Two experiments were conducted to determine the emergent reading levels of elementary school students. In the first experiment, 27 third grade and 27 sixth grade students of average reading ability from rural schools in central Florida were given pretest and posttest cloze passages on science materials two readability levels above their grade placement. Between the tests, one half of the students (the experimental group) received instruction on the material covered. The significant effect for treatment of both third and sixth grade cloze posttest data supported the construct of emergent reading levels based on the zone of proximal development. L. S. Vygotsky (1978) defined the zone of proximal development as the difference between students' actual and potential developmental level. Students' zone of proximal development appeared to be two levels above their instructional reading level. In the second experiment, baseline data were collected on the reading and vocabulary development of 23 fifth grade students from an urban north Florida school, comprehension pretests based on narrative passages were administered to all students, the experimental group received adult mediation, and all students completed comprehension posttests. Results indicated that students would be independent at reading level seven and instructional at level eight and above. The experiments suggested that emergent reading levels are a viable alternative to instructional reading level for placement in reading materials. (MM)