Accelerated Reader Chatboard

(6)

view previous comments

Jake Carolyn, you make some good opinions here. Do you remember the studies or have links to them? That would be good to back up from a case study standpoint. I do question the test taking from home. How can you verify it is the student taking the test if you are not there? It could be their brother or sister or friend. I think any reading comprehension...See MoreCarolyn, you make some good opinions here. Do you remember the studies or have links to them? That would be good to back up from a case study standpoint. I do question the test taking from home. How can you verify it is the student taking the test if you are not there? It could be their brother or sister or friend. I think any reading comprehension test should be administered from a qualified teacher/mentor, not someone that stayed at a Holliday Inn last night. (No pun intended). AR is just a quality measurment utility in my mind. With it, students are kind of forced to read the entire book. I do like the discussion concept you have employed, but the issue with that is time. How do you have the time to discuss every brook from start to finish with every student? Really, nothing stops students from reading at home and taking the test the following day either.

From case studies, I'd like to read more on that since there seems to be so many articles both ways on research and analysis methods. I'm sure realtime discussion of books will lead to faster growth but I'd like to find that method that is deployable in your public schools as well.

On 8/12/09, Carolyn wrote: > I'm not a big fan of AR. I find it doesn't address the issue of > complex understanding of content in reading. Any child can make > educated guesses on the multiple choice questions. I'm more of the > belief that reading material needs to be discussed in order for it > to be learned. Our school uses AR as a punishment/reward tool. If > a child hasn't met some pre-established goal, then he/she doesn't > get to dress down. The trouble I have with this is, this is a > software students don't have access to at home. The only time they > can take these tests, then, are in school (most often the LA > class), where their taking a test means they miss my valuable > instructional time. I'd rather we spend two weeks reading and > discussing a novel as a class, rather than a child answer 25 > multiple choice questions and be labeled "proficient in > comprehension". > > I recently was given two articles on AR, which have discredited > its value. They did 100 studies of the use of AR and determined > that only 2 of the 100 studies showed any significant increase in > content comprehension. The other 98 studies proved to be > unreliable, invalid studies and so the results proved inconclusive. > > I think it's just one more way to force educators to buy pointless > learning software. My opinion. > > On 7/22/09, Jack wrote: >> On 7/21/09, Beth H wrote: >>> I am a student at Missouri State. I am making a >>> presentation on the benefits and/or disadvantages of AR to >>> parents, students, teachers and schools. I would appreciate >>> any insight that experienced teachers have on this >>> subject.I am also interested in any suggestions on the best >>> way to get started in an AR program as a first year teacher. >>> Thanks for the help! >> >> I would suggest first talking to local schools in your area to >> see if you can talk to the librarians in your community. >> Things that you should look into are flexibility, creativity, >> usage, time usage, student rewards, student grading, student >> reactions, etc. AR is used in so many schools nationwide that >> it will be difficult to gather a control base unless you have >> a lot of good contacts in the educational world. There are >> posters on this site, but probably less than 20 are regulars. >> >> I can only speak for my class, but I see excitement in my >> students. I see competition. I see individual goal settings >> to pace each student correctly. (We also use the STAR >> programs to gauge what level books students should be reading >> to gather the best success). What I have found is that its >> an 80/20 rule. It works great on 80% of the students. The >> remaining 20 are either above the norm or below the norm and >> requires special attention, use and creativity of the >> product. It allows a quality in what they are reading. >> Meaning, they really have to read the entire book to get the >> points or the score. Cannot cheat and say the read it all >> when they did not. >> >> However, it is not perfect. Many kids like to stay in a given >> level. They think reading more lower level books shows a >> better accomplishment than taking on larger and more >> challenging books. So you have to watch that. Others may get >> questions and answers from friends, so watch kids that are >> close friends that may be checking out the same book right >> after each other. In some ways, AR is so popular that kids >> may not read books that do not have an AR quiz. So you want >> to setup something that requires AR usage yet does not >> discriminate from other good reads. Several students are not >> book readers. Prefer periodicals or self-decision books (If >> you choose this way go to page 34 or choose this way go to >> page 45, etc). You really have to find a reading match for >> all of your students. But AR does a great job in motivation >> of reading for the majority of your early grade students >> (3-6). I have not had experience in other grade levels. >> >> >>

