Text Leveling System

Discovering Dinosaurs

RDQ:	197	Max Word/Sent	13	Total Words	272		Diff Words	122
Lex	430	Ave Word/.Sent	9	Hi Freq occurs	114	41.9%	Hi freq	41	33.6%
AR	1.9	Long Sentences	3.4	Low Freq occurs	3	1.1%	Low freq	1	0.8%

Finding Fossils
How do we know dinosaurs lived on Earth? 
We know because we have found fossils in rocks all over the world.]]
Scientists have found fossils of dinosaur bones, footprints, teeth, nests, and eggs.]]
These scientists are carefully digging dinosaur fossils out of the ground. They will wrap up the fossils to keep them safe. 
Then they will take them to a museum.]]
At the museum, scientists will study the fossils. 
They try to fit bone fossils together to make a skeleton. 
Some pieces of the skeleton might be missing. 
Scientists use what they know about other animals to make pieces fit.]]
Learning From Fossils
Scientists study other animals to learn about dinosaurs.
Dinosaur bones may be bigger. 
But many are shaped the same.]]
Scientists compare dinosaur bone fossils to other animals. 
They learn that some dinosaurs walked, some swam, and some flew.
Scientists study fossil footprints to see how fast dinosaurs moved. Some dinosaurs moved very slowly. Some moved faster than humans. ]]
Scientists study fossil teeth to learn what dinosaurs ate. 
Some teeth are sharp like the teeth of meat eaters. 
Other teeth are flat like the teeth of plant eaters.
Scientists learn about dinosaur babies from fossil nests and eggs. Some dinosaurs may have sat on their eggs like many birds do.
Scientists also find fossils of plants, fish, insects, and other animals. These fossils help them learn what Earth was like when dinosaurs lived here.]]
How Long Ago?
Scientists study rocks where fossils are found. 
Older fossils are deeper in the ground than newer fossils.
No one knows for sure why the dinosaurs disappeared millions of years ago.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Simple graphics supplementary to text comprehension

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Simple phrases

Text structure: Oral/Natural

Captions

Table of Contents

Glossary

Index

Headings

Additional activities

Features

Topic

Dinosaurs

*Animals

Low Frequency Words

fossil