Text Leveling System

Class Clown

RDQ:	1381	Max Word/Sent	29	Total Words	3447		Diff Words	827
Lex	810	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	2461	71.4%	Hi freq	352	42.6%
AR	4.2	Long Sentences	3.5	Low Freq occurs	119	3.5%	Low freq	85	10.3%

The first Tuesday in October was very much like any other day in Mrs. Hockaday's third grade. Lucas Cott felt bored and restless. He always felt restless in class.
During social studies, he sat digging his initials into his desk with the tip of his ballpoint pen. The L was easy to make because it was just two straight lines. It was the C that gave him some trouble. He wanted it to curve evenly. "Lucas is writing on his desk," a voice called out.
It was Cricket Kaufman, who sat in the seat across the aisle from Lucas. She was always spying on him.
"I am not," said Lucas, slipping his pen up the long sleeve of his shirt.
"Yes, you are," Cricket insisted. "I saw you do it ."
Mrs. Hockaday came over to investigate. "Someone has written L C on this desk," she said, looking at Lucas.
"It could have been someone else. It didn't have to be me," Lucas pointed out.
"It is unlikely that someone else would bother to vandalize your desk with your initials," Said Mrs. Hockaday.
"You didn't see me," Lucas protested. "But I did," said Cricket proudly.
"Yeah? Well, it's just your word against mine," Lucas said, turning to face the girl who always seemed to get him in trouble. As he turned, the pen fell out of his sleeve and onto the floor. "See," said Cricket, pointing to it. "There's the proof."
Everyone in the class knew that Cricket was
planning to become a lawyer when she grew up. She practiced all the time.
Mrs. Hockaday sent Lucas out of the room to get some wet paper towels and soap from the boys' room. "I want you to wash that desk as well as you can," she told him.
Lucas grinned as he rubbed on the desk. It was more fun doing that than social studies. The day continued as usual with Lucas getting in trouble three or four more times. Just before dismissal, Lucas reached in his pocket and removed a drinking straw that he had placed there at lunchtime. He sat listening to Mrs. Hockaday reading, and at the same time, he pretended that he was smoking a cigarette. Once or twice he carefully tapped off the imaginary ash that was growing on his cigarette, as he had seen actors do in the movies.
Mrs. Hockaday looked up from the book. "Lucas Cott. What are you doing now?" She walked up the aisle and took the straw away from Lucas. "This is the last straw."
"No, it isn't," said Lucas, smiling. He removed a second plastic drinking straw from his pocket. "I have another," he announced. The class laughed and Lucas looked around the room,
grinning happily. He liked to make everyone laugh He had a reputation for being a real clown. Mrs. Hockaday sat down at her desk and wrote a message on her personal stationery just as the dismissal bell rang.
As Lucas was walking out of the classroom, Mrs. Hockaday stopped him. "Please give this note to your mother," she said.
Lucas looked at the note. It was just a folded sheet of paper, not even put into an envelope. The temptation to read it was very strong. Lucas wondered what Mrs. Hockaday had to say to his mother. He waited until he was walking home before he opened the paper. Luckily, he had learned how to read cursive writing. The note said: "Please call the school to make an appointment to speak to me. I find that Lucas is very obstreperous in class."
The first sentence was easy for Lucas to read. But he did not know what the big word in the second sentence meant. Obstreperous had never been on any of the vocabulary lists that Mrs. Hockaday had assigned to the class.
Lucas looked around and saw Cricket waiting for the crossing guard to signal that the children could cross the street. Even though Lucas
did not like Cricket, there was no denying that she was the smartest girl in third grade. Her papers were always neat and finished before anyone else's. And she was always waving her hand in the air to be called on. Cricket always had an answer and her answers were always right.
Lucas went over to Cricket and showed her the note. "Can you read this word?" he asked her.
"That's the letter that Mrs. Hockaday told you to take home for your mother," she said, recognizing the teacher's pink stationery.
"I'm taking it home right now," said Lucas. "But I want to know what she wrote."
"You shouldn't read letters that aren't addressed to you," said Cricket righteously. "I would never do a thing like that." Nevertheless,
although the letter was not addressed to her either, she looked at the paper that Lucas held out to her.
"What's that big word?" Lucas asked. Cricket sounded out the syllables. "It's a kind of doctor," she said knowingly. "It's the kind of doctor that a lady goes to when she is having a baby. I know all about it because my
mother is going to have a baby next month. I'm going to be a big sister." She swelled with importance.