Aug 24, 2009

Carolyn On 8/24/09, Jake wrote: > Carolyn, you make some good opinions here. Do you remember the > studies or have links to them? That would be good to back up from > a case study standpoint. I do question the test taking from home. > How can you verify it is the student taking the test if you are not > there? It could be their brother or si...See MoreOn 8/24/09, Jake wrote: > Carolyn, you make some good opinions here. Do you remember the > studies or have links to them? That would be good to back up from > a case study standpoint. I do question the test taking from home. > How can you verify it is the student taking the test if you are not > there? It could be their brother or sister or friend. I think any > reading comprehension test should be administered from a qualified > teacher/mentor, not someone that stayed at a Holliday Inn last > night. (No pun intended). AR is just a quality measurment utility > in my mind. With it, students are kind of forced to read the > entire book.

I do like the discussion concept you have employed, > but the issue with that is time. How do you have the time to > discuss every brook from start to finish with every student? > Really, nothing stops students from reading at home and taking the > test the following day either.

The book can be broken down into chapters, or specific parts of literature, and discussed either as a whole class (Let's discuss the introduction, plot and rising action found in chapters 1-3, etc) or you can break the kids into groups and have THEM identify the parts of the literature and create a presentation they give to the class. They can use whatever end product they want, as long as they address the specific task. I've had students do skits, TV Talk Show formats (where characters from the book are on a TV talk show discussing their issues), newspaper formats, models, diaromas, poems, etc. The important thing is that THEY are interpreting the book in a way that works best for them. Each group then presents their "lesson" to the class. We all learn together. If it takes three weeks to learn the book, so be it. We spent just a portion of our allotted time on that, then we move on. Keep in mind they also need to do independent reading on top of a whole class novel/book. I went through two books with my 6th graders and one with my 7th. We also had several short stories, and my 6ths read a poem novel during our poetry unit. And of course, writing, vocabulary and grammar.

All this helps to move the kids from reading (or skimming) a book, to fully comprehending all parts (theme, plot, setting, characterization, etc) of it. Any book worth reading is worth discussing in detail.

Just my opinion.

