Text Leveling System

Armadillo Ray

RDQ:	576	Max Word/Sent	25	Total Words	953		Diff Words	337
Lex	650	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	584	61.3%	Hi freq	130	38.6%
AR	2.9	Long Sentences	4.5	Low Freq occurs	46	4.8%	Low freq	31	9.2%

Armadillo Ray lived in the desert where the tumbleweeds rolled past like children turning somersaults.  Like all armadillos Ray like to explore at night.  When the fierce sun had gone to bed he would scamper across the cool rocks and dig in the sand with his strong young paws.  When he saw a cactus he pretended he was a bad guy. "Stick 'em up!" he would say. Ray was an imaginative armadillo. Ray was also an inquisitive armadillo. Often he would peer into the clear night sky and contemplate the moon. Some nights the moon was full and round and white like a blossom on the saguaro cactus where the owls lived.  It made the armored shell on Ray's back shine like pebbles in a stream. Other nights the moon was a half-circle like the smile of a kit fox reflected sideways in a pool.  Or it was only a silver sliver like the stinger on the tail of a scorpion. Armadillo Ray was puzzled. What was this magic thing in the sky? How could it have so many shapes? Ray decided to ask the other desert dwellers about the moon. The first night Ray sought an answer he came across his friends the snakes.  They were dancing. They whipped their snaky bodies into the air. "Hello!" said Ray. "Hello!" said the snakes. "I have a question" said Ray.  "What is the moon?" "What a silly question for a young armadillo!" the snakes said. "Everybody knows the moon is a great serpent that can twist into many different shapes.  Some nights it coils into a tight round ball. Tonight it has bent itself into a shiny crescent. Once the serpent was stretched across the land like a great white belt but the land began filling up with people. The people crawled across the serpent like the fleas on a coyote.  They made the serpent itch so it crawled up to the sky." Then the snakes curled and cork-screwed into hoops and crescents in imitation of the great serpent. "I can do that too!" Ray shouted. And he did. But Ray was not convinced the moon was a great white serpent.  He decided to seek another opinion. A few nights later Armadillo Ray traveled deeper into the desert.  Soon he came to a prairie dog burrow.  "Hello!" called Ray. "Hello" answered the prairie dog. "I have a question" said Ray. "What is the moon?" "What a silly question for a young armadillo!"  the prairie dog said. "Everybody knows the moon is the entrance to a great burrow in the sky.  The father of all prairie dogs lives at the bottom. He sleeps during the day and keeps the light on at night.  Sometimes the door to his burrow is open only a crack. He opens it a little more each day.  It is half open tonight. In a few nights it will be wide open a bright white circle of light! The great prairie dog used to live deep in the center of the world but now there are too many roads.  The cars and trucks became so noisy he could not sleep so he left our world and dug a hole in the sky. If you watch long enough you can see him poke his head out." Armadillo Ray and the prairie dog watched the moon move across the sky. But the friends did not see a great prairie dog stick his head out.  "There must be too many cars" said the prairie dog.  Ray nodded. Still he was not convinced that the moon was the entrance to the home of a great prairie dog.  He decided to keep searching for an answer. Several nights later Ray returned to his quest. He soon saw a sage grouse spinning in the brush.  She was spreading her wings and ruffling her tail feathers. "Hello!" said Ray. "Hello!" said the grouse. "I have a question" said Ray. "What is the moon?" "What a silly question for a young armadillo!" said the grouse. "Everybody knows the moon is a giant egg.  The grouse who laid it used the sky as a nest because the desert was too small.  And beyond the desert are buildings and steamboats and bridges - things a young armadillo like you wouldn't know about. "The moon is a magic egg." the grouse continued.  "it grows smaller and larger and larger and smaller over and over and over. But it has never hatched. One day it will crack open and the world's largest grouse will come out.  Won't that be the day!"  Before Ray could reply he heard a noise.  It was an owl who lived in a nearby cactus.  "Ha!" said the owl. "Don't listen to that grouse. Or the snakes or the prairie dog or the snakes or the prairie dog or the others. I will tell you about the moon." Ray was happy. "Owls are wise" Ray thought. "He will know what the moon is." The owl began to talk. He used words Ray had never heard before . On and on he talked. The night began to slip away. Armadillo Ray listened and tried to understand. Fingers of color scratched the darkness from the sky. The moon disappeared and the sun came up. The owl finished his story. He looked down from the cactus. Ray was lying on the ground his head on his paws. Ray knew the owl was wise and he believed the owl had told the truth. But somehow the owl's story had seemed the most unbelievable of all. Ray was a tired armadillo. As Ray closed his eyes in sleep the moon rose again in his dreams. It seemed to be a great shining armadillo.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Topic

Sky

Deserts

*Animals

Night

Low Frequency Words

burrow	contemplate	convinced	crescent	crescents
curled	grouse	hatched	imaginative	imitation
inquisitive	opinion	peer	prairie	reflected
ruffling	sage	saguaro	scamper	scorpion
serpent	sideways	sliver	snaky	somersaults
sought	steamboats	stinger	tumbleweeds	unbelievable
whipped