"I'm a big brother already," said Lucas. Cricket always thought she was so special. Wait until she discovered that it wasn't such a big deal to have a baby in the house. "I have two brothers and they are twins," he reminded Cricket. Then Lucas paused for a moment. An idea had just occurred to him. "Why would Mrs. Hockaday call me a doctor?"
"Maybe she thinks you are going to be a doctor when you grow up," said Cricket. "I could be a doctor if I wanted, but I'm going to be a lawyer instead. Then when I get older, I can be elected president of the United States."
"Well, I'm not going to vote for you," shouted Lucas, grabbing the letter away from Cricket. And then he ran across the street even though the crossing guard had not signaled that it was time.
"Young man! Young man!" the crossing guard shouted at him.
But Lucas kept on running and didn't turn back. He ran all the way home and proudly presented his mother with the letter from his teacher. It wasn't every day that he brought home such a fine note.
"I am going to be a doctor when I grow up," he announced.
"Really?" asked Mrs. Cott with surprise. "I thought you were going to be a wrestler." "That was yesterday," Lucas explained. "Mrs. Hockaday says I am going to be a doctor that helps ladies make babies."
Mrs. Cott read the note that her son had handed her. "Oh, Lucas," she sighed. She read the note on the pink stationery a second time. Apparently she wasn't as smart as Cricket Kaufman, because after a moment she went off and returned with the dictionary.
Mrs. Cott turned the pages until her finger stopped at the word obstreperous. "OBSTREPEROUS. Resisting control in a noisy manner," she read aloud.
"Babies are noisy," Lucas agreed.
"Babies are noisy and so are you," said his mother. "Mrs. Hockaday is not at all happy about your behavior in class."
"I thought she said I was going to be a doctor," said Lucas. Ile could not believe that
Cricket was wrong. Cricket was never wrong, no matter how difficult the work was in class. "You must be thinking of OBSTETRICIAN. That's a doctor. And you will never become an obstetrician or anything else until you settle down in class and do your work. Just look at your hands," said Mrs. Cott. "You must have been misbehaving to come home from school with hands like those."
Lucas looked at his hands. They were covered with pink, red, green, orange, and yellow stains. He grinned at his mother. "Claudia got some new marking pens and she brought them to school," he explained. "They are all different colors and they smell like foods. The red is cherry and the yellow is lemon. So I tested them and I tasted them, too."
"You tasted the marking pens?" his mother asked, making a face. "They could be poisonous."
"Naw," said Lucas. "Nothing happened." "Lucas, you must not put things in your mouth unless they are truly meant to be eaten," scolded Mrs. Cott.
"Then they shouldn't make them smell so good," Lucas said. "The best one was orange. It
smelled delicious. But it tasted blah, just like the others."
"Oh, Lucas," sighed his mother. "When are you going to learn to act your age? Did you do anything else naughty at school today?" she asked.
Lucas took a banana from the fruit bowl and began to peel it as he thought. "I didn't do anything," he said. Writing on his desk wasn't so bad, and it certainly wasn't noisy.
"You must have done something," said his mother. "Think hard."
"This morning I invented a great game," said Lucas, chewing a mouthful of banana. "I rolled my pencil along the desk until it landed in the little space on the end. Then I showed Julio how to do it and we had races. My pencil won more times than his."
"What was everyone else doing while you fellows were having pencil races?" asked Mrs. Cott.
"They were working in their arithmetic workbooks," said Lucas. "But Julio and I were having more fun. And besides, I had already finished all the problems Mrs. Hockaday assigned
us. After a while, some of the other kids saw us and they began having pencil races, too. Pretty soon everyone was having them. Except Cricket," he remembered.
"Pencil races are obstreperous behavior," said his mother.
"But everyone was doing it," objected Lucas. "And I'm the only one who got a note sent home."
"Did you do anything else?" asked his mother.
"During USSR, Mrs. Hockaday made me sit outside the classroom on a chair in the hallway.
"USSR?"
"Universal Sustained Silent Reading. That's when everyone in the whole school reads at the same time."
"Oh, yes. I forgot," said Mrs. Cott. "Well, why did you have to sit outside? Weren't you reading like everyone else?"
"Sure I was reading," said Lucas. "But Mrs. Hockaday got angry because I was opening and closing the Velcro tabs on my sneakers. She said it was distracting everybody."
"It does sound a tiny bit obstreperous to me," said Mrs. Cott. "Did you do anything else today?"
"I called out the answers during English instead of raising my hand," Lucas admitted. "That's bad," said his mother. "Suppose everyone called out the answers all the time. How could Mrs. Hockaday keep order in the classroom?"
