Text Leveling System

Scrap Doll, The

RDQ:	245	Max Word/Sent	24	Total Words	480		Diff Words	205
Lex	500	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	286	59.6%	Hi freq	77	37.6%
AR	2.1	Long Sentences	1.9	Low Freq occurs	11	2.3%	Low freq	10	4.9%

Lydia wanted a store-bought doll
 with yellow hair and blue eyes that blinked. But there wasn't the money for any such thing. " When I was a girl" her mother told her "my daddy made me a doll out of scraps. Her name was Sarah and I loved her so much." "But I want mine store-bought" Lydia said. "I know" said her mother. And she sounded sorry and she looked sorry. She came down from the attic holding an old shoe box. Inside lay a scruffy-looking doll with staring eyes and a bald head. "That was my scrap doll" her mother said. "Why don't you fix her up a little? Name her anything you like." Lydia felt sorry too. In her mind she called the doll Ugly Old Thing. Sarah was too pretty a name. But she took out her paint box. She mixed her favorite shade of blue the color of the summer sky. Then Ugly Old Thing stared back at her with bright kindly eyes. So Lydia painted a smiling mouth and round pink cheeks. It took a long time to get them just right. Then she laid the doll back into her shoe box. "Good night Ugly Old Thing" she said. She took the doll up again the next morning. The poor thing looked funny with her little bald head. The more she smiled the funnier she looked. So Lydia cut up some yellow-yarn hair. She curled the ends and added a green bow. She noticed the doll had just painted on clothes. And those clothes were rubbed thin and worn out in places. So Lydia got her sewing kit. There was lace trim and wool flannel and bits of flowered cotton. Lydia sewed a dress and a coat and a pair of pink shoes from a square of satin she'd saved over from dancing class.Then didn't that doll shine like springtime! She gave the hair a rough little pat and put her back into her shoe box. "Good night Ugly Old Thing" she said. But the doll didn't seem to belong in a box. Lydia sat her on the bureau. To her right was a jar full of copper pennies. To her left was a stack of old magazines. The scrap doll just smiled and stared out the window. She looked like a girl all alone at a party. So Lydia took her down from the bureau. She made a place for her head on the pillow. Next morning Lydia brought the doll down to breakfast. "Look at those blue eyes" her mother said. "And that happy smile Has she got a name?" Lydia stopped eating her spoon in mid-air. She looked surprised. "Her name is Sarah! I thought you knew." Her mother smiled. "That's right" she said. "What a pretty name." "It suits her" said Lydia and went on eating.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Topic

Toys

Wishes

Repair/Repairing

Appearances

Wealth

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

bureau	curled	flannel	flowered	kindly
magazines	rough	scruffy	sewed	springtime
suits