I find that often we get too stuck on Lexiles when it comes to our advanced students. If you check out the literature used in college courses, the lexiles are not in the 1300+ range. What differs for the advanced student is the depth and challenge of the work that is present with a more difficult text. There is more to difficulty than word and sentence length. Consider the issues and themes a novel addresses, the time period and location which challenges students' prior knowledge, the analysis of character development, dialect, imagery, etc. that present serious challenges for our most able students.
Consider also that many of these challenges also face our less able students; however we do not expect the depth of analysis we do from those more capable students. Sarah Mohrhauser Literacy Coach Cottage Grove Middle School 651-768-6850 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of reading Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 10:16 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [MOSAIC] Lexile Ranges - Challenging Text Can someone help me to understand this relationship. I am a reading teacher of an 7th grade advanced literature class. I have students reading in the 1100+ lexile range. I'm having difficulty finding young adult fiction books within their lexile range. We are currently reading House on Mango Street which has a lexile of 870. Although the lexile is below their range, I believe the text is challenging and very thought provoking even though the sentence structure is not complex. I have parents who want to have child placed in the advanced reading class- who for various reasons did not meet the criteria. We are working on gathering information to present to the parents as to why a student who recieves A's in class does not "automatically" qualify for advanced literature. However, by going by the lexile alone, I don't know how I can argue that what he read in advanced reading is "above his level" Any thoughts? _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
