Text Leveling System

Mop Top

RDQ:	430	Max Word/Sent	28	Total Words	904		Diff Words	374
Lex	620	Ave Word/.Sent	11	Hi Freq occurs	618	68.4%	Hi freq	174	46.5%
AR	2.5	Long Sentences	15.4	Low Freq occurs	34	3.8%	Low freq	26	7%

This is the story of a boy who never wanted to have his hair cut. 
Everybody called him Moppy because on top he looked like a floppy red mop. 
Moppy didn't care what anybody said about his hair or what they called him. All he wanted was to stay home and play. 
He sometimes played at being a soaring eagle and he sometimes played at being a roaring lion. A good lion he made too without even trying. But the time came when something had to be done about Moppy's top. And it happened one day when he was swinging from branch to branch in his very own chinaberry tree. 
His mother came out into the garden and said "Pardon me but just who do you think you are up there - Tarzan?" 
"Oh no Mother I'm not Tarzan!" said Moppy. "I'm a man from Mars and I'm visiting all the stars and other planets." 
"Well then Mister Man-from-Mars could you plan to make a landing on this earth sometime today? We want you to hop to the barbershop and get that floppy mop clipped before your birthday party tomorrow? "
The minute Moppy heard the words "Birthday party" he dropped down out of the tree to the ground feet first then stretched out his hand. 
"Here's some money sonny"his mother said. "I've just called Mister Barberoli and he says he'll be ready for you at four o'clock sharp. It's a little after half-past three now so let's see you hippity-hop to the barbershop all by yourself." 
Moppy put the money in his pocket and off he zoomed across the vacant lot like a rocket to the moon. But just as soon as he turned the corner he slowed down to a trot. 
"Don't need my hair cut at all - anyway not now" he grumbled and stumbled along until some bright red lollipops in a candy-store caught his eye. They looked so good he had to stop. While he stood staring what should waddle up but a frilly woolly pup. 
"What a silly-looking put you are!" said Moppy as he bent down and tried to find the pup's eyes. "You're the one who needs a haircut not me!" 
And then the both trotted away in opposite directions. Moppy hadn't gone very far before he saw Mr. Lawson mowing his lawn. "That lawn is what needs a haircut not me!" said Moppy. 
Mr. Lawson stopped to wipe his brow and said"How about letting me use this machine on that grassy patch of yours boy? It could do with a little mowing." 
Moppy thought he ought to get going so off he hopped. But the closer he got to the barbershop the slower he hopped. He was nearly there when he saw a man on a ladder snipping branches of a low droopy tree. "Maybe a tree needs clipping but not me!" said Moppy. 
"Oh I don't know about that" said the man on the ladder. "You could do with a few snips of these snippers skipper!" 
At that Moppy skipped away and came at last to the barbershop. But hard as he tried he could not go inside. He decided to run and hide in the grocery store next door where he could think things over. And this is were he hid - behind a barrel of brooms and brushes and fancy red mops! 
By and By a lady without her glasses came up ant told the salesman she wanted a mop to help her keep her kitchen floor clean. "What's more I want the strongest fluffiest floppiest mop you have in the store sir" she said as she began shaking the mops one at a time. 
"Here this will do very well" said the lady. "I'll take it along with me right now." 
"Ouch! Let go!" shouted Moppy. "I'm not a mop! I'm a boy!" 
The lady certainly did let go and in a hurry too as Moppy scurried out the door and headed straight for Mister Barberoli's barbershop!
"I thought maybe you forgot" said roly-poly Mister Barberoli. "But you're right on the dot. It's exactly four!" 
Then in one long leap Moppy was up on the barber-chair seat ready to get his hair cut nice and neat. "Please Mister Barberoli don't let me look like a mop anymore" pleaded Moppy. "I don't want to clean anybody's kitchen floor!" 
In a jiffy Mister Barberoli was clipping and snipping away and combing and cropping without once stopping as if he hadn't a minute to lose. 
Finally he did stop. He held up a mirror and said "Well sonny who's that would you say?" 
"It's me! It's me without that floppy old mop on top! Hooray!" said the boy in the chair. 
Then he hopped down and gave Mister Barberoli the money. And out the door he flew light as a feather. All the world looked spick-and-span as the boy who was once called Moppy hopped up the street for home. Everything felt new not even the weather! The tree was neat and tidy. The lawn was nicely mowed. And look at the pup. Even he's had a trim! Next day at his Birthday Party there was a beautiful big cake with six candles lit and on the frosty was written Happy Birthday to Marty! which was his real and true name all the time and forevermore!]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Character traits

Simple problem/solution

Clear cause/effect

Topic

Birthdays

Appearances

Imagination

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

floppiest	fluffiest	forevermore	grocery	hippity
lollipops	moppy	moppy's	mowed	mowing
opposite	ought	pardon	pleaded	salesman
scurried	skipper	snippers	snipping	soaring
sonny	spick	tarzan	tidy	vacant
woolly