Reading level charts are an essential tool to compare the different text leveling systems out there. Did you know some text levels attempt to estimate a reader's ability? While other text level charts attempt to explain text complexity or readability?
Well, it can get confusing. That's why we're sharing this free reading level chart!
Between Guiding Reading levels, AR levels, ATOS levels, DRA, Rigby, Lexile Levels, and Grade level expectations, it can be a lot to manage. Hopefully, this free reading level correlation chart will help.
Download the PDF of the Reading Level Chart
Reading Level Chart
I hope you enjoy the simplicity of the free reading level correlation chart. Here’s a quick explanation of text leveling. With a surge in guided reading over the last five years, more and more teachers and students are working with leveled texts. But, wait, there are so many different levels!
- Scholastic guided reading
- Fountas and Pinnell
- DRA
- Rigby
- Lexile levels
- ATOS
- AR.
Why can’t this just be easy?
I want to make it simpler for you. The free PDF of the reading level chart is for DRA, guided reading, Lexile, and grade levels.
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Reading Level Correlation Chart
First and foremost, reading levels are not exact!
Guided Reading Levels, Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA Levels), Lexile Levels, and ATOS Levels are all tools for determining reading levels of texts and ability levels of readers. The practice of leveling texts by complexity is based on science and statistics, but like any assessment, it is a metric used to plan instruction.
Here are a few words of caution:
- Reading levels label the complexity of texts. They do not label students.
- Reading levels are not definitive and are best thought of as ranges.
A student can move easily between reading levels depending on the topic and the emotional engagement of the student.
Download the PDF version of the Free Reading Level Chart here.
Reading Level Chart
This reading correlation chart compares three of the most common reading levels: scholastic guided reading, DRA, and Lexile. See the download link above.
Levels Aren’t Perfect
You can see the different leveling methods don’t have a perfect overlap. This is why leveling is best thought of as a range, not an exact number.
Also, the grade levels overlap. This is another reason that reading levels do not label students. They describe the overall complexity of the text.
Each leveling comes from a different complexity technique. Reading levels are based on word count, length of words, length of sentences, vocabulary, and other measurable features of the text.
What is Instructional Reading Level
When teaching students in guided reading or small group instruction, you will want to use the students’ instructional reading levels. What is that?
Instructional reading level is the level at which a student can read with some support from a teacher or tutor. This is the level where students are introduced to new vocabulary and is where the greatest progress in reading occurs. Students are reading with 90-95 percent accuracy or better and possess at least 80 percent comprehension on simple recall questions about the story. Frustration Reading Level occurs when the accuracy of the reading goes below 90 percent.
The instruction reading level represents text complexity that students would struggle with alone. However, with teacher scaffolding, they can read successfully. At it’s most basic definition, an instructional level is determined by reading fluency. Instructional level is when a student can fluently read a text at 90-95% accuracy.
If a student is reading a text fluently with 96-100% accuracy, that level of text is considered the independent level. In other words, the student should be able to successfully read texts at this level without help.
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