Text Leveling System

Clifford Takes a Trip

RDQ:	163	Max Word/Sent	18	Total Words	394		Diff Words	192
Lex	200	Ave Word/.Sent	7	Hi Freq occurs	238	60.4%	Hi freq	88	45.8%
AR	1.7	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	3	0.8%	Low freq	3	1.6%

Hi.  I'm Emily Elizabeth.  
This is a happy day for me.  This is the last day of school.  Summer vacation is here!  Now I can play with my dog Clifford.  We don't go on long vacation trips.  It's too hard to get Clifford on a bus or train.  We only go to placed that Clifford can walk to like picnics in the park.  Last year was different.  Last year we went to the mountains.  Mommy and Daddy said it was too far for Clifford to walk.  So we left him the the lady next door.  That night Clifford was so lonely he began to howl.  He howled and he howled and he howled- -until someone threw a shoe at him.  It didn't hurt Clifford's nose but it did hurt his feelings.  The next morning Clifford set out to find us.  He sniffed his way along the road.  Clifford didn't mean to make trouble.  But a lot of people had never seen a big red dog before.  Clifford kept going.  Nothing could stop him.  And then he saw a little old man trying to fix his truck.  The man needed help.  So Clifford stopped and helped him.  He took the little old man to a garage.  This little old man gave Clifford a little lunch to thank him for his help.  Then Clifford set out again.  Nothing stopped him-not even wet cement.  And traffic jams didn't stop him.  Clifford just tip-toed over the cars.  And then... he came to a toll bridge.  Clifford had no money.  But that didn't stop him.  We didn't know Clifford was coming.  I found some new playmates-two baby bears.  I was having so much fun I didn't see Mama Bear.  She didn't want strangers to play with her babies.  She growled.  I was in real trouble.  Then we heard a LOUDER growl.  Guess who was growling.  Mama Bear was surprised.  She even forgot her babies.  I told Clifford that the Mama Bear was only protecting her children.  Good old Clifford took the baby bears back to Mama Bear.  Then he took us all back to camp.  Mommy and Daddy were surprised to see Clifford.  I told them how Clifford saved my life.  So they let Clifford stay with us.  Next year maybe we will find a way to take Clifford with us when we go on vacation.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Simple language

Sentences: Simple phrases

Text structure: Oral/Natural

Features

Topic

Vacations

Summer

Dogs

Searching/Hunting

Mountains

*Feelings, Behaviors

Bears

Low Frequency Words

playmates

toed

toll