660 would be what Lexile’s creators recommend. A search limited to a Lexile range of 560-710 for books with twelve-year-old boys as characters retrieves over eighty potential titles.

Beginning your search with a book your young reader has already conquered will probably bring the best results from Lexiles. You may also use the chart to the right to estimate the reader’s Lexile range based on grade level. Keep in mind, however, that approximately 50% of students read at a higher or lower Lexile level than what is represented in the chart for their grade level.

You can learn more about how to equate Lexile scores to reading levels by reading MetaMetrics' FAQ on the subject (at the Educator's site) at http://www.lexile.com.

Publication Year
By entering a range for publication year, you restrict your search to titles published within that time period. For example, a reader who wants a list of recent science fiction titles could set the Publication Year limiter to retrieve only titles published between 2003-2004.

Any year from 1800 to the current year can be entered in these fields, but the earlier of the two dates must be entered in the first box in order for the search to work (2000-2003, not 2003-2000).

Format
The default for this drop-down menu is All Formats. However, there are several formats to choose from. The list also includes Audio, Hardcover, Large Print and Paperback.

NOTE: Hardcover is a more general term. If you select Hardcover, the search results will include Hardcover, Library Binding, prebind, DEMCO Turtleback and Reinforced Binding.

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Lexile Codes

The following designations are used in conjunction with the Lexile measure of a text to indicate special characteristics of the text.

Illustrated Glossary (IG): A text designated as "IG" consists of independent pieces of text such as the glossary of a book. These independent pieces may be interchanged without affecting the flow of the text. "IG" texts typically contain some or all of the following characteristics:

• The definitions of words or their pronunciations are contained directly in the text.
• Technical vocabulary is printed in a contrasting type (e.g., bold, italic).
• Each topic is presented on one or two pages, with titles and/or captions for each paragraph.
• Illustrations are incorporated in the text.

Non-Conforming Text (NC): A text designated as "NC" consists of semantic difficulty (vocabulary) and syntactic complexity (sentence length) that is inconsistent with the developmental appropriateness of the text. Typically these texts are written at a higher level than would be suggested by the content and format of the text. Texts designated as "NC" are useful when matching advanced readers with text at an appropriate developmental level.

Beginning Reading (BR): A text designated as "BR" is any text that has a Lexile measure of zero or below. The measure is shown only as "BR" without the zero or negative number appearing.

Adult Directed (AD): A text designated as "AD" is one designed to be read to or with readers. The following guidelines shoud be used when examing an "AD" text:

• Text Placement
• Sentence Length
• Font Size and Placement
• Basic Word Usage
• Illustration Context
• Book Size

Texts designated as "AD" are useful when reading to a group and can be used to improve listening comprehension skills (e.g., making predictions, engaging in discussion, identifying meaning, and acquiring vocabulary).

Non-Prose (NP): A text designated as "NP" is any book whose content is at least 50% nonstandard prose. Some explanations are poems, plays, songs, and books with incorrect or no punctuation.

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