Re: Accelerated Reader

[Elizabeth Letterly <eletterl@abelink.com>]

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We have had AR in our elementary and middle schools for a
number of years, and I, too, have had to bite my tongue and
have put my foot in my mouth a number of times.  The program
as it is implemented in our buildings and in most districts
is a reward system that does not encourage love of reading.

I did, in defense of AR, go to the Reading Renaissance
workshops and was impressed by the schools that have
committed to an hour of reading everyday and to the ideals
of Reading Renaissance.  It does require a commitment of
time and a lot of work on the part of the teachers; most
teachers, I'm coming to feel, want the easy out of the
testing and that's about it with AR.  (Do I sound like I
need a vacation?) The Reading Renaissance encourages group
reading, retaking of tests, the necessity of sustained
silent reading everyday, the necessity to use a range of
reading levels rather than points, individual goals, etc.
Our teachers don't commit to these things, saying they don't
have the time, the personnel, etc., even though a number
have been to workshops and the materials are readily
available.  I do think that were we to commit to the ideals
of the Renaissance program, AR would make a difference and
perhaps would influence lifelong reading habits.

In 7th grade when AR stops, most of our kids stop reading.
It has not made an impact on reading scores, verbal ability
scores, etc.   Kids learn nothing about the important things
in a book.  I have many times sat with a book in hand that
I've never read and cheated my way through a test, scoring
100%, because questions are organized in the order of the
book and one can find the answers easily by skimming.

Our principals did finally put a stop to the posting of
points -- hooray, hooray!!!!  and to AR being a year-long
program -- hooray, hooray!!!!  I'd like to see more
assertion, and maybe with the help of some disgruntled
parents, AR will finally find its place as a supporting tool
or as a pathway to an hour a day of sustained silent
reading.  That's Reading Renaissance's key and is a simple
one that can be implemented without any kind of test program
-- right?

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