Text Leveling System

Miss Nelson is Missing

RDQ:	409	Max Word/Sent	22	Total Words	586		Diff Words	259
Lex	610	Ave Word/.Sent	6	Hi Freq occurs	332	56.7%	Hi freq	111	42.9%
AR	2.5	Long Sentences	1.1	Low Freq occurs	30	5.1%	Low freq	16	6.2%

The kids in Room 207 were misbehaving again.  
Spitballs stuck to the ceiling.  
Paper planes whizzed through the air. 
They were the worst-behaved class in the whole school. ]]
"Now settle down" said Miss Nelson in a sweet voice.  
But the class would not settle down.  ]]
They whispered and giggled. 
 They squirmed and made faces. ]]
They were even rude during story hour.  ]]
And they always refused to do their lessons.  
"Something will have to be done" said Miss Nelson. ]]
The next morning Miss Nelson did not come to school. 
"Wow!" yelled the kids.  "Now we can really act up!" 
They began to make more spitballs and paper planes.  
"Today let's be just terrible!" they said. 
"Not so fast!" hissed an unpleasant voice. ]]
A woman in an ugly black dress stood before them.  
"I am your new teacher Miss Viola Swamp." 
and she rapped the desk with her ruler.  
"Where is Miss Nelson?" asked the kids. 
"Never mid that!" snapped Miss Swamp. "Open those 
arithmetic books!" 
Miss Nelson's kids did as they were told.]]
They could see that Miss Swamp was a real witch.  
She meant business.  ]]
Right away she put them to work. 
And she loaded them down with homework. ]]
"We'll have no story hour today" said Miss Swamp. 
"Keep your mouths shut" said Miss Swamp. 
"Sit perfectly still" said Miss Swamp. 
"And if you misbehave you'll be sorry" said 
Miss Swamp.  ]]
Days went by and there was no sign of Miss Nelson.  
The kids missed Miss Nelson! ]]
"Maybe we should try to find her" they said. 
Some of them went to the police. ]]
Detective McSmogg was assigned to the case.  
He listened to their story.  
He scratched his chin.  
"Hmmm" he said. "Hmmm." 
"I think Miss Nelson is missing." 
Detective McSmogg would 
not be much help. ]]
Other kids went to Miss Nelson's house. 
The shades were tightly drawn and no one answered 
the door.  
In fact the only person they did see was the wicked 
Miss Viola Swamp coming up the street.  
"If she sees us she'll give us more homework." 
They go away just in time. ]]
Maybe something terrible happened to Miss Nelson! 
"Maybe she was gobbled up by a shark!" said one of the kids. 
But that didn't seem likely.  ]]
"Maybe Miss Nelson went to Mars!" said another kid.  
But that didn't seem likely either. ]]
"I know!" exclaimed one know-it-all.  "Maybe Miss Nelson's 
car was carried off by a swarm of angry butterflies!" 
But that was the least likely of all. ]]
The kids in Room 207 became very discouraged.  
It seemed that Miss Nelson was never coming back. 
And they would be stuck with Miss Viola Swamp forever.  
They heard footsteps in the hall.  
"Here comes the witch" they whispered.  
"Hello children" someone said in a sweet voice. ]]
It was Miss Nelson! 
"Did you miss me?" she asked.  
"We certainly did!" cried all the kids.  
"Where were you?" 
"That's my little secret" said Miss Nelson.  
"How about a story hour?" 
"Oh yes!" cried the kids.  
Miss Nelson noticed that during story hour no one 
was rude or silly.  
"What brought about this lovely change?" she asked.  
"That's our little secret" said the kids. ]]
Back home Miss Nelson took off her coat and hung it 
in the closet (right next to an ugly black dress). 
When it was time for bed she sang a little song. 
"I'll never tell" she said to herself with a smile. ]]
P.S. Detective McSmogg is working on a new case. 
He is now looking for Miss Viola Swamp.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Simple language

Sentences: Simple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Simple Plot

Topic

Witches

Changes

Cooperation

Teams/Teamwork

Children

Differences

Pretend

Relationships

Responsibility

School

Low Frequency Words

assigned	detective	discouraged	drawn	gobbled
likely	mcsmogg	misbehave	misbehaving	refused
rude	squirmed	swamp	swarm	viola
whizzed