"But if I don't call out the answers, then she always calls on Cricket. Cricket is so smart she raises her hand before Mrs. Hockaday even asks the questions. That way her hand is up in the air first. It's not fair."
"Promise me that tomorrow you won't have any pencil races or play with the Velcro tabs on your sneakers or call out answers," begged Mrs. Cott. "You're a smart kid, Lucas, and Mrs. Hockaday is so busy scolding you for misbehavior that she'll never have time to find out."
"Do you really think I'm smart?" asked Lucas.
"Of course I do," said his mother. "Don't you remember your father and me telling you how early you learned to speak. The twins are only able to say a few words, but when you were
their age you were speaking in complete sentences. But sometimes it's better not to speak and just hold your tongue. Don't call out answers. Just raise your hand. You can have hand-raising races with Cricket instead of pencil races with Julio."
"Yeah," said Lucas. "That's a good idea." A sharp scream came from the next room. "The twins are waking from their nap," sighed Mrs. Cott. "Enough bananas." She grabbed a banana from Lucas. "You had one already. You'll spoil your appetite for supper."
"Okay." Lucas sighed. It seemed whatever he opened his mouth for, it was wrong-putting things in or letting words out.
"I'll go ride my bike," he announced. When Marcus and Marius woke up from their naps, they were pretty cranky. It would be better to stay outside.
"Good," said Mrs. Cott.
"I have to ride by Cricket's house," he said. Lucas didn't want to wait until tomorrow to tell her that for once she had gotten an answer wrong. She didn't even know what the word obstreperous meant. Boy, was she dumb.
Breakfast was always noisy and messy at Lucas's house. The twins, Marcus and Marius, were learning to feed themselves, so there were usually drops of
oatmeal or pieces of toast falling on the floor. Sometimes Marcus would throw a section of orange to Marius. Sometimes Marius would stick his hand into the bowl of cereal and then rub it in his hair.
Mr. Cott had to leave the house very early each morning to get to work. Mrs. Cott was kept busy as she ran from one twin to the other trying
to keep order and see that most of the breakfast ended up inside their stomachs.
As Lucas was getting ready to leave for school, his mother said, "I'm going to make an appointment for your father and me to speak with Mrs. Hockaday. I want to tell her that you are going to try and turn over a new leaf." Lucas looked puzzled. He had already promised to behave. What was this business about a leaf? Mrs. Cott saw that her son didn't understand.
"A new leaf means that you will begin all over. You will try to be the perfect student in Mrs. Hockaday's class."
As he walked toward school, Lucas thought about what his mother had said. Being perfect didn't sound like much fun. But he would give it a try.
The first thing Lucas noticed when he came into class was that Arthur Lewis was wearing a brand new pair of eyeglasses. Arthur was a quiet boy, and he rarely spoke out in class. But with his new glasses he looked very important and very smart. He looked smarter than Cricket Kaufman, and he looked as if he knew that the glasses had given him a new power. Arthur surprised every
one that morning by raising his hand and answering two of Mrs. Hockaday's questions. He had never done that before.
Lucas turned around to look at Arthur. He wished that he had glasses with dark frames like that. It would be easier to behave if he were wearing eyeglasses. At lunchtime Lucas asked Arthur if he could try them on.
Arthur refused. "My mother said that glasses are not toys. She said that I should leave them on and not take them off."
"You could take them off for a minute to rest your eyes while you're eating," suggested Lucas. "That isn't playing with your glasses."
Arthur considered Lucas's suggestion. Then he said, "No. I'm not taking my glasses off. If you want glasses then you have to get your own."
Lucas looked around the room. Six or seven other children in other classes were also wearing glasses. Lucas had never noticed them before.
Lucas decided that if lie wore glasses, he would definitely act differently. With glasses he would be a more serious student. He would not shout out in class or act in an obstreperous manner. He would be the perfect student. So after lunch, when he returned to the classroom, he
raised his hand and told Mrs. Hockaday that he couldn't see the words she was writing on the chalkboard.
"Bring your paper and come sit up here," said Mrs. Hockaday, and she pointed to a seat that was empty because Sara Jane Cushman was absent.
Lucas walked slowly to the front of the room, bumping into several desks along the way. "Are you drunk?" asked Julio.
"I can't see well," Lucas complained. "I think I need eyeglasses."
Sitting in the front seat wasn't much fun. None of his usual tricks like rolling the pencil were possible when he was sitting right in front of Mrs. Hockaday. But Lucas thought it would be worth the inconvenience if he could arrange to get glasses. He kept squinting his eyes whenever he remembered.
