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Wow, is this a loaded question with librarians! Here is my original post: Our principal has come to understand that AR levels books according to vocabulary and not necessarily interest or maturity level. (ie Just because the Grapes of Wrath is leveled a 4.9 doesn't mean that it is appropriate for a fourth grader). Here's the background: I've had AG (academically gifted) teachers demanding their students read books on a 7th grade and above level; as many of you know, there simply is not that much fiction on that level that is necessarily appropriate for middle school students. ( I also found it very interesting that Nicholas Sparks and Dan Brown's popular books for adults run in the 5th-6th grade levels! ) Anyway, after being instructed to spend my budget on high level stuff, I explained to him that AR levels are based solely on vocabulary, not maturity or interest, and the difficulty finding higher level stuff that was still appropriate. I also gave him the Grapes of Wrath example which blew his mind! Now today, I find out that I am needed in a meeting at 12:00 where we are to completely revamp the way that we do AR. Among the things that I know have been mentioned are to drop the requirement of AR, change the name to Book Points (a rose by any other name is still a rose), focus more on book reports and summaries, etc. We're not looking for another system like Reading Counts, just a way to fix what we have now. My question to put out to the collective experiences of the group is this: Have any of you gone through a similar overhaul of the system like this? What have you done to acknowledge the weaknesses of AR's leveling system? Anything else that you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I am expected to have a lot of input in this meeting at noon today and with the short notice, I thought I would tap into the fantastic knowledge base that is out there! The teachers didn't really set anything in concrete yesterday. More or less I talked about the good things about AR (getting kids to read large amounts of fun stuff!) and talked about the grade equivalent levels of AR being based on textual difficulty (vocabulary, sentence length, etc). I did give out a copy of the goal-setting chart from Renaissance Learning that many teachers seemed to appreciate seeing. http://www.renlearn.com/goalsetting.htm According to the chart, even students with a grade equivalent of 12.0 should be allowed to read in the zone of 4.9-12.0! Our teachers didn't really come to any kind of mandated change; Mainly this sheet and ways to be flexible to meet the needs of students was discussed. Principals encouraged teachers to allow students to read books that weren't AR and work out some way to let them earn their "points" for that book! However, I did receive requests for a HIT and many responses so I am going to share them with you all. __________________________________________________________________________________ In a previous school we had AR. I went online and ran a search for reading level and interest level, printed out the titles and then chose from that list. It seemed to work for us. __________________________________________________________________________________ AR is used at our school but is not the emphasize like at other schools. What we do is that all of the students are required to have 25 points per nine-weeks. That is it. No requirement on reading level.. If a student has their 25 points, they are then free to read whatever they want. We have a 30 minutes of free reading time everyday. __________________________________________________________________________________ Brandy---we all know: Readers Read. Period. So, how about doing word counts for the higher readers. Say, 50,000 words in a period. With the Amazon Text Stats, you can find the word count of most books. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Brandy - This is a question that I have been struggling with also - especially this year! Between AR and lexile numbers our students are missing out on some great books because the numbers don't match their classroom requirements. What I found in reading something from Renaissance Learning is that one of the options would be to set the passing percentage higher. For example if the students choose the title they want but the reading level is lower than required, then expect them to pass at 85% rather than the default 60%. Sounds like a good idea and may be something to suggest to your group! ___________________________________________________________________________________ Our school faced a similar problem with 5th - high school academically gifted students that reading on a 6.0 or above zone. We are a PreK-12 school and wanted to challenge the students, but yet provide freedom of choice. Here is what we are trying: Beginning at grade 4 students that are reading above their grade level have a Recommended Reading List. The RRL provides challenging books at the appropriate grade level and interest level. They have a goal, but they only have to read one book from the RRL each nine weeks. This quiz must be passed at 85% or above to ensure that the students are sufficiently challenged and are still progressing. Once this one book has been read and the quiz passed, the students are then able to read anything else they want to meet the requirements for the goal. So far the students love this. In grades 4-8 only those reading above their grade level are on the RRL. In grades 9-12 all students must read from the RRl - but the one book from the list rule still applies so that the high schoolers can read some of their favorite authors that have a low reading zone - like Todd Strasser, Nicholas Sparks, Cathy Hopkins, and Lurlene McDaniel. I hope this helps. If you have any questions about this please feel free to write. