Glossary · Fluency and assessment
What are independent, instructional and frustration levels?
Definition
These three levels describe how hard a text is for a particular student, based mainly on accuracy: easy to read alone, readable with teaching, or too hard.
The usual accuracy guides are about 95 percent or higher for the independent level, about 90 to 94 percent for instructional, and below 90 percent for frustration. Some versions add a comprehension check, such as answering most questions correctly.
The levels help choose text for a purpose. Independent-level text suits practice and fluency work. Instructional-level text suits teaching, with the teacher nearby. Frustration-level text is best read aloud to the student instead.
In structured literacy, many teachers prefer to judge text by decodability at the student's lesson rather than by level. The two ideas aren't opposed. A decodable text matched to the lesson usually lands at the independent or instructional level.
In a lesson
A student reads 120 words from a book with 15 errors, about 88 percent accuracy. That's frustration level, so the teacher reads it aloud and gives the student an easier book to read on their own.
Why does this matter for the record?
Record the accuracy and the level it implies, along with the text. It explains later why a text was or wasn't used.
Rate each skill as you teach it
Needs support, Developing, Secure. The rating schedules the review and builds the report.