Where can I find the Lexile or grade level for each text?

You can find the Lexile scores and suggested grade on a text's preview page.

If you know what text you want to use, we recommend searching for the text title by clicking Search & Filter on the menu on the left.

If you don't know what text you would like to assign, we would then recommend sorting the Library. To do this, you will want to click Search & Filter on the menu on the left which will open the Search & Filter view. Once there, click See More next to Advanced towards the bottom of the window. This will expand additional filter options, including the ability to search by Lexile or Lexile range.

Note: Poems and Dramas do not receive assigned Lexile scores, but you can use the suggested grade band to inform your decision as to whether or not you would like to assign the text to your students.

You can find a chart listing Lexiles for the beginning of the year and the end of the year for U.S. grades here: Compare Lexile Measures With Grade Levels.

CommonLit does not allow teachers to adjust Lexile levels of texts for several reasons. Instead, CommonLit provides differentiation tools that allow students at different reading levels to access the same text in their zone of proximal development.

Research shows that it is a best practice to teach students of varying instructional levels grade-level materials that challenge them - and to provide scaffolding that helps meet them where they are.

This is why we provide Guided Reading Mode, Read Aloud, Translate, and Annotation Tools. Each of these differentiation tools helps students access challenging, grade-level texts, even if they are reading below grade level.

Guided Reading Mode can be enabled for a whole class assignment, or for particular students who need additional scaffolding.

Check out our blog post on additional ways to use these scaffolding tools, "4 Ways to Use CommonLit to Support Differentiation."

CommonLit will continue to add new articles at various reading levels to the CommonLit Library. If you have suggestions for content you'd like to see at lower or higher reading levels, please send them to curriculum@commonlit.org.