Guided reading is one of the most effective ways to help your students develop core reading skills, boosting comprehension and helping young readers analyze plot, characters, complex themes, and more. Of course, to create a thriving guided reading program, you’ll need a diverse collection of high-interest books—and guided reading leveling charts are the perfect tool to help you find exactly what you need. Here’s everything you need to know about guided reading leveling charts and how to use them.
For your guided reading program to succeed, you’ll have to introduce books to your young readers that are both challenging and interesting to them. This Guided Reading Leveling Resource Chart from Scholastic helps you do this by making it easy to find and organize books by Guided Reading, Development Reading Assessment (DRA), and Lexile® levels.
Each book found through our leveling chart is assigned a guided reading level based on the increasing complexity of 10 common book characteristics your students will encounter as they progress as readers:
· Genre
· Text Structure
· Content
· Theme and Ideas
· Language and Literary Features
· Sentence Complexity
· Vocabulary
· Words
· Illustrations
· Book and Print Features
By keeping each of these characteristics in mind, you can find books that will challenge your students in specific areas and help them grow as readers.
How to create leveled book lists
Guided reading leveling charts aren’t only for finding and organizing books, they’re a useful tool for creating leveled books lists specifically tailored for your students. Our leveling chart lets you create dynamic books lists with selections leveled using different systems like DRA and guided reading.
These book lists are also a great way to inspire students to read beyond their current level, since you can tailor the list based on high-interest topics your students love. If you have a reluctant reader who lives and breathes outer space, create a reading list of books on the solar system with titles at their current reading level and selections that are a level or two above. This way, even if the books are challenging, their passion for the topic will keep them engaged.
By implementing a well-planned guided reading program, you’ll cultivate a classroom full of strong, independent readers and thinkers with a passion for books. And leveling charts are one of the most important tools you’ll use, helping you find the perfect books to meet your young readers needs and keeping your classroom library organized and accessible at the same time.
If you’re looking for one more must-have resource to add to your guided reading toolbox, be sure to check out our Book Wizard. With this tool, you can easily search books by guided reading level system, genre, and grade.