Text Leveling System

Owl Moon

RDQ:	449	Max Word/Sent	34	Total Words	783		Diff Words	293
Lex	620	Ave Word/.Sent	12	Hi Freq occurs	497	63.5%	Hi freq	112	38.2%
AR	2.6	Long Sentences	10.9	Low Freq occurs	19	2.4%	Low freq	11	3.8%

It was late one winter night,
long past my bedtime,
when Pa and I went owling.
There was no wind.
The trees stood still
as giant statues.
And the moon was so bright
the sky seemed to shine.
Somewhere behind us
a train whistle blew,
long and low,
like a sad, sad song.]]
I could hear it
through the woolen cap
Pa had pulled down
over my ears.
A farm dog answered the train,
and then a second dog
joined in.
The sang out,
trains and dogs,
for a real long time.
And when their voices
faded away
it was as quiet as a dream.
We walked on toward the woods,
Pa and I.]]
Our feet crunched
over the crisp snow
and little gray footprints
followed us.
Pa made a long shadow,
but mine was short and round.
I had to run after him
every now and then
to keep up,
and my short, round shadow
bumped after me.]]
But I never called out.
If you go owling
you have to be quiet,
that's what Pa always says.
I had been waiting 
to go owling with Pa
for a long, long time.]]
We reached the line
of pine trees,
black and pointy 
against the sky,
and Pa held up his hand.
I stopped right where I was
and waited.
He looked up, as if searching the stars,
as if reading a map up there.
The moon made his face
into a silver mask.
Then he called:
""Whoo-whoo-who-who-who-who,""
the sound of the Great Horned Owl.
""Whoo-whoo-who-who-who-who,""]]
Again he called out.
And then again.
After each call
he was silent
and for a moment we both listened.
But there was no answer.
Pa shrugged
and I shrugged.
I was not disappointed.
My brothers all said
sometimes there's an owl
and sometimes there isn't.]]
We walked on.
I could feel the cold,
as if someone's icy hand
was palm-down on my back.
And my nose
and the tops of my cheeks
felt cold and hot
at the same time.
But I never said a word.
If you go owling
you have to be quiet
and make your own heat.]]
We went into the woods.
The shadows
were the blackest things
I had ever seen.
They stained the white snow.
My mouth felt furry,
and the scarf over it
was wet and warm.
I didn't ask
what kind of things
hid behind the black trees
in the middle of the night.
When you go owling
you have to be brave.]]
We came to a clearing 
in the dark woods.
The moon was high above us.
It seemed to fit
exactly
over the center of the clearing
and the snow below it
was whiter than the milk
in a cereal bowl.]]
I sighed
and Pa held up his hand
at the sound.
I put my mittens
over the scarf
over my mouth
and listened hard.
And then Pa called:
""Whoo-whoo-who-who-who-who,""
""Whoo-whoo-who-who-who-who,""
I listened
and looked so hard
my ears hurt
and my eyes got cloudy
with the cold.
Pa raised his face
to call out again,
but before he could 
open his mouth
an echo
came threading its way
through the trees.
""Whoo-whoo-who-who-who-who,""]]
Pa almost smiled.
Then he called back:
""Whoo-whoo-who-who-who-who,""
just as if he 
and the owl
were talking about supper
or about the woods
or the moon
or the cold.
I took my mitten
off the scarf
off my mouth,
and I almost smiled, too.]]
The owl's call came closer,
from high up in the trees
on the edge of the meadow.
Nothing in the meadow moved.
All of a sudden
an owl shadow,
part of the big tree shadow,
lifted off
and flew right over us.
We watched silently
with heat in our mouths,
the heat of all those words
we had not spoken.
The shadow hooted again.]]
Pa turned on 
his big flashlight
and caught the owl
just as it landed
on a branch.]]
For one minute,
three minutes,
maybe even a hundred minutes,
we stared at one another.]]
Then the owl
pumped its great wings
and lifted off the branch
like a shadow
without sound.
It flew back into the forest.
""Time to go home,""
Pa said to me.
I knew then I could talk,
I could even laugh out loud.
But I was a shadow
as we walked home.]]
When you go owling
you don't need words
or warm
or anything but hope.
That's what Pa says.
The kind of hope
that flies
on silent wings
under a shining
Owl Moon.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Inferences: Some implications

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Chapters

Features

Character traits

Integral Setting

Simple Plot

Metaphors

Similes

Topic

Fathers

Nature

*Animals

Forests

Animals: Forest

*Family & Friends

Birds

Relationships

Low Frequency Words

blackest	disappointed	echo	furry	meadow
owling	scarf	shrugged	statues	threading
whiter