HIT: Accelerated Reader Goals

[Stephanie Jones <sajones53@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Dear All,

I received many responses to my query about moving from points-based goals
with Accelerated Reader to quality-based goals. There is a great diversity
in the responses. Hopefully you will find them as helpful as I did. I would
like to thank everyone who took the time to respond. You are a wonderful
resource!

1. All reading research shows that quantity of reading is the most important
factor in improving reading skills. Don't knock it.  The best use of your
time is in encouraging all students to read as much as possible. It isn't
even really important to read on level. Reading easy stuff improves speed
and carries over into other reading. Quality of reading instruction needs to
be more the classroom teacher's area--after all they do teach reading.

2. I am a 5th grade classroom teacher moving to the Library this fall.  As a
teacher I truly believe in the AR program.  First, you must get buy in from
the classroom teachers.  This is esp. important in 4th and 5th grade when
they can truly read independently.  There should be a reading log and the
children should write down the title.  Goals should be set each nine weeks
for grading.  Some kids will surpass their goal (esp. if they read Harry
Potter books).  I don’t think the rewards matter that much to the good
readers.  They will read no matter what.  The ones you are targeting are the
non-readers.  You might even have to help them read the test if they are
below grade level.  I have found that some tests use vocabulary words that
may only appear one time in the story.  Do your teachers teach novels? I
did.  We read the book aloud as a class and then students took the test. (I
had a class set of novels.) You will get higher comprehension if you take
notes at the end of each chapter in a spiral, or with yellow sticky notes.
It helps kids remember what went on in the book when they review the notes.
I have taught 4 or 5 ways of note taking depending on whatever novel we
studied. I think this is what makes the difference in the score and the
understanding and comprehension of what was read.  I found the tests to be
very appealing to the students.  They always seem to enjoy seeing how well
they can do.  I do not post certificates but give them out at the end of the
year. We had rewards at certain increments the best being 300 points and
pizza with the principal. This was very positive and gave her a chance to
see the "good" kids who are overlooked rather than the bad.
I don't know if I believe in AR for kids younger than 4th or 5th grade.  I
will find out at my new school this fall.  Independent reading time with
books on their level or below can really help.  We have 30 minutes every day
for school wide reading.  This has boosted our scores.  We all know that
kids don't read at home if they can choose to do something else.

3. I understand your frustration.  We have been doing AR for two years and
the increase in checkouts and reading is amazing, but of course it has
created a lot of work for me!

I do not give the little prizes; instead I give books to the students for
achieving points.  Even my kindergarten students are loving reading.  Would
you please post any ideas you receive.  I, too, am interested in what other
schools are doing in relationship to test scores.

4. We just started AR this past year and are having very good
success with it.  One thing that we did that I think was a big help was to
send a few teachers(3-4 I think) to the Reading Rennisance(sp?) program. I'm
not sure of the details but AR does this and it seems to be a whole program
of how to integrate AR into the curriculum.  As I said I'm really not sure
how it works but it does seem to be as all but one of our 4-8 teachers use
it.

5. Our K-8 moved to goal setting 2 years ago.  It has been pretty
successful. We have "goal clubs" based on what percentage of your goal you
have attained.  We use 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 150%, 200%, 250%, and
300%+. These are posted in the media center.  We also use a theme for the
clubs. Last year was solar system, this year treasure, and name the clubs
with a theme name, i.e. this year was copper, bronze, silver, gold,
platinum, diamond, ruby, .....etc.  The first of each month I print out a
goal history report, hot glue the student's laminated name tag to the
laminated poster board, and give each student a certificate and prize
associated with that club.  Prizes ranged from Hershey kisses to a Wal-Mart
card (Wal Mart is big here! : )

Students set their goals based on 10% over last year's performance.  I use
the end of year printout to help them remember what they did last year.  For
K & 1 I used 10 points to begin, then adjust if necessary later in the year.
At least it gives them a starting point.