> > From case studies, I'd like to read more on that since there seems > to be so many articles both ways on research and analysis methods. > I'm sure realtime discussion of books will lead to faster growth > but I'd like to find that method that is deployable in your public > schools as well. > > > On 8/12/09, Carolyn wrote: >> I'm not a big fan of AR. I find it doesn't address the issue of >> complex understanding of content in reading. Any child can make >> educated guesses on the multiple choice questions. I'm more of the >> belief that reading material needs to be discussed in order for it >> to be learned. Our school uses AR as a punishment/reward tool. If >> a child hasn't met some pre-established goal, then he/she doesn't >> get to dress down. The trouble I have with this is, this is a >> software students don't have access to at home. The only time they >> can take these tests, then, are in school (most often the LA >> class), where their taking a test means they miss my valuable >> instructional time. I'd rather we spend two weeks reading and >> discussing a novel as a class, rather than a child answer 25 >> multiple choice questions and be labeled "proficient in >> comprehension". >> >> I recently was given two articles on AR, which have discredited >> its value. They did 100 studies of the use of AR and determined >> that only 2 of the 100 studies showed any significant increase in >> content comprehension. The other 98 studies proved to be >> unreliable, invalid studies and so the results proved > inconclusive. >> >> I think it's just one more way to force educators to buy pointless >> learning software. My opinion. >> >> On 7/22/09, Jack wrote: >>> On 7/21/09, Beth H wrote: >>>> I am a student at Missouri State. I am making a >>>> presentation on the benefits and/or disadvantages of AR to >>>> parents, students, teachers and schools. I would appreciate >>>> any insight that experienced teachers have on this >>>> subject.I am also interested in any suggestions on the best >>>> way to get started in an AR program as a first year teacher. >>>> Thanks for the help! >>> >>> I would suggest first talking to local schools in your area to >>> see if you can talk to the librarians in your community. >>> Things that you should look into are flexibility, creativity, >>> usage, time usage, student rewards, student grading, student >>> reactions, etc. AR is used in so many schools nationwide that >>> it will be difficult to gather a control base unless you have >>> a lot of good contacts in the educational world. There are >>> posters on this site, but probably less than 20 are regulars. >>> >>> I can only speak for my class, but I see excitement in my >>> students. I see competition. I see individual goal settings >>> to pace each student correctly. (We also use the STAR >>> programs to gauge what level books students should be reading >>> to gather the best success). What I have found is that its >>> an 80/20 rule. It works great on 80% of the students. The >>> remaining 20 are either above the norm or below the norm and >>> requires special attention, use and creativity of the >>> product. It allows a quality in what they are reading. >>> Meaning, they really have to read the entire book to get the >>> points or the score. Cannot cheat and say the read it all >>> when they did not. >>> >>> However, it is not perfect. Many kids like to stay in a given >>> level. They think reading more lower level books shows a >>> better accomplishment than taking on larger and more >>> challenging books. So you have to watch that. Others may > get >>> questions and answers from friends, so watch kids that are >>> close friends that may be checking out the same book right >>> after each other. In some ways, AR is so popular that kids >>> may not read books that do not have an AR quiz. So you want >>> to setup something that requires AR usage yet does not >>> discriminate from other good reads. Several students are not >>> book readers. Prefer periodicals or self-decision books (If >>> you choose this way go to page 34 or choose this way go to >>> page 45, etc). You really have to find a reading match for >>> all of your students. But AR does a great job in > motivation >>> of reading for the majority of your early grade students >>> (3-6). I have not had experience in other grade > levels. >>> >>> >>>

Aug 25, 2009

AR incentives

by Pam Ott

Aug 10, 2009

I have been using AR incentives for many years. Does anyone have any "cheap" ideas for incentive rewards? We are not allowed to give any food rewards. Thanks!! Pam Ott

(2)

Sherry It's too bad you can't use the Pizza Hut Book It awards. I go to the dollar tree and get all kinds of things. Pencils, notepads, bubbles, other books, etc. The kids are appreciative of anything I give them for the most part. I have also been checking Goodwill for anything I can give my students. Recently I found some small tote bags for the girls 9...See More

Aug 10, 2009

Tonya We have had a big raffle at the end of the year. We have gotten donations from local businesses of various items from a tv or bike to smaller items. Students were given tickets based on the number of points and then could select which prize they wanted to place their tickets for a chance to win.

Aug 15, 2009

How to integrate AR in Middle School

by Debbie Watkins

Aug 13, 2009

How can I integrate the AR program for my middle school students? How do I use it for a grade? What are some incentives? Does anyone have an implementation plan they are willing to share? How teachers incorporate AR into grading or rewards? Point goals correlated to grade levels? Anything to get us started.

Wendy Peterson On 8/13/09, Debbie Watkins wrote: > How can I integrate the AR program for my middle school > students? How do I use it for a grade? What are some > incentives? Does anyone have an implementation plan they > are willing to share? How teachers incorporate AR into > grading or rewards? Point goals correlated to grade levels? > Anyth...See MoreOn 8/13/09, Debbie Watkins wrote: > How can I integrate the AR program for my middle school > students? How do I use it for a grade? What are some > incentives? Does anyone have an implementation plan they > are willing to share? How teachers incorporate AR into > grading or rewards? Point goals correlated to grade levels? > Anything to get us started.

