Ask Freddy

Ask Freddy Posted 03/07/2008 Permanent Link

QuickReads and Lexiles

The model of text difficulty underlying QuickReads is much more specific than the method used to determine lexiles. Lexile measures are based on two predictors of how difficult a text is to comprehend: semantic difficulty (word frequency) and syntactic complexity (sentence length). QuickReads texts have not been manipulated for sentence length, and they include 98% high-frequency words and grade-appropriate phonic/syllabic patterns to promote fluency along with 2% content-rich vocabulary words which are repeated for reinforcement. If a student is able to recognize but is not automatic with the 500 most frequent words and simple, long, and r-controlled vowel patterns in single-syllable words, then Level B of QuickReads is appropriate. Level B of QuickReads was written so that 98% of the words in the texts come from the 500 most frequent words and words with simple, long, and r-controlled vowel patterns (in words with single syllables). Students should be assigned a QuickReads level based on the word list and phonic/syllabic patterns they need to practice to develop automaticity.

Having studied hundreds of lexiled texts, QuickReads author Freddy Hiebert makes the hunch that if word difficulty by itself was used and not manipulations of sentence length, QuickReads would fall at approximately these lexile levels:

• Level A: Lexiles of approximately 300
• Level B: Lexiles of approximately 400
• Level C: Lexiles of approximately 500
• Level D: Lexiles of approximately 600
• Level E: Lexiles of approximately 700-850
• Level F: Lexiles of approximately 860-975