This was a drastic change from what had been done previously - point clubs
and a big store at the end of the year.  What nightmare that was!  This is
easier for me, and the students are getting to like it better.  I had one
mention the other day they liked it better because they didn't have to wait
until the end of the year to get their prizes.


6. At my school every teacher K-6 must participate.  Our goals on our PGP
are based around Reading Renaissance.  Each child MUST keep a reading log
that is checked by the teacher during Status of the Class daily.  My
principal walks around daily to make sure logs are being kept up with.  The
students must also bring it to library.  The librarian is responsible for
checking their ZPD to make sure the books they are checking out are on their
level.  In the reading logs the teachers make a slip of paper each six weeks
that include the child's:
    1.  name
    2.  six week period
    3.  weekly goal
    4.  six week goal
    5.  point level goal
    6.  % goal (** must have 85% or better**)
These same goals must be put in the computer at the beginning of each six
weeks.
         When we first started with AR we used 80% until we had extensive
training with the Reading Renaissance Staff.  It is important to have the
support of the administration and staff. Our principal has been asked to
speak at the National Reading Renaissance Convention this year in San
Antonio. One of the most important things we learned in quality is better
than quantity.  Our students must reach 85% before they can take part in any
of our incentive programs.  All the teachers have a wall to keep track of
reading goals.  Students do not move on the wall unless they have reached
85% or better.  It doesn't matter if they have the points they need.  Points
are worthless unless they have the % to go along with them.  If students
know up front what is expected of them they will have no problems changing.
You should not be running the reports.  Each teacher should run a weekly
diagnostic report at the end of the week to turn in to you.
    This will be the second year for my school to have a medieval/storybook
theme.  They are working their way to become Kings and Queens of our school.
  At the end of each six weeks, our Reading Renaissance Coordinator comes to
our classrooms with prizes for the students who have met their six weeks
goal with 85% or better. Each teacher normally gives small rewards such as
extra recess or small treats.  Most of our teachers give a treat immediately
after a test is taken if they make 100% on it.  At the end of the year our
principal takes all the students who have met their yearly goal (must make
six weeks goal every time to have the yearly goal) out to eat.  The kids
love this.  The certification levels we use are the same ones with Reading
Renaissance.  Some of my students make super and advanced numerous times.

7. In our building the classroom teacher and media specialist don't have the
time to monitor the students adequately, either. The breakthrough came when
our Chapter I teachers took it upon themselves to monitor the students and
provide feedback to students and teachers. Once the students knew that
someone was watching and giving them regular feedback the AR program really
started to develop the way we wanted it to. This person has about 25 minutes
per day built into her schedule for this. It isn't a prep time so if she's
caught up with reviewing scores and communicating with teachers she might
help a struggling child with selection or reading!

8. Good luck.  That is the problem we all are having.  And unless the
principal holds the teachers accountable, it will not be resolved.  It is
impossible for the media specialist to keep track, especially when one is
alone and also has to take care of all the technology problems.

9. Actually, I run the AR program for the school, but we are fairly
small(350).  I wanted to make the program more equitable for all my
students. Having point clubs encourages those who are already good readers,
but doesn't do a lot for emerging or poorer readers.  This way, goals are
set by ability and it is fairer to my 1st graders and special ed kids.  It
levels the playing field, so to speak.

Teachers haven't said much, but those who have commented are supportive.
They still use point goals in the classroom, but schoolwide goals apply.
They two do work together fairly well.

I help students set goals during orientation each year.  Each class comes in
during the first couple of weeks of school and I explain the program, we
practice percentages, and then I speak to each student individually about
their goal.  It really doesn't take too much time.  I have little slips they
fill out with their name, teacher, last year's points and this year's goal.
I collect these and then enter them all at once.

My principal pretty much lets me run with whatever I want to do, within
limits.  I explained how I wanted to do it, and she told me to go ahead.
She understood the logic of challenging students individually.

