Text Leveling System

Arthur's Teacher Trouble

RDQ:	490	Max Word/Sent	17	Total Words	860		Diff Words	340
Lex	630	Ave Word/.Sent	5	Hi Freq occurs	496	57.7%	Hi freq	144	42.4%
AR	2.7	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	36	4.2%	Low freq	26	7.6%

The bell rang. The first day of school was over. 
Kids ran out of every classroom - every one but Room  13. Here the students filed out slowly in alphabetical order. "See you tomorrow" said their teacher Mr. Ratburn. "I can't believe he gave us homework the first day" said Arthur. "I had the Rat last year" said Prunella. "Boy do I feel sorry for you!" "Make one wrong move" warned Blinky Barnes "and he puts you on death row." "He's really a vampire with magical powers" said Chris. As everyone was leaving the principal came out of his office. "Are you ready for the September spellathon?" he asked. "Yes!" cheered the crowd. "Who's going to win this year?" asked the principal. "Me!" everyone shouted. "If I win again this year do I get my name on the trophy twice?" asked Prunella. "Not if I can help it" whispered Francine. When Arthur got home he slammed the back door. "How was school?" Mother asked. "I got the strictest teacher in the whole world" grumbled Arthur. "Have a chocolate chip cookie" said Mother. "Don't have time" said Arthur. "I have tons of homework." "I'll eat Arthur's" said D. W. "I don't have any homework." "You don't even go to school" said Arthur. "I know." D.W. smiled. After dinner Arthur was still doing homework. "What's that?" asked D. W. "It's a map of Africa" said Arthur. "Looks like a pepperoni pizza" said D.W. "Next year when I'm in kindergarten I won't have any homework. Mrs. Meeker never gives it." "Mom!" called Arthur. "D.W. being a pest." "Time for bed" said Mother. "You can finish your map of Florida in the morning." "Africa" said Arthur. The next day Mr. Ratburn announced a spelling test for Friday. "I want you to study very hard" he said. "The test will have a hundred words." Buster looked pale. "And" continued Mr. Ratburn the two students with the highest scores will represent our class at the all-school spellathon." That week everyone in Arthur's class studied harder than ever. Arthur spent a lot of time looking for quiet places to study. Suddenly it was Friday and time for the test. Arthur could smell Miss Sweetwater's class making popcorn. He could hear Mrs. Fink's class leaving for a trip to the aquarium. "Why did we have to get stuck with the rat?" he whispered to Francine. Mr. Ratburn corrected their papers during lunch. "Class" he said "most of you did very well on the test. But only two of you spelled every word correctly." Muffy smiled. Francine hiccupped. Buster patted his good-luck charm. Mr. Ratburn cleared his throat. "Our class representatives for the spellathon will be the Brain and Arthur." "There must be some mistake!" said Muffy. Mr. Ratburn gave Arthur and Brain each a special list of words. "Just study these and you'll be ready for the spellathon in two weeks" he said. Arthur's family helped him study. Grandma asked Arthur his spelling words. "How about your c-h-o-r-e-s?" Father asked. "Have you made your b-e-d?" Mother added. D.W. helped too. When Francine and Buster came over D.W. answered the door. "Arthur can't play but I can" she said. "I don't have to study." "I can't believe the spellathon is finally here" said Grandma. "Maybe now we'll get a little peace and quiet" D.W. said. "Good luck Arthur" said Mother and Father. From backstage Arthur could hear the whole school out in the auditorium. "Well today's the big day" said Mr. Ratburn. "How do you feel?" "I feel fine" the Brain answered. Arthur gulped. "I wish I were still back in bed!" "The principal welcomed everyone and explained the rules. The brain had the first turn. He stepped up to the microphone. "The first word is fear" said the principal. "F-e-r-e" said the Brain a little too quickly. "I'm sorry" said the principal. "That's not correct." "Are you sure?" asked the Brain. "What dictionary are you using?" The Brain wasn't the only one to drop out quickly. The representatives from Miss Sweetwater's and Mrs. Fink's class were gone in a flash. Before long only Arthur and Prunella were left. It was Prunella's turn. "The word is preparation" said the principal. Prunella looked down at her feet. "Could I have the definition please?" she asked after a moment. "Preparation" the principal repeated. "The process of getting ready."  "Of course" said Prunella. "P-r-e-p" she paused "e-r-a-t-i-o-n." "I'm sorry that's incorrect" said the principal. "Now Arthur gets a chance to spell it." Arthur looked out over the audience and took a deep breath. "Preparation" he said. "P-r-e-p-a-r-a-t-i-o-n." "Correct!" said the principal. Everyone in Mr. Ratburn's class cheered. Then Mr. Ratburn went to the microphone. "I'm very proud of Arthur" he said. "In fact I'm proud of my whole class. They worked very hard. This is the last third grade I'll have in the spellathon. But next year I look forward to a new challenge..."Teaching kindergarten."]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Difficult names

Topic

Teacher/Teaching

Competition

Alphabet

Spelling

School

Low Frequency Words

alphabetical	announced	aquarium	audience	auditorium
challenge	gulped	hiccupped	incorrect	kindergarten
magical	meeker	microphone	paused	peace
pepperoni	preparation	process	represent	representatives
spellathon	strictest	studied	sweetwater's	trophy
warned