All activities in Quill's activity library are assigned a Grade Level Range and Readability Level. The Readability Level is determined by using a series of text complexity systems, such as Lexile, Renaissance ATOS, and the Common Core standards. The Grade Level Range indicates the grade levels for which the activity is appropriate and incorporates the Readability Level of the activity.

In most cases, the Readability Level is the floor of the Grade Level Range. For example, if the Readability Level for an activity is 6th-7th grade, then the Grade Level Range might be 6th-12th grade, indicating that that activity is appropriate for most students in 6th-12th grades.

In rare cases, if other factors impact whether or not an activity is appropriate for students, the Grade Level Range may start at a higher grade than the Readability Level does. For example, if an activity has a Readability Level of 6th-7th grade, but addresses a particularly mature or complex subject, the Grade Level Range may be 10th-12th to indicate that the activity is only appropriate for older students despite the lower Readability Level.

Activities for ELL students are also activities for which the Grade Level Range starts at a higher grade than the Readability Level does. So, while the Readability Level of ELL activities is 2nd-3rd grade, the Grade Level Range is 4th-12th because we generally don’t recommend that Quill be implemented with students who are in grades lower than 4th grade.

When finding activities for your students, use both the Readability Level and the Grade Level Range to determine whether or not an activity is appropriate for your students. In Quill's activity library, first, use the Grade Level Range filter to find a wide range of activities that are appropriate for your students, and second, use the Readability Level filter to further narrow down the activities based on how challenging you want the reading component to be.

For example, if you have students in 9th grade, first, use the Grade Level Range filter to filter for activities with a Grade Level Range of 9th grade. Second, use the Readability Level filter to narrow the list of activities further. If you would like your students to practice the target writing skill with content that is slightly below their reading level to allow them to focus on target writing skill building, use the Readability Level filter to filter for activities with a Readability Level of 6th-7th grade. If you would like your students to practice the target writing skill with content at their reading level, then use the Readability Level filter to filter for activities with a Readability Level of 9th-10th grade.

Please feel free to send a message to the Quill team using the green message bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen or email us at support@quill.org.