Text Leveling System

Marianne's Grandmother

RDQ:	186	Max Word/Sent	20	Total Words	372		Diff Words	170
Lex	340	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	242	65.1%	Hi freq	77	45.3%
AR	1.9	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	6	1.6%	Low freq	5	2.9%

My name is Marianne and I'm thinking about my grandmother.
I remember my grandmother's funeral. I was allowed to go with my parents. It was a sad day. She had so many friends. When I came home I played with my doll. I told her about my grandmother. Suddenly I remembered the beautiful dress that Grandmother had sewn for her. She had made a dress for me first out of the same material. I thought of other things. How we took walks in the park and fed the swans. We always told each other that the swans remembered us. When I went to visit she made hot chocolate for me and we played games. Sometimes she won. Sometimes I did. She liked to come along when I went skating. She said I was the best. At Christmastime my grandmother baked big cookies and I baked little ones. The kitchen was warm and smelled good. She always let me lick the bowl clean. But what I liked best was when Grandmother told me stories. Sometimes she told me about long ago when she was younger and my mother was her little girl. It was easy to talk with my grandmother. The last time I visited her she was sick. We couldn't do anything together. Her voice was very soft and I wasn't allowed to stay very long. The next day my mother put her arms around me. She told me my grandmother had died. I couldn't really understand. I had just seen her. I wanted to know where she was now. Could she feel anything? Could she still see me? I wanted my grandmother to be here. I was angry that she had gone away and I was afraid my parents might die or that I would. My parents talked with me and they listened. I asked them lots of questions. Some they could answer some they couldn't. We were all sad. Then one day I painted a picture of my grandmother. It made me think about her wonderful face and about all the things we had done together. Remembering made me feel better. Then I knew I could still love Grandmother even if she wasn't here anymore. I'll always remember my grandmother.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Oral/Natural

Inferences: Some implications

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

First Person

Topic

Storytelling

Remembering

Death

Family

Grandparents

*Feelings, Behaviors

Relationships

Low Frequency Words

funeral

material

sewn

swans

younger