For many years I used AR at the 8th grade level. I created a spread sheet that allowed students to be successful if they made an effort. Using Excel I entered data based on a 1-10 scale and considered the number of quizzes passed (not just taken), the average book level of the books read (difficulty based on vocabulary level), the average percent correct on quizzes, and the points earned (based on the length of the book). A student could get a 10 for the number of quizzes taken but get a 8 for the level of the books read. Or a student might get a 10 for the level, meaning the student read more difficult books, but take fewer tests to account for the fact that the books were longer. Fully 90% of my students got an A in AR because they knew how to "work the system," which was fine by me; I showed them how to "work the system." I just wanted them to read as much as they could manage and be rewarded for their efforts. I used the STAR test and shared results with students and parents so that students chose books that were neither too challenging nor too easy. I dictated to an extent the genres of books they were to read over the course of the year. For example, if I expected them to read 20 books for outside reading during the year, I might tell them that they had to choose one Historical Fiction, one Classic, one Newbery, and one Non- Fiction. The rest they could select themselves, and, of course, they didn't have to read all 20 books to do well in AR. They could make their own decisions (within limits) about the number, difficulty, and length of books they were going to read outside of the classroom over the course of the year. But because I determined some of the genre they were to read over the year, they were "forced" to explore a variety of genres. AR is not a perfect piece of software, but it does serve a purpose. The data generated by the program is very revealing and useful to a teacher who takes the time to study the results and confer with students. It should not be used instead of in-depth novel study, buy it does not presume to substitute for such study. If a teacher is open-minded about the benefits of this program, it can be a rewarding, challenging, and fun activity in the classroom.

Aug 19, 2009

IMA or anyone else questions about posting progress

by matilda

Aug 17, 2009

I am in the process of planning for the year with 6-8 grade students. How do you feel about posting students progress in the room? We (school wide) have each posted the # of points each student has. But I am wondering if that is hindering the use of AR. Some students have absolutely no problem reaching their goals while others struggle continually....See More

(2)

teach4 I like the idea of posting when they reach their individual goal, especially by the grades you work with since I would guess that they don't all have the same number goal. This way no one feels self-conscious about their lower goal, just good about reaching their goal.

Aug 26, 2009

reading coach A personal note acknowledging a student's goal accomplishment would be much more meaningful than public posting. The message could include encouragement for a future goal.

Put yourself in your students' shoes. Would you want your principal posting any professional goal achievements you've made in the staff work room (even if your goal was...See More

Aug 27, 2009

How do I add a teacher?

by EK

Aug 18, 2009

Help! I am new to using AR and I work in five elementary school libraries. I am not at the school today that needs to add teachers to their AR program so I am trying to figure out how to add new teachers without even seeing the program. Can anyone help?

John Call tech support. It could be that only a school level or district level admin have the rights to create new teachers.

On 8/18/09, EK wrote: > Help! I am new to using AR and I work in five elementary > school libraries. I am not at the school today that needs > to add teachers to their AR program so I am trying to > figure out...See More

Aug 24, 2009

I am a new principal at an elementary campus that does not have Star testing in place for AR. I want to get the Accelerated Reading program up and running strong, but need ideas on setting goals and guidelines when the students have not been Star testing. Any ideas? Want to set some guideline for reading levels so that I don't end up with a 5th gra...See More

AR without Star testing

by Nora

Aug 18, 2009

teach4 Have you looked at the Resources on their site? We don't have Star either, I just use the student's guided reading level and the Goal setting resource on the site to set individual goals. It has worked successfully for my students. I do let them read whatever they want, a lower book is only worth .5, while a book at their level would be at least 3 ...See More

Aug 26, 2009

AR in kindergarten?

by Annie's Gram

Aug 18, 2009

Hi, I am wondering what your opinion is of using AR in kindergarten? Thanks, Annie's Gram

(3)

view previous comments

Marie/Curriculum Dir. We have all of our kids on AR K-5. We are blessed to have AR Enterprise so we have the option of voice quizzes in the lower grades. We feel that it is important for the nonreaders to quiz over the books that have been read to them. We started doing this after I attended a seminar put on by Judy Paul the creator of AR.

Sep 2, 2009

Annie's Gram On 9/02/09, Marie/Curriculum Dir. wrote: > We have all of our kids on AR K-5. We are blessed to have AR > Enterprise so we have the option of voice quizzes in the lower > grades. We feel that it is important for the nonreaders to quiz > over the books that have been read to them. We started doing this > after I attended a seminar put...See More

Sep 2, 2009

Need help w/ admin stuff

by Carrie

Aug 20, 2009

When I log into Ren. place as a student, I only see Accelerated Reading. We have access to all the programs - Star Math, Star Reading, etc.

