How do I find my students' reading levels with the Level Check?

Open your class's Level Check page and start a check: each student takes a 20-minute reading check that adapts as they go, and you get each student's Bookroo Level and the books to try. Level Check is in beta, so treat each level as a careful estimate and trust what you see in class where they disagree.

A Bookroo Level tells you the grade a student reads at: 2.5 reads like a typical student halfway through 2nd grade, and 4.8 like one late in 4th grade. It's for grade 1 and up.

1. In your class, click Level Check in the sidebar.
2. Click Start a check. Your students see a Find your reading level card on their dashboard. They take it in one sitting of about 20 minutes.
3. Each student starts with a few warm-ups, then answers 34 short sentences and stories, each with a blank to fill. Every answer picks the next one, harder or easier. They can tap an answer or press 1–4. If they leave partway, Keep going picks up where they stopped. They finish on All done! and never see a score.
4. The Level Check page fills in as students finish. When everyone's done, click Close check. If you close it too soon, click Reopen check: students partway through pick up where they stopped. You can reopen your latest check while no other is open.
5. Read each student's row:
   • Bookroo Level, and likely, the range their level is probably in (about a 2-in-3 chance).
   • Reads like: the same level in words, like "a typical mid-year 3rd grade student".
   • Reading range: the book levels that fit them, by Lexile® measure. Click Set to make it the student's reading range, or tick students and click Set suggested reading range for… to set several at once. Nothing changes until you click.
   • See answers: opens the student's check under their row: how many they got right, their typical time per question, a chart of how the questions got harder or easier, and a square for every answer (green right, red missed). Hover a square for that question's level and time. The questions themselves stay private so a retake stays fair.
   • Other test: if your school gives another reading test that reports a Lexile® measure or a grade equivalent, click Add to enter the student's latest score and the date they took it. It helps us calibrate the Level Check, and it never changes the student's result.

Some rows need a look:

• Answers too fast to read: the student answered at least five questions faster than anyone could read them, so their level is probably too low. These students start unticked for setting ranges. Click Let them retake to set the result aside and give them a fresh check.
• Not ready for the Level Check yet: the student missed the warm-ups. Read together, or try a letters-and-sounds check, and run it again later.
• Give extended time: for a student whose IEP or 504 plan calls for it. They get longer on each question.

To see what students see, click Try it yourself. Your try is kept apart from your students' results.

Run a check in the fall, winter and spring to see growth; a student won't see the same question twice within four months. The Level Check is Bookroo's own adaptive test. Its questions are new, so levels stay estimates while we calibrate them.