Kate, great question. Really, once you tie a score to a
test, it may be a common reality that the student is chaing
after recognition. Whether competition, parents approval,
teachers approval, etc. One idea may be to step away
from "Scores". As in a Score of 100% does not lead to a
reward. It leads you to the next task which may be reading
your book to a younger group of kids, sharing your book with
other students and a teacher in a group session, writing a
book report that they need to have their parents sign, etc.
Don't let the end goal of the book be the score or the
material reward. Another idea is to have them place score
the book. So on a 10 star system, what value would they give
the book? Log it in a personal journal and at the end of the
year, they can look over that list and see if they still
agree or adjust. Then of the top ranking books they have
read, perhaps allow them to re-read their favorite and have
them place themself as the lead character and write a short
story placing themselves, friends or family members as
characters. They then turn this into the teacher as a final
paper or something.

On 10/22/09, Kate wrote:
> My 2nd grader scored 99% on the assessment test (and 98% in
> first grade so it isn't a fluke)...but fails many of the ar
> tests she takes. It took us a while to get to the bottom of
> the issue -- but my question is how to get the teachers to
> teach the importance of reading and comprehending vs
> getting a good grade on the test? They give awards each
> week if you get a 100% on an ar test..but no one even tells
> us if they get a 60% or worse...they ignore it (teachers
> do) until the report card comes out.
>
> So, how do I communicate a better way to help the kids
> through this?

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