There are so many ways to level books - Guided Reading Level, Lexile, Grade Level Equivalent, DRA etc. Leveling books seems to be the trend. I'm not sure if this was popular in the past and if this is just the pendulum swinging back again. When I started teaching 5 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to tell you what a reading level was or what it meant.
Now, knowing my students' reading levels is integral to my everyday teaching life! There are times when I feel that we can become too dependent on a child's reading level, especially when it comes to parents using this as the one and only measurement of their child's reading abilities.
I primarily base my small guided reading groups around levels. My ultimate desire is to be able to group students by the reading strategies they haven't yet mastered. Meshing level and strategy groups together in a way that makes sense and fits into a reasonable time frame is still a work in progress for me. Additionally, while reading programs' leveled books are convenient, they may not always be representative of authentic reading.
Here are some websites I use to level picture and trade books that aren't already leveled that I think my students should experience:
http://bookwizard.scholastic.com
http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante
http://books.atozteacherstuff.com/leveled-books
https://leveledbooks.beavton.k12.or.us/search.php
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