Text Leveling System

Love That Dog

RDQ:	1327	Max Word/Sent	86	Total Words	1481		Diff Words	388
Lex	800	Ave Word/.Sent	14	Hi Freq occurs	1052	71%	Hi freq	168	43.3%
AR	4.1	Long Sentences	27.3	Low Freq occurs	37	2.5%	Low freq	17	4.4%

Jack
Room 105-Miss Stretchberry
September 13
I don't want to because boys don't write poetry. Girls do.
September 21
I tried. Can't do it. Brian's empty.
September 27
I don't understand the poem about the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens and why so much depends upon them.
If there is a poem about the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens than any words can be a poem. You've just got to make sure lines.
October 4
do you promise not to read it out loud? Do you promise not to put it on the board?
Okay, here it is, but I don't like it.
So much depends upon a blue car splattered with mud speeding down the road.
October 10
what do you mean-why does so much depend upon a blue car?
You didn't say before that I had to tell why.
The wheelbarrow guy doesn't tell why.
October 17
what was up with the snowy woods poem you read today?
Why doesn't the person just keep going if he's got so many miles to go before he sleeps?
And why do I have to tell more about the blue car splattered with mud speeding down the road?
I don't want to write about that blue car that had miles to go before it slept, so many miles to go in such a hurry.
October 24
I am sorry to say I did not really understand the Tiger Tiger burning Bright poem but at least it sounded good in my ears.
Here is the blue car with Tiger sounds:
blue car, blue car, shining bright in the darkness of night: who could see you speeding by like a comet in the sky?
I could see you in the night, blue car, blue car, shining bright. I could see you speeding by like a comet in the sky.
Some of the Tiger sounds are still in my ears like drums beat beat beating.
October 31
yes you can put the two blue car poems on the board but only if you don't put my name on them.
November 6
they look nice typed up like that on blue paper on a yellow board.
(But still don't tell anyone who wrote them, okay?)
(And what does anonymous mean? Is it good?)
November 9
I don't have any pets so I can't write about one and especially I can't write a poem about one.
November 15
yes, I used to have a pet. I don't want to write about it. You're going to ask me why not? Right?
November 22
pretend I still have a pet?
Can't I make up a pet-a different one? Like a tiger? Or a hamster? The goldfish? Turtle? Snail? Worm? flea?
November 29
I like those small poems we read today.
When they're small like that you can read a whole bunch in a short time and then in your head are all the pictures of all the small things from all the small poems.
I like how the kittens leaped in the cat poem and how you could see the long head of the horse in the horse poem and especially I like the dog in the dog poem because that's just how my yellow dog used to lie down,, with his tongue all limp and his chin between his paws and how he had sometimes chomp at a fly and then sleep in his loose skin, just like that poet, Miss Valerie worth, in her small dog poem.
December 4
why do you want to type up what I wrote about reading the small poems?
It's not a poem. Is it?
I guess you can put it on the board if you want to but don't put my name on it in case other people think it's not a poem.
December 13
I guess it does look like a poem when you see it typed up like that. But I think maybe it would look better if there was more space between the lines. Like how I wrote it the first time.
And I like the picture of the yellow dog you put beside it. But that's not how my yellow dog looked.
January 10
I really really really did not get the pastor poem you read today. I mean: somebody's going out to the pasture to clean the spring and to get the little tottery calf while he's out there and he isn't going to be gone long and he wants you(who is you?) To come too.
I mean really.
And you said that Mr. Robert Frost who wrote about the pasture was also the one who wrote about those snowy woods and the miles to go before he sleeps-well!
I think Mr. Robert Frost has a little too much time on his hands.
January 17 
remember the wheelbarrow poem you read the first week of school?
Maybe the wheelbarrow poet was just making a picture with words and somebody else-like maybe his teacher-typed it up and then people thought it was a poem because it looked like one typed up like that.
And maybe that's the same thing that happened with Mr. Robert Frost. Maybe he was just making pictures with words about the snowy woods and the pasture-and his teacher typed them up and they looked like poems so people thought they were poems.
Like how you did with the blue car things and reading the small poems thing. On the board they look like poems and the other kids are looking at them and they think they really are poems and they are all saying who wrote that?
January 24
we are going for a drive and my father said we won't be gone long-you come to and so I went and we drove and drove until we stopped at a red brick building with a sign in blue letters animal protection shelter.
And inside we walked down a cement path past cages with all kinds of dogs big and small fat and skinny some of them hiding in the corner but most of them bark bark barking and jumping up against the wire cage as we walked past as if they were saying me me choose me! I'm the best one!
And that's where we saw the yellow dog standing against the cage with his paws curled around the wire and his long red tongue hanging out and his big black eyes looking a little sad and his long tail wag wag wagging as if he were saying me me me! Choose me!
And we did. We chose him. And in the car he put his head against my chest and wrapped his paws around my arm as if he were saying thank you thank you thank you.
And the other dogs in the cages get killed dead if nobody chooses them.
January 31
yes you can type up what I wrote about my yellow dog but leave off the part about the other dogs getting killed dead because that's too sad.
And don't put my name on it please.
And maybe it would look good on yellow paper.
And maybe the title should be you come too.
February 7
yes it looks good on yellow paper but you forgot (again) to leave more space between the lines like I did when I wrote it. That's okay though.
February 15
I like that poem we read today about street music in the city. My street is not in the middle of the city so it doesn't have that loud music of horns and trucks clash flash screech. My street is on the edge of the city and it has quiet music most of the time whisp meow swish. My street is a thin one with houses on both sides and my house is the white one with the red door.
There is not too much traffic on my street-not like in the middle of the city.
We play in the yard and sometimes in the street but only if a grown-up or the big kids are out there too, and they will shout car! If they see a car coming down the street.
At both ends of our street are yellow signs that say children at play! Caution! But sometimes the cars pay no attention and speed down the road as if they are in a big hurry with many miles to go before they sleep. 
February 21
that was so great those poems you showed us where the words make the shape of a thing that the poem is about-like the one about an Apple that was shaped like an Apple and the one about the house that was shaped like a house.
My brain was pop pop popping when I looked at those poems. I never knew a poet person could do that funny kind of thing. 
February 26
I tried one of those poems that looked like what it's about.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Vocabulary: Some difficult words

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Required

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Character traits

Character development

Mood/tone

Figurative Language

First Person

Present Tense

Topic

Teacher/Teaching

Writing

Dogs

Learning

Love

*Communication

Authors

Poetry

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

anonymous	caution	curled	january	pastor
pasture	poem	poems	poet	poetry
protection	screech	splattered	tottery	wheelbarrow
whisp	worth