Text Leveling System

Akiak

RDQ:	687	Max Word/Sent	26	Total Words	1252		Diff Words	449
Lex	680	Ave Word/.Sent	9	Hi Freq occurs	783	62.5%	Hi freq	171	38.1%
AR	3.1	Long Sentences	4.6	Low Freq occurs	81	6.5%	Low freq	57	12.7%

Day one
akiak knew it. The other dogs knew it too.]]
Some had run it many times and others had never run it at all. But not a dog wanted to be left behind.]]
It was iditarod race day, 1151 miles of wind, snow, and rugged trail lay ahead, from anchorage to nome. Akiak had led the team through 7 races and knew the trail better than any dog. She brought them in fifth, third, and second, but had never won. She was ten years old now. This was her last chance. Now, they must win now. Crack the race was underway. One by One, fifty eight teams took off for Nome.]]
Day two
come on, old girl, show them how, Mick called. Haw! Mick worked with sixteen dog teams through akiak, Calling haw when she needed the dogs to turn left, Gee to go right. Mick was the musher, but the team followed the lead dog. The team followed akiak. Through steep climbs and dangerous descents, I see waters and confusing trails, akiak always found the safest and fastest way. She never got lost.]]
Day three
akiak and squinty, big boy and flinty, Roscoe and the rest of the team pounded across the snow for three days. The dogs were ready to break out, but Mick held them back. There was a right time but not yet. High in the Alaskan range they caught up to Willy Ketcham in third place. It was his team that had beaten them by just one minute last year. Following the rules, Willy pulled over and allowed mixed team to pass. That old dog will never make it. He laughed at akiak across the biting wind. She'll be waiting for you in nome. Mick vowed.]]
Day four
high in the kuskokwim mountains they passed tall Tim broonzy’s team and moved into second place just after takotna, Mick's team made its move. They raced by whistlin’ Perry's team to take over first place.
Ketcham made his move too. His team clung to Mick's like a shadow.
Akiak and her team now had to break trail through deep snow. It was tough going. Buy the Ophir checkpoint, akiak was limping. The deep snow had jammed up one of her pop heads and made it sore. Mick tended to her as Ketchum raced by and took first place from them.
You can't run on that Paul, old girl, Mick said to her. With the day's rest it will heal, but the team can't wait here a day. We've got to go on without you. You'll be flown home.
Roscoe took akiak's place at lead.]]
Day five 
by morning most of the other dog teams had passed through the Ophir checkpoint. The wind was building and the pilot was in a hurry to leave. Akiak tore at the leash as the volunteer brought her to the airplane.
Get that dog in, the pilot hollered. I want to get out of here before the storm hits.
Akiak jumped and pulled and snapped. All she wanted was to get back on the trail period to run. To win. Then all at once, the wind gusted, the plane shifted, and akiak twisted out of the handler's grip. By the time they turned around she was gone.]]
Day six
Akiak ran while the storm became a Blizzard. She knew that Mick and the team were somewhere ahead of her. The wind took away the scent and the snow took away the trail, but still she knew the way. She ran and she ran, until the Blizzard became a whiteout. Then she could run no more. While Mick and the team took refuge in Galena, 7 hours ahead, akiak burrowed into a snowdrift to wait out the storm. In the morning the mound of snow came alive, and out pushed akiak.]]
Day seven
word had gone out that akiak was loose. Trail volunteers knew that an experienced lead dog would stick to the trail. They knew she'd have to come through and the Unalakleet. She did. Six Hours after Mick and the team left, akiak padded softly, cautiously, into the checkpoint. Her ears alert, her wet nose sniffed the air. The team had been there. She could tell.
Suddenly, cabin doors flew open. 5 volunteers found out and tried to grab her period Akiak zigged around their every zag and took off down the trail.
Call ahead to Shaktoolik! A man shouted.]]
Day Eight
At Shaktoolik, mick dropped two more dogs and raced out, still six hours ahead of Akiak. Hungry now it had been two days since she had eaten akiak pounded over the packed trail. For thirst, she drank out of streams, the ice broken through by the sled teams.
She struggled into Shaktoolik in the late afternoon. Three men spotted her and chased her right into the community hall, where some mushers were sleeping. Tables overturned and coffee went flying. Then when musher opened the back door and she escaped. Go find them, girl, he whispered.]]
At koyuk, akiak rated the mushers discard pile for food. No one came after her. At elim, people put food out for her. Almost everybody was rooting for akiak to catch her team.]]

Day Nine
Mick rusted to White Mountain twenty two minutes behind Ketcham. Here are teams had to take an eight hour layover to rest for the final dash to nome. Mick dropped big boy and put young comet in his place. The team was down to eight dogs with seventy seven miles to go.
Akiak pushed on. When her team left White Mountain at 6 PM akiak was running through Golovin, just two hours behind. A crowd lined the trail to watch her run through the town.]]
Day ten
screaming winds through bitter cold at the team as they fought their way along the coast. Then, halfway to the checkpoint called safety, they came upon a maze of snowmobile tracks. The lead dogs lost the trail. Mick squinted through the snow, looking for a sign. There. Going right. She recognized ketcham's trail. Gee, she called. Gee go right.
But the dogs wouldn't go. They wandered about tangling up the lines. Mick straightened them out and worked the team up the hill. At the top they stopped short. Something was blocking the trail.]]
Akiak Mick called.
She ran to her usual spot at the harness, waiting to be hooked in.
Sorry, old girl. Mick hugged her period rules say I can't put you back in harness. Get in the sled. But instead akiak circled the lead dogs, pushing them and barking. What is it, girl? Mick asked. Akiak ran back down the hill. Mick laughed. Ketcham's team had taken the wrong trail. she turned her team around and rushed down to akiak, who jumped into the sled. Take us to Nome. Mick called to her.]]
Mick first heard the noise a mile outside of nome. At first she wasn't sure what it was. It grew so loud that she couldn't hear the dogs. It was a roar, or a rumble. She was so tired after ten days of mushing she couldn't tell which. Then she saw the crowd and she heard their cheers. People had come from everywhere to see the courageous dog that had run the iditarod trail alone.
As sure as if she had been in the lead position, akiak won the iditarod race.
Nothing was going to scrap this dog from winning, Mick told the crowd. Akiak knew it.
The other dogs knew it too.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Simple

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Features

Simple problem/solution

Simple Plot

Difficult names

Topic

Competition

Challenges

Racing

Dogs

Determination

*Animals

Conflicts

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

akiak	akiak's	anchorage	broonzy’s	burrowed
cautiously	checkpoint	community	courageous	descents
discard	elim	escaped	flinty	flown
galena	golovin	harness	hollered	iditarod
ketcham	ketcham's	koyuk	kuskokwim	layover
limping	mick's	mound	musher	mushers
mushing	nome	ophir	overturned	perry's
pm	rated	recognized	refuge	rugged
rusted	scent	seventy	shaktoolik	snowmobile
squinted	straightened	takotna	tangling	unalakleet
underway	volunteer	volunteers	vowed	wandered
whistlin’	whiteout