Text Leveling System

How I Learned Geography

RDQ:	977	Max Word/Sent	36	Total Words	497		Diff Words	279
Lex	740	Ave Word/.Sent	11	Hi Freq occurs	282	56.7%	Hi freq	93	33.3%
AR	3.6	Long Sentences	18.2	Low Freq occurs	42	8.5%	Low freq	41	14.7%

When war devastated the land, buildings crumbled to dust. Everything we had was lost, and we fled empty-handed.
We traveled far, far east to another country, where summers were hot and winters were cold, to a city of houses made of clay, straw, and camel dung, surrounded by dusty steppes, burned by the sun.
We lived in a small room with a couple we did not know. We slept on a dirt floor. I had no toys and notebooks. Worst of all: food was scarce.
One day, father went to the bazaar to buy bread.
As evening approached, he hadn't returned. Mother and I were worried and hungry. It was nearly dark when he came home. He carried a long roll of paper under his arm. "I bought a map," he announced triumphantly.
"Where is the bread?" Mother asked.
"I bought a map," he said again.
Mother and I said nothing.
"I had enough money to buy only a tiny piece of bread, and we would still be hungry," he explained apologetically.
"No supper tonight," mother said bitterly. "We will have the map instead."
I was furious. I didn't think I would ever forgive him, and I went to bed hungry, while the couple we lived with eight their meager supper.
The husband was a writer. He wrote in silence, but, oh! How loudly he chewed. He chewed a small crust of bread with such enthusiasm, as if that were the most delicious morsel in the world. I envied him his bread and wished I were the one chewing it. I covered my head with my blanket so I would not hear him smacking his lips with such noisy delight.
The next day, father hung the map. It took up an entire wall. Our cheerless room was flooded with color. I became fascinated by the map and spent long hours looking at it, studying its every detail, and many days drawing it on any scrap of paper that chanced my way.
I found strange sounding names on the map and savored their exotic sounds, making a little rhyme out of them: Fukuoka, Takaoka, Omsk, Fukuyama, Nagayama Tomsk, Okazaki Miyazaki Pinsk, Pennsylvania Transylvania Minsk!
I repeated this rhyme like a magic incantation and was transported far away without ever leaving our room.
I landed in burning deserts. I ran on beaches and felt their sand between my toes. I climbed snowy mountains where icy winds licked my face. I saw wondrous temples where stone carvings danced on the walls, and birds of all colors saying on the rooftops.
I passed through fruit groves, eating as many papayas and mangoes as I pleased. I drank fresh water and rested in the shade of a palm trees.
I came to a city of tall buildings and counted zillions of Windows, falling asleep before I could finish.
And so I spent and chanted hours far, far from our hunger and misery. I forgave my father. He was right, after all.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Many difficult words

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Several Implications

Complexity: Several ideas - closely related

Concepts: Abstract/Complex Social

Author's purpose: Obvious

Mature concepts: With common experiences or clear fantasy

Features

Character traits

Integral Setting

First Person

Difficult names

Topic

Learning

*Geography

Imagination

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

announced	apologetically	approached	delicious	devastated
enthusiasm	envied	exotic	fascinated	fukuoka
fukuyama	furious	groves	hunger	incantation
mangoes	meager	misery	miyazaki	morsel
nagayama	okazaki	omsk	papayas	pennsylvania
rhyme	rooftops	savored	scarce	smacking
sounding	steppes	surrounded	takaoka	tomsk
transported	transylvania	triumphantly	wondrous	writer
zillions