Text Leveling System

The Dark

RDQ:	234	Max Word/Sent	25	Total Words	466		Diff Words	154
Lex	490	Ave Word/.Sent	10	Hi Freq occurs	269	57.7%	Hi freq	56	36.4%
AR	2.0	Long Sentences	2.2	Low Freq occurs	3	0.6%	Low freq	3	1.9%

Jule Ann came thump thump 
thump thump down the stairs to eat 
breakfast. There was a cookie jar on the 
table. She turned it upside down but
nothing came out.
She pounded on the bottom but still 
nothing came out. She held it up and 
looked in.
A small dark thing fell out bounced 
on her nose - boing - and bounced across 
the table - boing boing boing boing.]] 
Jule Ann said "WHAT'S THAT!"
Her mother said WHAT S THAT!"
The small dark ate Jule Ann's 
shadow and got a little bigger.
It ate her mother's shadow and got a 
little bigger.
It ate the toaster's shadow and got 
even bigger.
"I think it's a dark" said Jule Ann.]] 
By this time the dark was as big as 
the toaster.
Jule Ann's father came in and said
"HEY WHAT'S THAT!"
Jule Ann said "It's a dark. It eats 
shadows."]]
Jule Ann's father picked it up and 
threw it out the window. The dark
landed and bounced boing boing boing
down the street.]]
It saw lots of car shadows and it ate
them up.
It saw lots of telephone pole shadows
and it ate them up.
It saw lots of house shadows and it
ate them up.]]
It saw lots of grass shadows and it
ate them up.
It even saw some butterfly shadows
and it ate them up.]]
The Dark was now as big as a hill. It
came back to Jule Ann's house and sat
on the roof.
Then it went to sleep. The whole
yard was so dark that Jule Ann could not
go out and play.]]
Jule Ann's mother and father said
"What's this!" They ran out to chase
away the dark.
It was so black outside that they got
lost. They could not even find the door
to come back in.]]
Jule Ann was very upset. Then she
saw that the dark had not eaten her
chair's shadow. She broke off a piece and
held it out the window.
The dark came right down the 
side of the house and chomped that
shadow up.]]
Then Jule Ann broke up the rest of
the shadow into little pieces and put
them into the cookie jar.
Right away the dark flew through
the window and jumped into the jar to
eat the shadow.]]
As soon as the dark was inside the
jar Jule Ann put on the top. She taped it
with tape. She glued it with glue.]]
She plastered it with plaster and she
roped it with rope.]]
Then all her friends helped her carry
it to the garbage can and they dumped it 
inside. Her mother and father called the
garbage truck. The truck came and took
the dark away. It never came back.]]
All the shadows took a whole week
to grow again.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Simple problem/solution

Clear cause/effect

Topic

Shadows

Size

Problem Solving

Low Frequency Words

glued

plaster

plastered