Text Leveling System

Best Friends Wear Pink Tutus

RDQ:	220	Max Word/Sent	19	Total Words	350		Diff Words	149
Lex	480	Ave Word/.Sent	7	Hi Freq occurs	175	50%	Hi freq	61	40.9%
AR	2.0	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	11	3.1%	Low freq	7	4.7%

I'm Amanda, and this is Emily. We're best friends, and we wear pink tutus. We wear pink tutus to school. We wear pink tutus to the store. We even wear pink tutus to go roller skating. Best of all, we wear our pink tutus to ballet class. Our ballet class is going to dance The Nutcracker. Each student will try out for a part. Our teacher, Miss Yvonne, will decide who gets it. I want to be Marie. So does Emily. Marie doesn't get to wear a pink tutu, but she is the star of the show. Miss Yvonne says there can only be one Marie. ""I really want to be Marie,"" Emily says. ""But I really want to be Marie,"" I say. If I get to be Marie, then Emily will be sad, and that will make me sad. If Emily gets to be Marie, then I will be sad, and that will make Emily sad. ""Sometimes being your best friend is hard,"" Emily says. For the tryouts, we decide not to be best friends. We warm up at opposites of the room.We try not to look at each other. ""Pretend you are Marie and show me how you would dance for your new Nutcracker doll,"" Miss Yvonne says. Emily is dancing very well. I think she may get the part. Suddenly she sees me. Emily acts dizzy and wobbles. That's odd. Spinning never made her dizzy before. Now it's my turn. I point my toes like  real ballerina. Then I see Emily. I kick the doll over on purpose. Oops! It's not time for the Nutcracker to lose his head yet! Miss Yvonne picks Nicole to be Marie. Nicole is an older girl. ""Amanda and Emily will be snowflakes in 'The Snowflake Waltz,'"" says Miss Yvonne. ""Together?"" I ask. ""Of course,"" says Miss Yvonne. Miss Yvonne knows we dance better together. And we know we dance better when we are best friends. Anyway, we would rather be snowflakes. Snowflakes get to wear tutus. I guess we are the first pink snowflakes in the history of The Nutcracker!

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Two speakers

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Character traits

Character development

Simple Plot

First Person

Topic

Sharing

Clothes

Friendship

Performing

Relationships

Low Frequency Words

ballet	nutcracker	opposites	purpose	tryouts
waltz	wobbles