Leveled Texts & Research-based Literacy Support

The term “ Science of Reading” has become mainstream over the last few years. Most of the attention it receives comes under the context of phonics—that is, the benefits of a systematic and explicit foundational skills curriculum. And that is an important aspect of the Science of Reading! But what we hear less about is how the science of reading encompasses much more than only foundational skills. The Science of Reading actually represents “a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.”

As such, this approach extends far beyond the ability to focus on specific foundational skills such as decoding words and includes research-backed practices that support the growth of reading comprehension skills as well. Many text types, including leveled texts, can support research-based approaches to developing comprehension skills. As you and your classroom embark on your Science of Reading journey, we’d like to show you how leveled texts can help!

Leveled Texts: Practicing Your Way to Success

Leveled texts allow students to put what they’ve learned into practice by applying and reinforcing key foundational reading skills. Using leveled texts in the classroom doesn't always mean giving students texts that fall into their "designated" reading levels. In fact, knowing when and how to use a text's reading level to support research-based practices can open up a world of opportunities for meaningful literacy instruction and practice. By providing access to texts at a range of reading levels in the right ways, teachers can support the reading growth of all students. Below are some of the ways that leveled texts align with research-based literacy findings.

Matching Text Level to Purpose

Knowing a text's level is valuable information in determining how the text will be used. Leveled texts are not meant to take the place of decodable texts in early literacy education. Instead, they can co-exist with decodables and support reading comprehension skills through a variety of implementations. As students progress in their mastery of phoneme-grapheme mapping, more options for leveled texts open up to them.

• Shared Reading: Research indicates that explicit instruction is an essential component that builds more proficient readers. In shared reading, teachers and students share responsibility for navigating the text. Teachers can use higher-level texts to explicitly model print concepts, fluency, and close reading skills in whole class or small group settings.
• Small Group Reading: Higher level, more challenging texts, rather than texts at a student’s designated reading level, are appropriate for small group reading sessions with a teacher where there is opportunity for discussion, questions, and scaffolding. This is the time, when a teacher is close by and at the ready, to provide challenge and get gears turning.
• Independent Reading: Students benefit from independent reading texts that are at or near their reading level—texts they can engage with without feelings of frustration or comprehension struggles. Additionally, by pairing text with audio support, like the Listen option available in the Raz-Plus book library, students can read along with more advanced, complex texts, scaffolding their comprehension.

Building Knowledge Using Leveled Texts

Reading comprehension is closely tied to students' ability to bring background knowledge to a text. Students build knowledge by reading "content-rich nonfiction," which leads to deeper knowledge of the world, new vocabulary, and increased understanding of texts. This knowledge-building can happen through read alouds, shared reading experiences, small group reading, and independent reading. As students build knowledge about a topic, they will often be able to read texts that surpass their independent reading levels.

Accelerating the Closing of Learning Gaps

Research shows that students who are reading below-grade-level need access to grade-level material, rather than below-grade-level material, to catch up. A landmark report by The New Teacher Project indicates that remediating by providing struggling students with below-grade-level material reinforces the achievement gap. Instead, providing access to grade-level resources and texts, along with support and scaffolds to make up the difference, can help accelerate students into grade-level work. Knowing a student's reading level, then, is crucial to understanding how much scaffolding a student needs to succeed with grade-level text.

Increasing Reading Volume

Students need to work with a wide variety of texts, and a lot of them, to develop their comprehension skills. Though teachers may consider text complexity, topic, reading level, or targeted comprehension skills, the bottom line is that students need to read often AND they need to read a variety of texts. We also know that student choice is a significant internal motivator. When provided with a large library of texts spanning many topics, students can choose texts at their reading level that appeal to their interests and keep reading relevant and engaging.

Supporting Vocabulary Acquisition

The link between vocabulary development and reading comprehension is well documented. Students need to acquire the skills that will help them determine the meanings of new words, leading to better overall reading comprehension. The leveled books available in Raz-Plus include an emphasis on story-critical and academic vocabulary, and can be used to teach students new or challenging words in real time.To help this come to fruition, teachers are able to preview a text to determine which words to target or which students can benefit from book glossaries while reading independently.

Easily Integrate the Science of Reading

When incorporating the Science of Reading into your literacy instruction, leveled texts can make a significant impact when it comes to keeping students motivated and excited to learn while reinforcing important literacy skills. If you are currently in search of a solution that will provide you with a plethora of texts to choose from, we have just the thing! Raz-Plus, our comprehensive solution for K-5 literacy instruction, offers hundreds of texts and resources to choose from and provides you with everything you need to support research-based literacy instruction.