The Lexile Framework for Reading

Should students independent reading be guided by their Lexile score? The Lexile Framework for Reading suggests that students read books within the range of 100L below or 50L above their score. This may be difficult as not all books are found on the Lexile book search, librarians do not know the students Lexile score, and graphic novels are often not included in the database. A teacher will not find Spider-Man Versus Doc Ock in the Lexile database. The score reflects sentence length and vocabulary difficulty. The score does not take into account organization, content, or the desire of the student to read the book.

According to Stephen Krashen in the California School Library Journal using Lexile scores is not necessary. Krashen believes students can choose the book to read by reading some of the text to discover if the text is too hard or too easy. This goes back to the old five finger test. The student opens the book to a page, tries to read it, preferably out loud, and puts up a finger for every word they don't know. If they use all five fingers, they get another book. This is a practical and easy way for students to find a book especially if they are searching without a librarians or teachers help.

Although most of the Captain Underpants books are in the Lexile database, many graphic novels/comics are not. Publishers can submit books to be included in the database, however they are charged a fee for analyzing the book. If the publishers don't do this, their book will not be in the database. Graphic novels sometimes have NC in front of the score. This means non conforming text. The vocabulary and sentence structure does not necessarily match content nor the design of the book. Books with NC are usually for advanced students at their level. Manga books are not in the Lexile database, but the desire of the student is often very high to read them. Here is an example of a few graphic novels in the Lexile database.

• Tiger Moth: Insect Ninja 360L
• Adventures of Marco Polo 620L
• Adventures of Captain Underpants 720L
• Robot Rampage 370L
• Out From Boneville NC360L

If you are looking for lexile scores by grade level take a look at Understanding Lexiles. This will tell you the possible range of scores for each grade.