Text Leveling System

Old Elm Speaks

RDQ:	1291	Max Word/Sent	26	Total Words	894		Diff Words	500
Lex	790	Ave Word/.Sent	12	Hi Freq occurs	521	58.3%	Hi freq	169	33.8%
AR	4.1	Long Sentences	22.5	Low Freq occurs	87	9.7%	Low freq	81	16.2%

Oak's Introduction
I've been wondering
when you'd notice
me standing here.
I've been waiting,
watching you
grow taller.
I have grown too.
My branches
are strong.
Step closer.
Let's see
how high
you can
climb.]]
Bud
A tiny velveteen satchel,
the color of pale cream,
is perched on the tip
of this bare branch.
Snap open the clasp and
you will find,
inside this tiny valise,
one rolled and folded
neatly packed
leaf.]]
Hide and Go Seek
Little sister thinks that tree will hide her. It is slender; she is wider. I pretend not to see a very odd tree with an elbow and a knee.]]
Celebration
Wait here a minute,
I'll bring your gifts ribbons
for your branches,
buckets of water, and
a wheelbarrow of mulch.
Happy Arbor Day!]]
Miss Willow
I was spending a delicious spring afternoon
trailing my slim green leaves
in the still cool waters,
gazing at my loveliness such
elegance!
such perfection!
when along came Heron,
who landed
in the middle
of my glorious reflection ....Splash.]]
Tree Traffic
Major tree traffic today commuters in both directions, rippling up and down, tails unfurled. The treeway is heavily squirreled.]]
Bridge
This tree across the stream
is a trickier bridge
than it might seem.
Quick quickly skipping
or slow slip tiptoe,
it's a wet and mossy,
often soggy
crossing.]]
No Breakfast
The only leaves left grow on the highest branches. The deer walk away.]]
Beaver Dam
Do you see gnawed trees
piled up like trash?
Did you see
a quick brown flash?
Did you hear
a splash?
Must be that architectural team
with another scheme
to redesign the stream.]]
Maple Shoot in the Pumpkin Patch
Remember me?
I helicoptered past
your kitchen window last fall,
then hovered over the pumpkin patch.
I had traveled far on the wind that day,
spinning the whole entire way.
I really hadn't planned to stay,
only wanted to look around,
lay my dizziness down,
rest a moment on the ground.
No wind came to carry me aloft,
the dirt was sweet and soft-
I guess
I must
have
dozed
off .]]
Tree Horse My tree horse shakes his rustling green mane, arches his neck, plunges his head down, whinnies sharply. His taut muscles strain. I hold on tightly as he rears up we leap into the wind, vaulting toward sky.]]
Sketchbook on easel
slowly, the wind lifts pages of the artist's sketchbook so the birds in the tree could see.]]
Between two trees
summer fills the empty space between two trees with a hammock.]]
Knotholes
I'm glad that our new fence came from a tree with lots and lots of Knotholes. Not for naught are these Knotholes, Because if there were not lots of Knotholes, I could not peer through and spy on you.]]
Poaching
the neighbor's fruit tree has come to visit, bringing ripe plums for dessert.]]
Cooperation
since there are two horses and only one tree in the pasture, an agreement was made to share this narrow strip of shade. So, Molly and Ed, both rather plump, stand side by side muzzle to rump rump to muzzle like a jigsaw puzzle.]]
Kings Canyon
there is a doorway into this ancient Sequoia that is just the right size for me to step inside. I hear it's heartbeat. I breathe tree.]]
Lullaby
tree sighs softly as the birds patter about her heavy old branches, settling down, tucking their heads beneath their wings. She waits until dusk has shadowed her leaves, and when she's sure she's heard that last soft cheep, she rocks her birds to sleep.]]
This blue spruce
this blue spruce arrived today in a coffee can a scrawny sprig of prickles. Someday, it will grow taller than the house. Someday, this blue spruce will scratch sky.]]
Autumn
all summer long, trees studied the sun to learn the secret of her fire. First, they practiced tracing sunset rays along their ribs in colors remembered from hot summer days. Now, their chance on center stage, they rage yellow gold red, setting the hill ablaze.]]
Storm
last night, wind howled. Lightning cracked. Before the thunder's boom, we heard a crash. Our tallest tree had snapped and lay across the lawn. A schooner's mast tossed by wild waves in an ocean of grass. This morning, all I can see is a lot more sky and a broken tree.]]
Street tree
all day long, I stand here on the street, neatly clipped a round headed shape, minding my manners. I know my proper place. I don't spill leaves, never dribble SAP. So meek and polite, no one knows that when all the cars go home when I'm standing here, alone I dream wild. I am forest.]]
Destiny
some trees will become grandfather clocks carousel horses grand pianos podiums or front porches totem poles or cathedral doors with intricate latches. Others, pencils, toothpicks, or ordinary kitchen matches.]]
Avalanche
1000 Pines are sprawled like broken toys, snapped like toothpicks by the crushing mass of snow that pounded down the steep mountain. They tell me it was over in minutes, a forest that took a century to grow gone in a roar, an enormous Thunder of snow.]]
Broken string
the winter shows me how cleverly the trees have captured wayward kites.]]
Old Elm speaks
it is as I told you, young sapling. It will take autumns of patience before you snag your first moon.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Some implications

Complexity: Many different ideas

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Symbolism

Personification

Unusual use of vocabulary

Topic

Seeds

Trees

Changes

*Plants

Growth/Growing

Low Frequency Words

ablaze	aloft	arbor	arches	architectural
avalanche	carousel	cathedral	commuters	cooperation
delicious	destiny	dizziness	easel	elegance
gazing	glorious	gnawed	hammock	heartbeat
heavily	heron	hovered	intricate	introduction
knotholes	latches	loveliness	lullaby	major
maple	mast	minding	mulch	naught
neighbor's	ordinary	pasture	patience	patter
peer	perched	perfection	pianos	poaching
podiums	porches	practiced	prickles	redesign
reflection	rippling	rustling	sapling	satchel
scheme	schooner's	scrawny	sequoia	settling
shadowed	sketchbook	slender	spending	sprawled
sprig	spruce	squirreled	studied	taut
thunder's	totem	treeway	trickier	unfurled
valise	vaulting	velveteen	wayward	wheelbarrow
whinnies