Title - Listening to Whales Sing Author: McNulty, Faith Publisher: Scholastic Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre A young girl listens to the mysterious and wonderful song of a whale and wonders what it might be saying, in a story that discusses endangered species and preserving the environment. Entertain Adventure RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 862 3.4 710 Amazon RDQ based on a maximum of 3000 words Levels are suggested levels based on RDQ, not official levels Sentences Total Words Different Words Max Word/Sent 33 Total # of Words 1183 # of Different Words 474 Ave Word/.Sent 10 Hi Freq occurs 748 63.2% # of Hi freq words 168 35.4% % of Long Sentences 7.8 Low Freq occurs 61 5.2% # of Low freq words 51 10.8% Subjective Criteria Illustrations: Little support Dialog: Two speakers Dialog: Broken dialogue Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues Language: Many descriptive words Sentences: Some Long/Complex Text structure: Story/Poem Inferences: Several Implications Complexity: Several ideas - closely related Features First Person Topics Whales Undersea Life Nature *Animals Animals: Ocean Low Frequency Words aboard alongside amidst binoculars breaching coral depths distances fairies flukes glassy gliding glimpse headphones heave instant links lungs microphone motion mysterious nostrils orchestra panic partner peacefully photograph praise raising research rounded scientist silvery spout spouts studies submarines surge surging swelling swirl throaty tow tows tuning underwater unharmed violins weird whalers wonders