When I go to courses and classes, it looks like it is assigned.

What needs to change to get my Star Reading and Star Math to work?

Thanks in advance!

prizes and incentives for reading

by gph

Aug 22, 2009

I have used AR for years, and have always loved it. I have in the past used food and activity rewards for points.

Lately however, I have a couple of students who are attempting to read huge books and making low scores (60%) just to earn points, and I think they may also be setting up tests for themselves on books where they've seen the mo...See More

Dustin I like you have used AR for years, and I too have students that take tests based off movies and/or by reading part of the book. But I disagree with not rewarding the child for the points. If I were you I would simply find out the test score in total and ask the child to be truthful. There is never a reason to punish the other children who are doing...See More

Aug 28, 2009

Could someone explain AR basics to me?

by New to AR

Aug 28, 2009

I'm a relatively new teacher (going on my 4th year), and have just moved to a new district where they encourage the use of AR. I'm considering using it for my 8th grade LA class for independent reading, but am unsure of the books available, test content, report info, etc.

Could someone tell me a few of the basics of this program? - What ki...See More

(2)

Marty THere are many many titles available for the program. It will depend on whether your school physically owns the test on a disk or whether the school as AR Enterprise. If you have Enterprise you woud have access to all test Renaissance has in their inventory.

The tests are comprehension tests only. ALthough the program offers literacy skil...See More

Sep 8, 2009

AR/5th We us AR at my school as the Independent Reading program. The quizzes that we have available at my school are ones that we purchased for specific books from Renaissance Learning. I determine their "AR" level (although it is just a "suggested" level) by doing the Gaites test, although you could find their actual reading level using a number of diffe...See MoreWe us AR at my school as the Independent Reading program. The quizzes that we have available at my school are ones that we purchased for specific books from Renaissance Learning. I determine their "AR" level (although it is just a "suggested" level) by doing the Gaites test, although you could find their actual reading level using a number of different assessments. the AR books that they read should be their "Independent" level, not their Instructional level. (so if they are on a 5.0 reading level(instructional), they could read a 4.5 AR book independently to begin) After each quiz, the student generates a TOPS Report immediately. The report shows the score on the quiz, the level, the average book level, the number of quizzes taken/passed during the year, the "average" score for quizzes, etc....You can also generate class reports and individual reports for each student. I personally don't use their scores for grading, since it is independent readin. I keep track of points so I know they ARE reading. Watch for cheating among buddies (anyone can LOG_IN as another child and "earn" points for them). I let them read books of interest that are one level below and one level above their target simply because of the lack of selection of AR books in my school. On 9/08/09, Marty wrote: > THere are many many titles available for the program. It will > depend on whether your school physically owns the test on a > disk or whether the school as AR Enterprise. If you have > Enterprise you woud have access to all test Renaissance has > in their inventory. > > The tests are comprehension tests only. ALthough the program > offers literacy skills test too, if your school has purchased > these. > > There are many reports you can access from AR. Student Reading > Record, At-Risk Reports, etc. > > To determine the student's reading level I used the S.T.A.R. > program I purchased from Renaissance Learning. You could > also guess the level by using your own benchmark tests, etc. > I have used AR for over 18 yrs and love it. I currently am at > a school which doesn't use the program. It is a great > motivational tool if used correctly. We saw great gains in > student reading assessments and the state standardized test > too. > > > On 8/28/09, New to AR wrote: >> I'm a relatively new teacher (going on my 4th year), and >> have just moved to a new district where they encourage the >> use of AR. I'm considering using it for my 8th grade LA >> class for independent reading, but am unsure of the books >> available, test content, report info, etc. >> >> Could someone tell me a few of the basics of this program? >> - What kind of books are available? >> - What are the tests like? >> - What kind of information do the reports generate? >> - How do you determine each student's "level"? >> etc . . . >> >> Thank you! >

Sep 9, 2009