Text Leveling System

Pocket for Corduroy, A

RDQ:	501	Max Word/Sent	26	Total Words	831		Diff Words	348
Lex	640	Ave Word/.Sent	9	Hi Freq occurs	544	65.5%	Hi freq	152	43.7%
AR	2.7	Long Sentences	1.2	Low Freq occurs	51	6.1%	Low freq	31	8.9%

Late one summer afternoon Lisa and her mother 
took their laundry to the laundromat. Lisa carried along her toy bear Corduroy. The Laundromat was a very busy place at this hour. "Now Corduroy you sit right here and wait for me" Lisa said. "I'm going to help with our wash." Corduroy waited patiently. Then he suddenly perked up his ears. Lisa's mother was saying"Be sure to take everything out of your pockets Lisa dear. You don't want your precious things to get wet and soapy." "Pockets?" said Corduroy to himself. "I don't have a pocket!" He slid off the chair. "I must go find something to make a pocket out of" he said and he began to look around. First he came to a pile of fancy towels and washcloths but nothing was the right size or color. Then he saw a huge stack of colorful clothes in a laundry bag. "There ought to be something in there to make a pocket out of" he said. Without hesitating he climbed inside the bag which was filled with pieces of wet laundry. The dampness didn't bother corduroy in the least. "This must be a cave" he said. "I've always wanted to live in a dark cool cave." Later when Lisa looked for her bear he was gone. "Oh Mommy!" she said. "Corduroy isn't here where I left him!" "I'm sorry honey" said her mother "but the laundromat will be closing soon and we must be getting home." Lisa did not want to leave without Corduroy but her mother insisted. "You can come back tomorrow" she said. "I'm sure you will find him." As they left a young man wearing an artist's beret was taking his wet laundry out of a bag - the very bag Corduroy had discovered! Before he knew it Corduroy was being tossed together with all the sheets shirts shorts and slacks...inside the dryer! But just as the artist was shutting the glass door Corduroy tumbled out onto the floor. "How in thunder did that bear ever get mixed up with all my things?" the artist wondered. Poor Corduroy was damp all over. "The least I can do for him is give his overalls a good drying" said the man. He unbuttoned Corduroy's shoulder straps and put his overalls in the dryer. Corduroy grew dizzy as he watched the clothes spinning around but the artist became inspired. "This would make a wonderful painting!" he said as he took a sketch pad out of his pocket and began drawing the swirling colors. "I can hardly wait to get back to my studio." Finally the dryer stopped whirling and the man gathered up the clothes. Then he helped corduroy put on his warm dry overalls. All at once the manager of the laundromat called "Closing time! Everybody out!" Corduroy was gently placed on top of a washing machine. "I wonder who that bear belongs to" said the artist as he was leaving. "He should have his name someplace. He's too fine a fellow to be lost." As soon as the lights were turned off Corduroy began his search again. He was surprised to see something white glowing in the dark. "Maybe it's snow!" he said. "I've always wanted to play in the snow." He accidentally tipped over the open-lidded box and suddenly he was covered with soft slippery soap flakes. gradually Corduroy began to slip and slide..."Oh what fun!" he said with a smile. "I've always wanted to ski down a steep mountainside." He landed paws first in an empty laundry basket. "This must be a cage" he said peeking through the bars. "I've never wanted to live inside a cage like a bear in the zoo!" But by now Corduroy felt drowsy and soon he nodded off to sleep. Next morning when the manager came to open the laundromat there was Lisa waiting. "I left something here yesterday" she explained. "May I look around?" "Certainly" said the manager. "My customers are always leaving thing." Lisa was searching under the chairs and in back of the washing machines when she heard the manager call her. "Is this what you're looking for señorita?" "Yes Yes! He's my best friend!" shouted Lisa. She reached in and picked Corduroy out of the basket. "So this is where you've been you little rascal!" she said. "It's time I took you home!" Lisa thanked the manager and ran down the street holding Corduroy tightly in her arms. "I thought I told you to wait for me" she said. "Why did you wander away?" "I went looking for a pocket" Corduroy said. "Oh Corduroy! Why didn't you tell me you wanted a pocket?" asked Lisa. That very morning Lisa sewed a pocket on Corduroy's overalls. "And here is a card I've made with your name on it for you to keep tucked inside" she said. "I've always wanted a purple pocket with my name tucked inside" said Corduroy as he and Lisa nuzzled noses.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Story/Poem

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Simple Plot

Topic

Toys

Clothes

Drawing

*Feelings, Behaviors

Bears

Low Frequency Words

accidentally	beret	corduroy	customers	fellow
gradually	hesitating	inspired	laundromat	laundry
lidded	manager	mountainside	nuzzled	ought
overalls	patiently	perked	pockets	precious
rascal	señorita	sewed	shutting	sketch
slacks	studio	swirling	unbuttoned	wander
whirling