HIT: Sec-Accelerated Reader (Pt 2)

[Carol & Larry Petrie <CPetrie@INFOAVE.NET>]

This is part 2 of the responses I received about using AR in the high school.


In reference to your q about using AR in the high school. I am a K-12
librarian and have used AR for 3 years in the elementary & Jr. High and
2-1/2 yrs. in high school. The first semester we just let the students pick
any book they wanted, with no guidelines, except that they were required to
get fifty points per 9-weeks for an A (and that was 20% of their English
grade). Our main problem was a small percentage of students who would
consistently pick books worth 35 or more points and bombing the tests.
Although I was also amazed at how the program quickly taught most students
to choose books they could succeed in reading/testing.
        Our high school English teachers went to an  AR workshop (1 day in length)
and came back with a wealth of ideas. AR suggests a process by which the
students are assigned a reading range based on their achievement tests. The
students were also given a reading log which they brought with them to the
library, so that I would be sure the books they checked out were within
that reading range. They were to keep track of the number of pages they
read per day, both in and out of school. and then the English teachers or I
would put the test results and date test was taken.  Testing at higher than
eighty percent on three tests in a row would move the student up one half
of a reading level.
        A solution to the problem of good books on the shelves that we didn't have
tests for was that once the students have acheived the number of points
required by the English teacher for the entire school year (in our case
it's 200 -50 per quarter), that student is allowed to read any book and
write questions for it. (sometimes we allow them to choose from a list of
books we need tests for, sometimes we approve of their choice, if it's what
we consider as quality literature.)  I always tell the student how many
questions I want, from 5 to 10 more than the finished test will actually
have and then I read the book. I may restate some q's or change the wording
of answers and weed out the extra questions. The student gets extra credit
in English class (sometimes a 'pass' slip for an assignment), and we get
some good tests.  In the Elementary school, the teacher for the Gifted & I
let her students write tests using the same guidelines. I also have some
wonderful teachers who have helped me write tests as well as doiing some
myself. We've added nearly 200 books in this manner.
        In addition, the school adminstration and board have made a commitment to
reading in the school. We have gone to a 7-1/2 period day, with a thirty
minute reading period between 6th and 7th hours. The students remain in
their sixth hour classroom, but may only read BOOKS, not magazines, no
homework, only books. The teacher is to model reading at this time also.
All we ask is for the student to put another 30 minutes of their time into
reading every night also. Additionally, the school board approved extra
funds to purchase nearly every test disk and book available for the high
school/college bound level.
        I am amazed at the amount of books the students have read, how reading
levels are growing and the topics of conversation among students in the
hallways, as well as they are helping each other in selecting books in the
library. (Often they have to tell me about a book....I can't keep up!  What
a switch!)  I feel assured that we have created life-long readers in our
school.

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Read your request on information concerning AR. I have been using
Electronic Bookshelf for over 12 years and found it to be highly
effective with junior high and high school students. With EBS everychild
receives a different quiz. Quizzes are randonly generated from a databse
of over 30 questions so no two students ever get the same quiz twice.
Then they cannot pass around the answers, in other programs each child
gets the same questions. Also with EBS you determine all testing
criteria for different groups of students. You can have as many groups
as you would like. For example: if you decided you wanted ten questions
in a quiz for gifted students and they must get a 90 to pass, you can.
But you could also decide that poor readers only need five questions and
can pass with an 80 - it's up to you. I think that is the beauty of EBS,
you are the media specialist or teacher and you decide what you want to
do. The other thing is the person who developed the program was a
library media specialiast and still picks the books on the program using
her professional selection capabilities.

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e began using AR this school year and our students are reading more!
Our English (grades 9-12) teachers require a certain # of points for
each grading period (based upon student's reading level) for 15% of
their grade.  We reward students (certificates, field trips, tickets to
sporting events, pizza party, etc.).  As librarian I get a special
thrill listening to students discuss and recommend books they've read.


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I've got it this year on my  IBM network but nobody's used it yet (we just
switched to block scheduling and 1/3 of our English dept. is new so maybe
next year.....) Last year we had it on our Apple IIgs stand-alone.  I'd love
to chat and bounce ideas of each other!

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 We are presently using AR with our 7-12th grade students - I
have the tests loaded on one computer in the library and students
interested in extra credit from their English teachers come in before or
after school, during their lunchtime, or occasionally during class when
they are done early with their work.  I am responsible for having books
available from the lists and for maintaining the integrity of the
testing-taking system (only one student at a time in the computer room to
take a test, etc.). The students print a copy of their reading record to
take to their teacher, who awards the extra credit according to whatever
system has been set up for the individual English classroom.  So far, the
AR system is working really well, although the seniors are REALLY
complaining about having to read two AR books before the end of the school
year.