

They read a combination of fiction and nonfiction books, mistakes are recorded, and questions are asked to gauge understanding of the text. This is just one tool used to determine your child’s strengths and weaknesses. The assessment provides valuable information about reading accuracy, comprehension, fluency, and more. The Fountas and Pinnell Assessment System in one way our district identifies a student’s reading level.

Independent Level: Text the child can easily read and understand on his/her own. Instructional Level: With teaching and support, the child can read the text. Recommended gradeĪlternative classifications of reading difficulties have been developed by various authors (Reading Recovery levels, DRA levels, Basal Levels, Lexile Levels, etc.).įountas and Pinnell Reading Level Characteristics This is the grade-level equivalence chart recommended by Fountas & Pinnell. Some schools adopt target reading levels for their pupils. While young children display a wide distribution of reading skills, each level is tentatively associated with a school grade. Small books containing a combination of text and illustrations are then provided to educators for each level. While classification is guided by these parameters, syllable type, an important consideration in beginning reading, is not considered as part of the leveling system. Reading text is classified according to various parameters, such as word count, number of different words, number of high-frequency words, sentence length, sentence complexity, word repetitions, illustration support, etc. 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.