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Does your district have the STAR program? A student takes a STAR test that gives us the student's reading range. It could say 5.2 - 6.5. We encourage students to select books in that reading range. However, that leaves out many books that are good literature, just because they are below that reading range. So I do suspend the reading level in regards to same books. We also discovered that a student's average reading level was somewhat skewed because student's are mostly reading Fiction. We are making a concerted effort to add many more NonFiction Ar books to our list. Reading and understanding the information and passing an AR quiz on that information is much different than reading just Fiction. Also, Nonfiction reading parallels the type of reading they are doing in the content areas. (Social studies, Science,etc.) Next year we plan to require our 5th grade students to read a certain number of Nonfiction AR books, to try to correct this problem. (I know, Nonfiction books are usually not worth the same number of points, but we will take that into consideration. In addition, people forget that AR reading levels averages are one way of determine a student's reading level and competency. It is not the be-all and end-all. ________________________________________________________________________________ We use AR at our high school, we have never paid attention to level, just points. I control the levels by the choices I make of what tests are available. The English teachers decide how many points they want their students to earn each quarter. Our focus it to get them to read and we use this as a way of tracking if they have read. None of the English teachers do book reports. ________________________________________________________________________________ Lexiles are a much better indicator of reading ability. If you are looking for a program that utilizes lexiles . . the reading counts program utilizes lexiles. _________________________________________________________________________________ I agree with the response from Lisa Hunt. We have used AR for many years. From our experience, students become readers by using the program. We also use the STAR test as a diagnostic tool. The important thing to remember is NOT to get all hung up on the levels of the books. When you limit what a student should read, I believe you are negating the entire program. Another point to remember is that the more a student reads, the better reader he will become. It is not reading a high level book that makes one a better reader. It is the fact that AR requires students to read. Another point you might want to bring up is the fact that most adult novels are written around a 6th grade reading level. ________________________________________________________________________________ Brandy, I am struggling with the same thing although we have Scholastic Reading Counts!. I'm so upset with a couple of teachers who bring students to the library with instructions that they must choose books on their lexile. At first she said reading level then after giving Scholastic Reading Inventory, she changed her criterion to lexile. Not knowing she was telling them, I first helped them find wonderful age and interest appropriate. She sent them back with those books and said something like "This is only a sixth grade RL; you have to choose something at 7th grade level." Late it was "My lexile is 1200; I have to choose a book at that level." I am so concerned; I think this is harmful to our students. We live in a border town and many of our students don't want to be in school at all let alone read. Many of us have worked hard trying to get our students to read anything. I believe, however, that this is not a weakness of AR or RC but it is being used inappropriately by teachers. Those programs are simply tools. Educators are, or should be, in charge. I went to our asst principal about this. He thinks it's simply a matter of differences in philosophies of learning and teaching. I believe also that if the teacher spoke to an individual student and said "I think you can read something more challenging; let me help you find a book you'll like and that will challenge you," that is a whole nother thing. Instead she stood there and tapped her feet saying "Hurry up; we don't have time to waste in here!" One student smugly said in front of the other students "I'm reading at the 1140th lexile; I need a book of that lexile." He had told me only a few days before that the last book he'd read and enjoyed was "Little House on the Prairie"! Another student asked loudly, with a silly grin on his face, "Where are the third grade books? That's where I am." I'm sorry I'm so long-winded about this, but I am deeply disturbed and hope that you come up with some solutions from the group. I'll be happy to hear them. I was actually going to post myself. ________________________________________________________________________________ I am having similar problems at my school. Teachers are demanding that students read books at specific levels, achieve a set number of points per grading period, and take a grade. I have met with administration and department heads to work on this problem. AR was never meant to be a grade program, it was designed as a reading incentive program. I am working at allowing students to select books to read, just for the pleasure of reading the book, and take tests that would allow them to either replace a low grade or earn extra points. Let me know how things work for you. _________________________________________________________________________________ The new thing on the block is Lexile Levels. However, like AR, the themes in the books are very hard to put on a level. www.lexile.com _________________________________________________________________________________ (Can't seem to put all of my thoughts in one email.) The major reason that we started AR in my last school was to cut down on the cheating on book reports and summaries. We had many students coming in the period before the book report was due, reading the book jacket, writing the summary, and receiving credit for the book report because the majority of the teachers are not familiar enough with the books or have time enough to catch the cheaters. _________________________________________________________________________________ (Additional thought) The school I am in now is very small and all the books for the entire school is in one room. The first thing that I did was move all the books that were rated UG by AR to the high school section for the very reason that you mention; i.e. just because the Grapes of Wrath is leveled a 4.9 doesn't mean that it is appropriate for a fourth grader. If you are able to make the list with your AG teachers, perhaps moving them to a special shelf might be a good