Text Leveling System

The Cool Bean

RDQ:	404	Max Word/Sent	20	Total Words	670		Diff Words	287
Lex	610	Ave Word/.Sent	7	Hi Freq occurs	428	63.9%	Hi freq	115	40.1%
AR	2.5	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	21	3.1%	Low freq	19	6.6%

Watch out! Here comes the cool beans. The cool beans.]]
Oh yeah check out how they move. Look at the way they swagger. Notice their sunglasses. Yow!]]
The cool beans are known all over school period from house to house. Across town. Beyond county lines.]]
In the olden days, last year, we were all one big pot of beans. We were a mixed bag, but somehow it worked. Yep. Those were the good old days.]]
And then we stopped seeing each other as much. That's just how it is sometimes. You spend less time together, even though you're not totally sure why.]]
I watched as the beans I knew so well the beans from my own pod became the cool beans. OH they were so cool.]]
One of them could play the guitar. Cool. One of them could draw the best superheroes. Cool. One of them jumped higher than any bean I've ever known. Cool.]]
Me? Well, I mostly stayed the same. Sure, I made some small changes. I wore sunglasses.]]
I slicked my hair back. I strutted around. I swaggered.]]
I was still picked last for everything. My clothes never seem to fit. I snorted when I laughed. I walked into stuff. I was an uncool being, for sure.]]
I started thinking of myself as just a common being with no special skills. I couldn't compete, so I didn't even try. I'd never be a cool bean.]]
It seemed like there were two types of beans in this world. There were that cool beans.]]
And the beans like me.]]
The days all blended together. I lived my life and things were just okay. I took tests and ate lunches and mostly kept to myself. The cool beans continued being cool.]]
I mean, sure, I missed them. A bit. But it's not like I was going to say anything. I felt like all of that coolness had gotten in the way of our friendship. And that's how it went until one day.]]
I was in the cafeteria. I dropped my lunch on my loafers. But then something sort of miraculous happened. Out of nowhere, one of the cool beans helped me clean it up. He didn't even say anything. He just gave me a nod. That was it.]]
Later, I was out on the playground. I tripped and scraped my knee and maybe cried a little bit and everybody saw it. Another one of the cool beans came to my side and without a word he dusted me off.]]
That afternoon, I was sitting in class. I wasn't really paying attention. I didn't notice, but our teacher had called on me. Everyone stared. I sat there in silence. Nobody said anything.]]
And then then everybody just laughed. At me. That was it. After today, I was officially a has bean.]]
But then one of the cool beans stood up and came over to me. Everybody watched. She leaned in close and whispered, hey. The teacher asked you to read from page 32. Then she gave me a quick wink and went back to her seat.]]
It was a small gesture, sure, but it was also everything.]]
I walked home with a goofy smile on my face. I smiled all the way through dinner.]]
That day made all the difference. It was a day that could have been really bad, if not for the kindness of a few cool beans. It gave me a shred of confidence. That shred of confidence has continued to grow.]]
Somebody had my back.]]
Or a few somebodies.]]
After that, I started hanging out with the cool beans again. Not all the time period but sometimes .]]
At lunch. After school. On the weekends.]]
Throughout all of this, I realized that it's not about how you look or any of that other silly stuff.]]
It's about a wink or a nod or a smile at just the right moment. It's about dusting somebody off, helping them up again, and pointing them in the right direction.]]
Now that's cool.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Oral/Natural

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Author's purpose: Obvious

Features

Character development

First Person

Topic

Competition

Challenges

Self Esteem

Behaviors

Friendship

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

cafeteria	confidence	gesture	guitar	kindness
lunches	miraculous	nowhere	officially	olden
shred	slicked	somebodies	strutted	superheroes
swagger	swaggered	throughout	uncool