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ARL: Educational Resources in North Carolina

Schools in the Appalachian Regional Library system use a variety of book leveling systems to determine what books your child should be reading. We have created this resource to help you find books on your child's reading level.
f you need some help finding books on your child's level, our friendly librarians at Ashe County Public Library have created this request form. Please fill it out or call (336) 846-2041, option 3 for further assistance. Please make online requests at least two business days before you need to pick the books up.
If your child is interested in reading a book that is not on their level, let them! Regardless of whether the book is a lower or higher level, they can learn new things from each book they read and increase their love of reading.
Reading aloud is a great way to build your child's understanding of books that are higher than their reading/comprehension level. Take time to define new words, explain new concepts, and talk about what's happening in the book as you read together.

Guided Reading Level

Two teaching specialists, Gay Su Pinnell & Irene C. Fountas created the Guided Reading Level (GRL) system in the late 1990's. Sometimes referred to as Fountas & Pinnell after its creators, GRL is one of the most popular leveling systems today. In the state of North Carolina, yearly benchmarks for Kindergarten through second grade are measured based on GRL. Find out more about GRL in this article from Scholastic.
This resource provides information about the reading levels and helps users find books available at Ashe County Public Library on select levels. Slides are in order by level and collect books for A&B, C&D, E&F, G, H, I, J, K, L, and M levels.
The blackboard gives further information on the characteristics of the levels.
Click on the bookshelf to see the list of books available for the level.

Lexile

The Lexile Framework was developed by MetaMetrics©, an educational assessment and research company. Lexile measures the reading challenge of a specific text; meaning sentence length, word frequency, and vocabulary are the key qualifiers of a text's level. Lexile does not take theme or context under consideration, which means caregivers should play a role in helping their children find books on their Lexile level that are appropriate.
Find out more about Lexile in this Lexile information page and read this article from Scholastic for tips.
This resource helps users find books available at Ashe County Public Library on select Lexile levels. Slides are in chronological order and collect books for 500-600, 600-700, 700-800, 800-900, 900-1000, 1000-1100, 1100-1200 Lexile levels.
Click on the bookshelf to see the list of books available for the level.
Click on the desk for books you can read online on your chosen Lexile level.
You can search for books in a 200-point Lexile range (ex: 400-600) using the Advanced Search options on NC Kids Digital.