idea. At the present time, the reading teacher in the lower grades makes the decision about which student can read a book from the high school section and must approve the book. ____________________________________________________________________________________ My opinion comes from working with students and watching their behaviors as well as extensive reading of the professional literature. AR is very good at some things: 1) helping to motivate young readers by providing a concrete goal, 2) measuring the task of reading for both teacher and student, 3) providing a monitoring system IF and only IF the reading teacher uses the Renaissance method of "conferencing" with students... and that is about all. When you have young, emergent readers and readers who are struggling to achieve grade level skills or overcome reluctant reading tendencies/habits AR can be a powerful tool. When you are working with students who have skills and read on grade level then my attitude is COMPLETELY different. 5th, 6th and older who read on grade level, even reluctantly should be given a level of respect. Academically gifted students deserve the best options for their own growth. Let them read what they want. YES, begin the use of projects, but don't be too limiting. Have you or your faculty been exposed to the Readers Bill of Rights? It is an excellent tool to rely upon once students have achieved reading skills. Let them read what they want, and use creative ways to support those choices they make when assignments are given out. The Reader's Bill of Rights comes from a David Pennac's Better Than Life, 1999. Here it is as posted on a reader's blog: http://www.bright.net/~dlackey/2004/08/readers-bill-of-rights.html <https://mail.burke.k12.nc.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.bright.net/~dlackey/2004/08/readers-bill-of-rights.html> Excellent commentary on the thing: http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/forum/bill_of_rights_comments.html <https://mail.burke.k12.nc.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/forum/bill_of_rights_comments.html> __________________________________________________________________________________ We use AR This is a middle school we have reading levels by star test from 3or4 to 12+ that if you exclude the Special Ed students that are even lower. Most of the teachers just use the test to know if the student read the book. if students are reading at grade level or above. If they are below they use the levels to push the students some. We just mostly use it to know they have read the books they say and they have a number of books to read each term about 1 every two weeks __________________________________________________________________________________ One of the things that we did at the last school in which we had AR in the upper grades was to make a special list of books that we thought should be read regardless of the level--we included books like The Grapes of Wrath, etc. on the list. There were many books that we felt were good literature and ones that we wanted our students to read, but because of the low level, they could not or would not read them. We made the list, but also required that the classroom teacher approve the book prior to the student reading the book. In the school I am in now, the reading teacher gives special permission for students to read good books that are below their reading level. Perhaps, you and the AG teachers could compile a reading list of books that would satisfy the teachers without regard to the reading level. ____________________________________________________________________________________ PLEASE post a hit with suggestions. Our administrators are considering doing away with AR altogether next year. I don't think that is a good idea but do believe we need some changes. __________________________________________________________________________________ One thing that I would do for sure would be to contact Renaissance Learning with the concerns about AR's weaknesses. Another thing that I would do would be totally opposed to Reading Counts. It has proven to be a joke in terms of books that are tested according to it. The other option that you have is to develop your own reading comprehension testing system using a combination of lexile levels and AR-suggested levels. If the teachers are so demanding, then they need to be a part of the solution -- meaning, take part in developing an alternative to AR. Good luck to you and your efforts! I will be interested to hear the outcome of your meeting at noon. ___________________________________________________________________________________ We used to use a combination of three goals for the student to officially achieve his/her AR goal for the six weeks: average book level goal, average % correct goal, and points earned. I really educated the teachers and administrators on the books levels and encouraged them that the book level goals should be set at the lower end of the ZPD and that students should not be restricted to read at a certain level or even necessarily within their ZPD. (Giving examples like the Grapes of Wrath one is a great way to accomplish this.) The idea is just to keep kids reading. If a teacher feels that a child is reading consistently below their abilities to just "get by" and not challenging himself at all, the teacher should address/encourage that child. I always pointed out that we as adults don't always (or even usually) read on our ability levels. How many of us pick up a graduate level text book when we are doing leisure reading? We are capable of it, but that doesn't mean that is what we want to read for fun or need to read on a regular basis! It's the same with kids, and it's important to help the other educators in your building to realize this. I've seen AR produce great results when used appropriately or totally turn kids off to reading when used inappropriately! Good luck! ___________________________________________________________________________________ Brandy Huffman Media Coordinator Walter Johnson Middle School Morganton, NC 28655 (828) 430-4737 bshuffman@burke.k12.nc.us "It is our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities." Professor Dumbledore to Harry Potter J.K. Rowling From Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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