Lexile Information

Determining Your Child's Reading Level

We value reading and learning at all ages. Determining your child's reading level can be a great start to help you and your younger one find suitable books that will keep them challenged and engaged. Systems like Lexile or Fontas and Pinnel have been designed to help you child become a more confident and guide students, parents and teachers through a childs reading journey. While, there has been much positiveexperience with these tools, the library still believes that children should be allowed to read whatever books and stories that pique their interest, and therefore should not be limited to books strictly based on their reading level. We encourage families to allow children to explore and read things that align with their interests, as this is important in developing and nurturing their young creative minds, paving way for the next generation of great readers and thinkers.

If you would like assistance in getting reading recommendations, use our Bklyn BookMatch service and one of our librarians will help match you with a book based on your preferences. 

What is Lexile?

Lexile Level or Lexile Measure is a popular method of measuring a student reading ability used by some schools. It's a tool to help teachers, parents, and students measure the difficulty of a text and determine the reading ability level of a student. Children typically receives Lexile reading measures from a test given at their school or a state assessment.

After completing this assessment, students receive their Lexile level, which is shown as a number followed by the letter “L”. Lexile reading measure can range from below 0L for early readers to above 2000L for advanced readers. If a student scores a 550L on their assessment, then he or she is a level 550 Lexile reader. Lexile encourages students and parents to look for reading materials with a reading comprehension leveled 100L below to 50L above their reported Lexile measure, as reading materials within this range will provide an ideal level of challenge while maintaining reading comprehension for the student.

What is Fountas and Pinnell Text Level Gradient?

Guided reading level for small group instruction Thinking within the text (understand what's on the page/the authors literal meaning), thinking beyond the text (Make inferences and put text ideas together in different ways to construct the text's meaning) and thinking about the text (analyze and critique the authors craft) To encourage and support the student's learning so that they're about to do these things independently on their own through guided learning Fountas & Pinnell reading levels (commonly referred to as “Fountas & Pinnell”) are a system of reading levels developed by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell to support their guided reading method Fountas & Pinnell is the assessment system that asses student reading levels. It is a system of leveled letters that increase in difficulty as the alphabet progresses.

Reading Level Conversion Chart

Additional Resources

• Reading Levels Explained
• Understanding Lexile Measures
• What Does the Lexile Measure Mean?
• What Parents Need to Know About Lexile Levels
• Lexile Book Search Tool
• Scholastic 'Book Wizard' Search Tool