leveled reading books?

They are a series of books all written at a specific reading level. Usually they follow a certain format for levelling. some of them use the Fontas and Pinellas levelling system. The books are controled in vocabulary and difficulty. The books are useful for providing reading material at a student’s ability level without being frustrating.

Thanks Nan that helps me understand.

They can also be parts of “sight word” programs, so they’re repeating the same words that the kiddo has learned about. It’s one of the ways the kids feel successful (since learning finite numbers of words has its limits when it comes to real reading).

“Leveled books” can also be a buzzword much like “guided reading”. (See that strand in the BB.) When used in a guided reading oriented program, they control for grade level, but do not control for “decodability”. Having leveled books is better than not having leveled books. However, the use of decodable books is more critical. Decodability means the degree to which a book requires only those phonics strategies a child has been introduced to so far. The idea is that the child will receive 1) more practice in those recently taught elements within connected text than could be expected from non-decodable text, and 2.) that the child will be more succesful and will see that the aphabetic code actually works and is an effective tool. Exceptions to rules are taught after the regular rules are mastered. Leveled books do not necessarily use “regular words” and may confuse a child who is struggling to master the alphabetic pronciple - that reading works because there is a code which matches sounds to letters. Ruling out decodable text in favor of using only leveled text is another form of magical reading teaching.