Literacy Leveler

Literacy Leveler makes it easy to scan or search for a book in order to find its reading level. Literacy Leveler also makes it easy to keep a library of books for future reference.

  1. Scanning Books
  2. Searching for Books
  3. My Library
  4. More

What's New

Version 1.5

Version 1.4

Version 1.3

Version 1.2

Version 1.1

Scanning Books

Literacy Leveler provides the ability to scan book ISBNs for quick lookup.

To scan a book, first switch to the Scan tab and then center the book's ISBN in the viewfinder window on the screen.

Note: On all devices except the iPad 2, the ISBN scanning window is built directly into Literacy Leveler. On the iPad 2, a separate free application “pic2shop” is used.

To use “pic2shop,” first simply tap on the Install “pic2shop” link within Literacy Leveler and this will bring you to the App Store to install the app. Then, once installed, don't open “pic2shop,” but instead go back into Literacy Leveler and tap the Scan Using “pic2shop” link to scan a book. This will temporarily switch you to “pic2shop,” where you can scan an ISBN, and once scanned, “pic2shop” will automatically bring you back to Literacy Leveler where the book information will be presented.

The ISBN is usually near the bottom on the back cover.

Note: The ISBN code is often labeled with the letters “EAN” along the left edge and the ISBN numbers that appear along the bottom edge start with “9 78.”

If instead you see “UPC” along the left edge, or the numbers do not start with “9 78,” then the barcode does not reflect the book's ISBN. In those cases, the ISBN is often to be found on the inside front flap of the book. If you cannot find the ISBN, you can resort to entering the ISBN manually.

Be sure to hold your device several inches away from the ISBN; if held too close, the camera may not be able to focus clearly on the ISBN. Also, be sure to scan books in an environment with plenty of ambient light.

When the ISBN comes into focus, the code will be scanned and the book will be looked up and the book's details will be shown.

Note: Literacy Leveler requires Internet access in order to obtain book details from the Literacy Leveler server.

Information may be lacking for some books. If a Lexile measure, DRA, or GRL is not available, a dash (—) will be displayed instead of a score.

Note: If information is not available for a book, a note of it is made in the Literacy Leveler server. The team is constantly reviewing missing books for issues.

It might be the case that the Literacy Leveler server has the details for a given book, but is simply lacking the ISBN scanned. In that case, it might be possible to find the book by searching for it by title.

After scanning a book, you can immediately scan another book. Simply aim the viewfinder at another book's ISBN to continue scanning.

Scan Beep Sound

It is possible to turn off the scan beep sound that occurs when scanning a book. Simply tap the icon that looks like a speaker. To turn the beep sound back on, tap the icon again.

Manual ISBN Entry

If need be, it is possible to manually enter a book's ISBN in lieu of scanning it. This helps in the case of an older book lacking an ISBN bar code, or if for some reason, an ISBN cannot be easily scanned.

To manually enter an ISBN, first tap on the keyboard icon in the upper left on the Scan page. Simply enter the ISBN number and the book will be shown. Both 10-digit and 13-digit ISBNs can be entered.

If an invalid ISBN number is entered, the ISBN will be displayed in red. (An invalid ISBN number is automatically detected when the last digit—the “check digit”—in the ISBN is entered.)

Once a manually-entered ISBN is recognized, the associated book is displayed and the bar-code scanner is automatically re-enabled. To abort manual entry of an ISBN and return to using the bar-code scanner, simply tap the Cancel button in the upper-left.

Adding a Book to My Library

Literacy Leveler can remember a scanned book: Simply add it to My Library. To do this, tap the book icon in the upper right, or the “Add to My Library” button.

Note: If the book you have scanned is already in your library, this button is disabled.

After adding a book to My Library you can switch to the My Library tab to see it.

Searching for Books

Literacy Leveler makes it easy to search for books by title, author, or reading level.

To search for a book, first switch to the Search tab, and then enter your search terms and then tap the Search button in the keyboard to initiate the search.

By default, Literacy Leveler will search for a book by title. But to search for a book by author or by reading level, tap the button that allows you to indicate that a search is by either

Once a search is done, a scrollable list of matches will be presented. The list will show cover art thumbnails and titles for each matching book; to see the details for a given match, tap on that item in the list.