Mrs. Hockaday went over to Lucas. "I think you had better go to the nurse," she said.
Lucas sat up straighter. "Yes, Mrs. Hockaday," he agreed.
"Ask her to examine your eyes. Perhaps you have strained them by watching too much TV," said the teacher.
"Watching TV doesn't strain my eyes," said Lucas quickly. He hoped he hadn't planted any weird ideas in Mrs. Hockaday's head.
The nurse's office was at the end of the hall. When he got there, Lucas saw Mrs. Phillips, the nurse, taking the temperature of Carol Simmons, who was in one of the other third grade classes. Carol was lying on the cot in the nurse's office and her face was all flushed.
"What can I do for you, Lucas?" asked Mrs. Phillips.
"Mrs. Hockaday said you should examine my eyes," he reported. Then he remembered to squint again.
Mrs. Phillips took the thermometer from Carol Simmons's mouth and studied it. "You are a shade over a hundred," she said. "Just lie here and rest until it's time to go home."
Then the nurse walked to the front of the room and pulled down the chart that was used for examining eyes. "Stand on that yellow line," she instructed Lucas. "Now cover your right eye with this piece of paper."
Lucas took the paper from the nurse and covered his eye. He could read all the letters on
the chart perfectly. However, he pretended that he couldn't.
Mrs. Phillips pointed to a line of letters. "K-P-Z-X-M-T," Lucas read, although he could see quite well that the letters on the chart were none of those.
"Try the line above," said Mrs. Phillips. Again Lucas gave only the wrong letters. "Your eyes certainly seem to have changed since the last time they were examined," said Mrs. Phillips. "Try the other eye."
Lucas shifted the paper to cover his left eye. Once again he read out letters that he did not see but that he hoped would convince the nurse that he badly needed eyeglasses.
Carol Simmons sat up on the cot and watched.
"Are you going blind?" she asked Lucas. Lucas smiled proudly. "I guess I need glasses like Arthur Lewis," he informed Carol and the nurse.
"I will write a note to your mother to take you to an eye doctor," said Mrs. Phillips, and she went over to her desk.
"I'm sorry about your eyes," said Carol.
"That's okay," said Lucas. "I'm going to get glasses now."
"Yeah, but I remember last year you said you wanted to be an astronaut."
"This year I want to be a wrestler," Lucas
said.
"That's good because you need twenty twenty vision to be an astronaut," Carol told Lucas.
"I never knew that," he said.
"I heard it on a TV program," said Carol. "Can't you be an astronaut if you wear eyeglasses?" Lucas asked Mrs. Phillips. He might want to change back to being an astronaut instead of a wrestler. Then what?
"I really don't know," said the nurse. "But don't worry. There are so many things you can do when you grow up. The important thing is that
glasses will enable you to see better. Your eyesight seems to be deteriorating rapidly. I never saw such a change. It should be looked into by a doctor at once."
Carol Simmons lay back on the cot. "No one would want to be in a spaceship flown by a blind astronaut," she said.
"I'm not blind," said Lucas. "I can see perfectly."
He put the little paper in front of his right eye again. "T-R-N-K-O-P," he read from the very bottom line. "I can even sec what it says on the very, very bottom of the chart. `Printed in Topeka, Kansas. 1982.' "
Lucas turned to face Carol Simmons. "See, I told you I'm not blind."
"Lucas Cott, what is this all about?" asked Mrs. Phillips. "I don't have time to play games with you!"
"I recovered," said Lucas. "Thanks for the eye checkup," he said.
"You should never believe anything Lucas Cott says," said Carol Simmons. "I was in his class last year. I know all about him."
"I know all about you, too," said Lucas. "What do you know?" Carol demanded. "I'm not telling," said Lucas.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: No support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: Many difficult words

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Several Implications

Complexity: Several unrelated ideas

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Chapters

Features

Character traits

Character development

Simple Plot

Topic

Behaviors

Social Skills

*Feelings, Behaviors

*Schools & Education

Low Frequency Words

aisle	announced	apparently	appointment	assigned
astronaut	chalkboard	cigarette	cricket's	cursive
curve	cushman	delicious	denying	dismissal
distracting	fellows	flown	flushed	ile
imaginary	importance	inconvenience	informed	initials
instructed	julio	knowingly	ladies	lawyer
luckily	misbehaving	misbehavior	mouthful	naughty
naw	nevertheless	oatmeal	objected	obstetrician
obstreperous	occurred	paused	personal	poisonous
practiced	presented	president	raises	raising
recognizing	refused	reputation	resisting	restless
righteously	section	signaled	simmons	simmons's
social	squint	stationery	stomachs	straighter
studied	studies	suggestion	sustained	swelled
syllables	temptation	thermometer	topeka	truly
universal	ussr	vandalize	velcro	vision
vocabulary	waking	weird	workbooks	worth