The Importance of Leveled Texts

“Readiness differentiation of content has as its goal matching the material or information students are asked to learn to a student’s capacity to read and understand it.”
Tomlinson. 2001. How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, 2nd edition. VA: ASCD.

“Grade-level texts are often far too simple for some students in a given class, and yet too complex for others. Using multiple texts and combining them with a wide variety of other supplementary materials increases your chances for reaching all your students with content that is meaningful to them as individuals.”
Tomlinson. 2001. How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, 2nd edition. VA: ASCD.

“The most important decisions in guided reading center on selecting and introducing texts to readers. For the reader to use processing strategies to construct meaning, the text must be accessible, comprehendible, and offer the student opportunities to problem-solve and learn.... You cannot provide good teaching if the text you use is inappropriate. If the text is too easy, students do not face enough challenges to learn; if it is too hard, no amount of good teaching will help.”
Fountas and Pinnell. 2001. Guiding Readers and Writers. NH: Heinemann.