When viewing the details for a book, you can choose to add it to My Library for future reference. To do this, tap the book icon in the upper right, or the “Add to My Library” button.

Note: If the book you are viewing is already in your library, this button is disabled.

After adding a book to My Library you can switch to the My Library tab to see it.

Searching by Title or Author

When searching by title or author, you need not enter complete search terms. For example, searching by title for “cat hat” will return “The Cat in the Hat” as well as other titles, and searching for author by “seuss” will return books by “Dr. Seuss.”

When searching for books by author, the list of matches returned will be grouped by author.

Searching by Reading Level

When searching by Lexile measure, DRA, or GRL, after setting Literacy Leveler to search by any of these systems, simply enter the score. For example, to search for books with a Lexile measure of 800L, enter “800” and then tap the search or button to initiate the search.

When searching by reading level, all of the matched results shown will be of the same reading level.

My Library

Literacy Leveler makes it easy to maintain a list of books for future reference.

To access this list, switch to the My Library tab. You will see a list of books that you have chosen to add after scanning or searching.

The list will show cover art thumbnails and titles for each book in your library; to see the details for a given book, tap on that item in the list. Within your library, you can also add your own personal notes for a book.

Grouping

By default, Literacy Leveler displays all of the titles for the books in your library in a single list. You can instead have the books grouped by author or level by tapping one of the Author, Lexile, DRA, or GRL buttons.

When grouped by author, the groups are ordered by author last name, and when grouped by level, the groups are ordered by reading level with the easiest first, and the most challenging last.

Searching

If you know the title of a book, you can first tap on the Title button, and then type some of the title into the Search field. All books containing the entered text in their title will be displayed.

Likewise, if your library is currently being grouped by author or level, the Search field can be used to quickly filter down to author names or specific level desired.

Adding Notes

If you would like to add free-form notes for a book that you have added to your library, first tap on the book to see its details and then tap on the “My Notes” button in the upper right.

When finished editing your notes, tap the “Back” button to return to the book details.

Setting DRA or GRL Estimates

If a DRA or GRL score is not available for a given book, a dash (—) will be displayed instead of a score. In this case, if you would like to set a personal estimate of the DRA or GRL score, simply tap on the blue dash and choose a score. Your personal estimate will be displayed and used when Grouping, Sorting, and Searching, as described above.

You can tell that a personal estimate is being used if the score is blue, and in that case you can tap on the score at any time to revise the estimate. If a score later becomes available in the Literacy Leveler database for the book, it will replace your personal estimate.

Note: Owing to licensing restrictions, this feature is not available for Lexile measures.

Removing a Book

Remove a book from your library is a simple operation: Simply swipe a book entry to reveal the “Delete” button, or press the “Edit” button in the upper left to reveal list editing controls.

More

To access the “More” section of Literacy Leveler, tap the More tab. This section provides an easy way to access this manual, email support, and share ratings and reviews. It also provides a handy reading level correlation chart.

Manual

This manual is accessible from within Literacy Leveler. Simply tap the “Manual” button.

Classroom Checkout

If you have the Classroom Checkout app installed, you will be able to export the books in “My Library.” Only books not currently in Classroom Checkout will be exported, and tapping on the Classroom Checkout button will cause Classroom Checkout to become the active app, ready to import the exported books.

Support

To send us an email with a support question or comment, simply press the “Support” button to bring up an email composition interface. The email will be pre-populated with a few device details that we can use to help provide better support. Add your question or comment to body of the email and hit “Send”. We will usually get back to you within 24 hours.

Rate

If you would like to share a rating or review for Literacy Leveler in the App Store, tap the “Rate” button and you will be taken to the Literacy Leveler app page in the appropriate store.

Correlation Chart

The correlation chart displayed allows you to see a rough correlation between U.S. grade levels, Lexile measures, DRA scores, and GRL scores.

The correlation chart is scrollable; on smaller devices you may need to scroll it to see correlations for books with higher levels.

Note: A correlation between various scoring systems does exist, but it is not an extremely strong correlation. Because of this, broad ranges of Lexiles are correlated to DRAs and GRLs. Please use this chart only as a rough guide in the case that a score exists in one system but not in another.

The correlation chart displays Lexile ranges consistent with the 2012 CCSS Text Measures.—Common Core State Standards for English, Language Arts, Appendix A (Additional Information), NGS and CCSSO, 2012.