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Bookfinders

RCPS Bookfinders Databases

The RCPS Bookfinders Databases are a compilation of books that have been approved by Rockingham County teachers in grades K-12 for use with these areas of reading instruction:

  • Core Reading assigned by the teacher, including materials used to teach reading to reading groups or to individual students.
  • Extended Reading – Materials are gathered by the teacher from various sources for research projects and integration of curriculum.
  • Independent Reading from the classroom libraries when students are offered appropriate titles from a collection of leveled reading materials.
  • Teacher–Selected Read Alouds

Database Listings

The approved books are first listed by school and then by titles within schools.  Please see the directions for saving and sorting in the database.

The AR column and the Lexile/Code columns provide information about the reading levels of books to help teachers, parents, or students choose books that match the student’s reading ability.

AR is the Accelerated Reader Level of the book, as determined by Renaissance Learning’s use of the ATOS Readability Formula.  When a student is assessed using S.T.A.R., a ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) score is given.  This is a range of reading levels that are not too challenging or too easy for the student.  The Accelerated Readers Levels are used to determine if books fall into the student’s ZPD range.

The Lexile measure of a book refers to text difficulty only.  The Lexile measure does not take the subject matter of the book or its content into consideration.  Lexile measures are based on word frequency and sentence length.  The Lexile measure is a good starting point in the book-selection process.

There is not a direct translation from a specific Lexile measure to a specific grade level, but studies have been conducted to determine approximate reading levels for each grade level.  The chart below gives approximate ranges for each grade level.  There is overlap in levels for each grade.  There will be many students in any of these grade levels who will be reading above or below these ranges.

Grade
Text Measure

1 -

2 -

3 -

4 -

5 -

6 -

7 -

8 -

9 -

10 -

11 and 12 -

200L to 400L

300L to 500L

500L to 700L

650L to 850L

750L to 950L

850L to 1050L

950L to 1075L

100L to 1100L

1050L to 1150L

1100L to 1200L

1100L to 1300L

These are some important areas which should be considered as teachers, parents, and students choose books:

  • Reading level
  • Subject matter
  • Content
  • Age and interests of the reader
  • Book design

Lexile Codes represent variations in books that may be chosen for instruction or independent reading.

  • IG = Illustrated Glossary.  The text consists of independent pieces of text, such as a glossary.  These pieces may be interchanged without affecting the flow of the book.  These pieces may include definitions or pronunciations within the text, technical vocabulary in contrasting type, titles or captions for paragraphs, or illustration in the text.  These books may be good for research.
  • NC = Nonconforming Text.  The vocabulary and sentence length may be inconsistent with the developmental appropriateness of the text.  The book is written at a higher level than suggested by the content or format.  These books may be useful when matching advanced readers with text at an appropriate developmental level.
  • BR = Beginning Reader
  • NP = Non-Prose text.  The content is at least 50% nonstandard prose, poetry, plays, songs, or books with incorrect or no punctuation.
  • AD = Adult-Directed text.  These books would be read to or with readers.  These guidelines should be used for these books:
      1. text placement
      2. sentence length
      3. font size and placement
      4. basic word usage
      5. illustration content
      6. book size

    These books may be useful when reading to a group to emphasize listening comprehension skills.

*Lexile information was taken from the Lexile Framework website (www.lexile.com.).

An * in the AR column or the Lexile column means that this information was not available for the book.

Bookfinders Process

The Bookfinders Process requires that three (3) readers approve a selected book.  Each person who reviews the book will fill in a critique form.  This process is required for any books the teacher chooses to use in direct instruction and for read-aloud.  This process does not apply to self-selected books for independent reading or extended reading.  If the tradebook has been listed as approved at one county school, another school will only need to fill in one (1) critique form for the book.  Forms are kept in schools for documentation.

Click to download each database (in Excel format)

Click to download a critique form (in Word format)

Note: If after clicking links above the files do not automatically launch Excel or Word, locate the files on your desktop or in your documents folder then double-click to open.

Using Your Bookfinders Database

Initially, your database is sorted by school then alphabetized by title. To re-sort the database, follow these steps:

1. Select Data->Sort

2. Use your pull-down menus to select the criteria by which you want to sort your information.

In this example at the left, books will be sorted initially by author's last name then alphabetized by title within each author's section.

Leave Header Row clicked as shown.

Click OK to perform the sort.

You may sort by any of the fields in the first row of the database. Simply determine the primary category into which you want your database sorted.Then, if helpful, indicate how books within that initial sort should be secondarily arranged. Click OK to perform the new sort each time.

 

 

It is the policy of the Rockingham County School Board to comply with all applicable state and federal laws regarding non-discrimination in employment and educational programs and services. The Rockingham County Public Schools will not discriminate illegally on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, disability, or age as to employment or educational programs and activities.

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