Text Leveling System

The Candy Corn Contest

RDQ:	400	Max Word/Sent	17	Total Words	1157		Diff Words	389
Lex	610	Ave Word/.Sent	5	Hi Freq occurs	729	63%	Hi freq	172	44.2%
AR	2.4	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	7	0.6%	Low freq	7	1.8%

Ms. Rooney gave out the drawing paper. "All 
eyes on me" she said.
Richard Best put his hand into his desk.
"This is the way to make a Thanksgiving 
turkey" said Ms. Rooney. She picked up a fat 
piece of brown chalk.
Richard fished around for his lunch bag. He 
watched Ms. Rooney. trace her hand on the 
chalkboard.
He had made a turkey just like that last year 
and the year before. Now he was making
another one.
A left-back turkey. Just like him.
He started to open his lunch bag.
It made a crackling noise.
Matthew Jackson turned around. He pulled on 
his stick-out ears. "Hi Beast" he whispered.
Richard made a beast face. He smiled at Matthew.]] 
Matthew was a great kid Richard thought.
But he wet the bed.
And he probably hadn't taken a bath since last 
summer.
Sometimes Richard wished Ms. Rooney would 
change everyone's seat. But then he might end up 
sitting right in front of her desk.
He pulled a piece of bread off his cheese sandwich 
and looked at it.
There was a little piece of cheese stuck to the 
bread.
He scraped the cheese off and flicked it on the 
floor. Then he sneaked the bread into his mouth.
Ms. Rooney stopped talking. She frowned.
Richard stopped chewing.
Then Ms. Rooney put a round red eye on her 
turkey.
Richard wished she'd hurry up. He couldn't 
wait for show-and-tell.
He had some great news.
It was about a sleep-over party the day after 
Thanksgiving.]] 
Beast's friend Emily Arrow put her hand in the 
air. "You forgot the turkey's feet" she told Ms. 
Rooney.
"So I did" said Ms. Rooney. She drew two 
yellow stick legs. She drew a bunch of claws.
Then she wiped her chalky hands on a piece of 
paper. "I have exciting news" she said.
Richard hoped she didn't know about his party. 
He wanted to tell everyone himself. He picked up 
a brown crayon and began to trace his hand for his 
turkey.
Ms. Rooney went to the closet. She took out a 
huge jar. She brought it over to her desk.
It was filled with Candy Corn. 
Richard felt his mouth water. 
"We're going to have a contest" Ms. Rooney
said. "Guess how many pieces of Candy Corn 
are in this jar?"
"Two hundred thousand" Emily Arrow called. 
"That's not right" Dawn Bosco said. "Maybe 
a hundred."
"What's the prize?" Noah Greene asked.]] 
"The whole jar of Candy Corn" Ms. Rooney 
said. "It will be a Thanksgiving present."
Matthew turned around. He gave Richard a 
little poke. "I hope I win" he said. "If you win 
will you share with me?"
Richard looked down at the picture he had started. 
It was a good-looking turkey with blue feathers. 
He made believe he hadn't heard Matthew.
He'd hate to give up half of that Candy Corn if 
he won.
"How many guesses do we get?" Emily Arrow asked.
"That's the fun part" Ms. Rooney said. "Every 
time you read a page from your library book you 
can take a guess."
Matthew groaned.
"Great" said Timothy Barbiero.
Richard looked at Timothy. Timothy was the 
fastest reader in the class. He'd probably win.
Too bad.
Emily must have been thinking the same thing 
Richard thought. She was looking at Timothy too.]] 
"I'm going to win" she said. "I'm going to 
try."
"Good for you" said Ms. Rooney.
"I think I'll win" Timothy said. "I can read fast."
Emily looked down at her desk. She didn't say 
anything.
But Richard knew what she was thinking.
She was a terrible reader.
Just like him.
Richard pulled out his library book.
It was a fat one.
It took him about an hour to get through one 
page.
He shouldn't have picked such a hard one. 
He'd go back to the library this afternoon. He'd 
pick a nice skinny little book.
"And" said Ms. Rooney "no cheating. No 
reading skinny little baby books."
Richard looked at the jar again. He was dying 
to win.
Matthew was a worse reader than he was.]] 
He didn't have a chance of winning Richard 
thought.
Poor Matthew.
Poor smelly Matthew.
Richard tapped his arm. "If I win" he said 
"I'll share with you."
"All right" Matthew said. Then he shook his 
head. "We won't win. We're the worst readers in 
the class."]] 
It was almost time to go home. Richard was sick 
of waiting for show-and-tell.
"All right" Ms. Rooney said at last. "Who 
has something to tell us?"
Richard waved his hand around in the air.
Ms. Rooney picked Emily Arrow.
Emily hurried to the front of the room. She was 
wearing red sneakers. Her legs looked like Slim 
Jim pretzels.
"I went to my aunt Helen's wedding on Saturday" 
Emily said. "I'll tell you all about it."
Richard wiggled around in his seat.
Emily told about the bride's dress and the 
bridesmaids' dresses.
She told about the wedding cake.
Richard sighed in a loud voice.
Emily danced around in her sneakers. "This 
is the way the bride danced" she said.]] 
Richard looked at the other kids.
Timothy was reading a book as fast as he could.
He'd have about five guesses by tomorrow.
He might win the jar of Candy Corn before 
Richard guessed once.
Suddenly Emily saw Timothy reading. She 
frowned. "I guess that's all" she said. She raced 
back to her seat and opened her library book.
Ms. Rooney looked around.
Richard put his hand in the air. He knelt 
up on his seat so Ms. Rooney would look at 
him.
"Sit down Richard" Ms. Rooney said. She 
looked around the room. "Wayne?"
Wayne O'Brien went to the front of the room. 
He stood there for a minute.
Then he shook his head. "I don't remember 
what I was going to say."
In front of him Richard could hear Matthew 
trying to read. He didn't know the words.
At last Wayne raised his shoulders up to his 
neck. He went back to his seat.]] 
Ms. Rooney smiled at Richard. "Do you have 
something-"
Richard rushed to the front of the room.
He took a deep breath. "I'm going to have a 
sleep-over" he said. "Everyone's invited."
Emily looked up from her book. "Great" she 
said.
Richard swallowed. "I mean the boys. Only 
the boys. It's a sleep-over party for boys.
"Oh" said Emily Arrow.
"There isn't room for girls" Richard said.
"All right" Emily said.
"I'm coming" yelled Matthew. "When is it?"
"The night after Thanksgiving" Richard said. 
Timothy Barbiero put his hand in the air. "Will 
there be good stuff to eat?"
"Sure" Richard said. "My mother's making 
spaghetti and Italian bread. And leftover turkey. 
And we're going to have ice cream for dessert."
Derrick Grace raised his hand. "I can't come" 
he said. He looked as if he were going to cry. 
"I'm going to my uncle John's."]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Simple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Chapters

Features

Character traits

Integral Setting

Simple problem/solution

Topic

Teacher/Teaching

Competition

Inclusion

Thanksgiving

Friendship

Parties

*Family & Friends

*Schools & Education

Numbers

Low Frequency Words

bridesmaids	chalk	chalkboard	chalky	knelt
leftover	swallowed	turkey's