Level Books, Not Children: The Role of Text Levels in Literacy Instruction
In this article, published in the January/February 2019 issue of Literacy Today, the member magazine of the International Literacy Association, Fountas and Pinnell discuss the role that text levels play in literacy instruction. Leading a literate life in school means that students have the opportunity to act like readers to outside of school. That means having the freedom to choose books they want to read based on a wide variety of criteria such as genre, series, author, and more. The authors describe the appropriate use of levels, what families need to know about levels, and how to make good decisions about literacy teaching and learning.