Comments on: The 18 Reasons Not to Use Accelerated Reader

By: Grade 5 Teacher

Grade 5 Teacher — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:37:40 +0000

Response to Caronline G. The purpose of AR has never been “simply to gain points.” The point system is a way for students to set a goal for the amount of reading they do for a given period of time. Can it be done in other ways? Of course. This just happens to be one very motivating way that many students enjoy. I am also a teacher and I have seen many of my students take off with AR. Those that don’t do well with the program are, for the most part, those that aren’t reading. I would also have to say that those students that struggle benefit from the support that the leveled system provides. In addition to selecting books in their ZPD (Zone of Proximal Developement), I teach my students how to select any book, AR or not! So, I guess what I am saying is, if the system works for teachers, let them use it. If the system doesn’t work for one of my students, because they want to read non AR books for instance, I encourage that, but students then do an oral retell or written summary in place of the AR quiz. Whatever the student elects (choice is an extremely powerful motivator), the student is providing evidence that they have read the book;evidence that indicates how well they comprehended the material; and a brief rating of the book (reflecting on how well they liked the book). Love it or hate it, give teachers and students a choice! Parents, please respect the choices made by your child’s teacher and your child! I would also ask the same of this publisher!

One last note, in this digital age, let’s embrace the electronic tools we have at our fingertips, and if they aren’t exactly perfect, then let’s see what can be done to improve them; and let’s provide teacher’s with the training necessary to implement a best practices reading program. YES,AR can be an effective piece of a great literacy program!

By: Taylor

Taylor — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:17:03 +0000

And btw im 11 and have been dong this stuff for 6 years. Ii IS a chore for our reading grade.
ugh

By: Taylor

Taylor — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:16:05 +0000

I HATE ar. We HAVE to do it for my class. It does turn into a chore for us. Sure I always get my required points, i just hate it and hate reading.

By: Question Your Assumptions: McNuggets and Accelerated Reader « Skeptic Family

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:54:29 +0000

[...] Many kids spend far more time thinking about how to game the system rather than actually reading nat…. [...]

By: Caroline G

Caroline G — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:01:40 +0000

My son’s school started the AR programme last year and I hate it! I am a teacher myself and cannot see the point in a scheme where the purpose of reading is simply to gain points – I want my son reading for pleasure. He is 9 and has been assigned a fairly narrow level from which he can choose books and take quizzes and he is not allowed to access quizzes for books above this reading level. My son has never been a keen reader but has recently discovered the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He is on his second read of the series and I do not wish to discourage him from reading them as he is clearly enjoying them. We are also reading the Harry Potter series together. However as these books have been levelled by AR at a level higher than his assigned reading level he is unable to do the quizzes and therefore gain the points. He has been critised at school for not reading enough and thus not taking enough quizzes and I have argued that as he is reading books he is enjoying I am not prepared to stop him reading those just so that he can satisfy their requirement for him to do quizzes, gain points, so they can tick a few boxes. I hate it, hate it, hate it…..

By: blake hughes

blake hughes — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:39:36 +0000

hello my name is blake hguhe and i am a member of the daingerfield junior high school were you have to get a certain amount of ar points every six weeks, each six weeks the number of points goes up. the amount of ar points received counts 20% of your reading grade for the six weeks. to get to my point for posting this is that us children are required to read a book and test over it and the teachers dont relize that this will in no way help with our star test we take at the end of every year. because on the star test we are able to go back and look at the story while on a ar test we are not aloud to take another look at the book and plus we already know how to read and all their really doing is hurting our average, and that is what most children think about ar and thats how most end up failing reading because of ar!

By: despicable AR

despicable AR — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:53:20 +0000

@Sue K
Sue K – I may be too late to answer. My childs 5th grade teacher selects a genre each 9 weeks for the children to pick and read from. That particular book requires a book report. The first 9 weeks, the book report was constructed from a cereal box. Decorated and transformed into a cereal that represented the book. Ours was “The Secrets of Vesuvius”. The cereal was “lava rocks”. My son drew a volcano on the front (the entire box was recovered in paper of any kind). We painted and colored. The back of the box required a game or puzzle to be made. My son drew a maze to “escape vesuvius”. The sides contained story summary’s and main characters For fun he filled the box with “cereal” which was actually packages of pop rocks. His next book report is to be a shoe box transformed into a parade float (we will likely fill it with candy such as gets thrown out at parades. I love that the book actively gets turned into an art project. The children then stand and give a verbal report on the book. I feel that this incorporates so much into reading. Penmanship, artistry, punctuation, speaking in front of the class, etc…..

On the down side, additionally he has to maintain an AR goal. I despise AR and feel it has taken all the fun out of reading at our house. I would prefer more actual book reports than AR tests. My son is bright and reads a lot. However, he is not a good test taker, therefore it takes a lot of reading and taking tests to even get close to the goal. If the teacher would just take a book report from him instead of this crazy AR system, she would see that he read and understood the story. The AR system is completely unforgiving to those who get nervous at the word quiz or test. Only one chance allowed to take the test. I cannot stress enough how much I despise this system and truly prefer the book reports.

My son has, in the past, watch a movie or read a book and then set down with his colored pencils and made his own “book” of the story – colored pictures and all. I would love to see this instead of AR. He just staples the paqes together after he is satisfied with his final version. I can then comment on his creative writing, drawing, puntuation, etc. Too bad this isn’t a suitable substitute for AR.

Anyway, from a mom’s point of view, I hope this helps with some ideas.

By: kngdmwoman

kngdmwoman — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:46:55 +0000

Thank you so much for this information. I regularly purchase books for my 2nd grader. However, she was also bringing books home from the school library. The books from the library she would take AR quizzes on. I only recently realized the books I bought for her were also on the AR list. Those books were worth more points than the books she brought home from school. She jumped from 2pts to 7pt values in a week. My concern is whether she is still reading for fun or she trying to get higher points.

http://kngdmwoman.blogspot.com
I plan to start doing book reviews on the books we read as a family. I hope we can raise a nation of young readers.

By: Sue K

Sue K — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:32:11 +0000

@Mark Pennington I have seen AR encourage all sorts of things from more reading to more 'fudging'. I also recently received the quote to have the online AR at my new school and realize there is no way to pay for it, even though we are a title school. So my question and the reason I came here is this: What is an inexpensive, fun alternative?

By: sue

sue — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 11:33:27 +0000

Hi, AR is now in my son’s school in England. It is rubbish. Because he likes longer books (fiction and non-fiction), which take time to complete (he is nearly 8), he is discouraged from reading those books by the teacher. At school, he is expected to race through books (often of zero interest to him), to get points. I have refused to partipate; at home he reads his own stuff. This programme is draining the life out of his enjoyment of books. Should be banned.