Text Leveling System

Harriet

RDQ:	549	Max Word/Sent	22	Total Words	665		Diff Words	328
Lex	650	Ave Word/.Sent	7	Hi Freq occurs	382	57.4%	Hi freq	106	32.3%
AR	2.8	Long Sentences	2.3	Low Freq occurs	49	7.4%	Low freq	43	13.1%

Harriet had escaped. Her cage 
was old. Some of the bars
were bent.
She had gnawed at them with 
her teeth pushed at them with her
paws and eventually they had
moved just enough.
And now she was free.]]
Before her lay a huge carpet of green.
Above her giant plants spread their
leafy fingers. And over them all stretched the
blue sky.
Harriet's whiskers quivered. Her nose
twitched. The air was full of new sounds and 
new smells.
She scampered along the garden path
nosing this way and that.
A dark shadow passed above her.
Harriet scurried for cover.
The shadow flew into
a tree and started to sing.]]
A rich earthy scent let
Harriet into the vegetable
patch. She nibbled a spiky leaf.
It tasted strange.
Then she nibbled some lettuce.
That tasted good.
The carrots and the cabbages
were good too.
But she didn't like the slugs.
They were horrible.]]
Harriet paused to sniff the
air. A weedy watery
smell made her feel thirsty.
She followed the smell to the
edge of a murky pond.
As she leaned over to drink
a big warty toad popped up
its head.
Harriet jumped! 
and went plummeting
into the pond.]]
Plop!]]
The little hamster bobbed to the
surface like a cork. The water was
cold and full of green slimy weeds that
clung to her fur.
Gasping and sputtering she paddled
to the edge and scrambled out
a tiny
soggy
angry heap of fur.]]
The tiny heap of fur
shook itself smoothed
down its coat cleaned its
whiskers and turned back
into a little hamster.
Harriet yawned sleepily.]]
"Here's a good place to sleep" 
thought Harriet. Under the
apple tree were lots of small holes.
Something disappeared
into one of them.]]
She peered down the hole.
A small face looked out.
It stared at Harriet with
black beady eyes.]]
"You can't come in here" said a little
gray mouse. "Only mice live here."
"You're not a mouse" said another. "You
haven't got a tail."
"What are you?" asked a third.
Harriet told them that she was a 
hamster and that she did have a tail. She 
turned around to show them. They seemed
unimpressed.
"There's no room for hamsters here" they
said. "Only mice." And they vanished
down their hole.]]
Harriet tried sleeping inside a flowerpot
but the cobwebs stuck to her whiskers.
The watering can made 
scary echoing noises.
And a funny old glove looked
inviting but smelled musty.]]
Near the apple tree was a compost heap.
Harriet nosed her way inside. It was dark
and warm.
"Perhaps this will be a good place to sleep"
she thought.
But she had not seen the large
prickly shape buried under 
the leaves.
The hedgehog did not
like being awakened.
It uncurled itself
grunting angrily
and rushed 
at Harriet.]]
Harriet ran across the open lawn tripping
and rolling and running again. Some wire
netting blocked her path. She pushed her nose
underneath and wriggled through.
Scrambling up the side of a low wooden shed
she found herself on the roof. She scampered this
way and that looking for a place to hide.
Under the eaves was a dark hole. Harriet
scrambled through and tumbled into darkness.]]
"Squawk!' A huge foolish-faced
creature flapped its wings and
rushed around the coop.
Harriet dived beneath a nest of warm
eggs and watched as hens scattered in every 
direction.
Gradually the noise died down. The
air began to clear. A big fat feathery
body plumped down on top of her.
She snuggled back feeling
safe and warm. And at last 
she fell asleep.]]
Harriet did not awaken when the hen
left the nest. She did not awaken
when chubby fingers began to collect the
eggs. Nor did she awaken when a delighted
voice squealed
"There you are Harriet!"
The sleepy little hamster was placed
carefully into an egg basket.
"Come on then" said the voice. "Let's 
take you home."
But Harriet did not hear.
She did not even stir.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Simple Plot

Topic

*Animals

Pets

Low Frequency Words

angrily	awaken	awakened	compost	coop
earthy	eaves	echoing	escaped	eventually
feathery	gasping	gnawed	gradually	grunting
hedgehog	murky	musty	nosed	paddled
paused	peered	plummeting	plumped	prickly
scampered	scent	scrambled	scrambling	scurried
sleepily	smoothed	spiky	sputtering	squealed
twitched	uncurled	unimpressed	warty	weedy
whiskers	wriggled	yawned