10. Please post a hit on the answers you receive.  My school did Reading
Counts last year and added AR this year.  So far our incentives have been a
popcorn party for every class who acheived very simple goals.  The
Curriculum committee has set more similar types of celebrations for next
year -- as a class, not individually.  We've planned another popcorn/movie
time, an outdoor ice cream party, an all day read-in and banners to hang
outside the classroom doors. I tend to bypass individual goals because the
competition becomes so fierce, the kids start to cheat.  I think cheating is
especially easy on AR.  This upcoming year is the school's 3rd and we have a
high turnover in staff and increasingly more students (1100 next year), so
we haven't gotten it all together.  However, most teachers do their own
record keeping.

11. We have only been using AR for 2 years, and we now have it in 2 of our
other  schools, though this has just been their first year. From my short
time using it, what I have discovered is that there are two things that make
a difference: having a central person (in this case me, the library media
specialist, library teacher, or whatever you want to call me...someone who
sees ALL of the kids and who has contact with all of the teachers) AND a
classroom teacher who buys in to the program.
I can talk until I am 'blue in the face' and still won't have all of the
kids on board. It is the classroom teacher that really makes the difference.
For the classes where the teacher is not on board her/himself, the kids who
are self-motivated will participate, but not to the extent that kids will in
a class where the teacher knows the value of reading and supports the goals
of AR. (I am working for summer school and see this validated with
information from the other 2 schools...)

Now, to get on with the real response to posting in which prompted this
reply: We do all-school AR certification award assemblies twice a year to
acknowledge those who have achieved the various certification levels
(though, I wish there was a level between 'advanced' and 'star'!). We do
have the program set to only accept quizzes passed at 80% or better for
certification levels. We also have a couple of teachers who do the goal
setting, and those have been given appropriate certificates as well as "100
point plus" kids.

Teacher monitoring is the KEY to success! I need a way to motivate the
teachers!!!! I am going to talk to our principal to see if she can help with
this (she is definitely a supporter)...perhaps the pizza party for those
kids who meet their goals...as long as their goals are accurate and
reasonable!

Yes, success breeds work, and a lot of it does fall on me also, but I am
slowly weaning the teachers off on their own.

12. We provide certificates of achievement to all students who accumulate
100 or more points through the Scholastic Reading Counts program at the
end-of-year school assembly.  We also do Readers of the Month and announce
that over the school intercome and town newspaper.

As far as setting reading levels, that seems to vary from individual teacher
to individual teacher.  Some are more professional than others regarding
this issue, others just let the kids read whatever they want without much
monitoring or individual supervision.

If your school has a reading curriculum coordinator, perhaps the message
could be passed along as a group so that individual teachers wouldn't feel
singled out.

13. It seems to me that a media specialist cannot undertake the rigorous
task of determining incremental growth for 500 students. It's too much
to do. The reading teachers hopefully would oversee their student's
levels and growth, being sure that they
1. are reading at their level.
2. are reading enough at their level
3. are progressing.

Many media people in Minneapolis Public Schools DO help students choose
books at their level, using various methods. Some media people have the
STAR lists nearby so they can check the ZPD of students, or they've put
a sticker that indicates the reading level on the student's barcode
card, or each student has a Reading Ruler that indicates the range
within their ZPD and they keep it in their library folder. Some media
people make sure that the student checks out one AR book each time.

Reading enough at their level: You can encourage it by printing out
reports and looking them over and encouraging students, but I think
that's the reading teacher's position or in middle school grades, it can
be tied to a grade by the teacher. Maybe you can align yourself with one
or two teachers who work with all their students on this, and accept
that every teacher will not use the program to it's maximum benefit.
(That was a hard one for me, because I believe in it so much.)

A very motivating honor was the certificate (with student photo) after
reaching 10 points. We'd put them on a wall near the classrooms.
Students would tell each other, "Hey, Jerry, you're on the wall!" Of
course many students will take all year to get to that point, and they
are the students that can gain the most from AR program, so have some
group goals and encourage them along the way. "You must feel proud to
tackle that chapter book." etc.

14. One of our schools has a principal who meets monthly with staff to go
over AR reports (during a staff meeting time, for example). The staff
really learns what to look at, talks about strategies to use with
difficulties, and gets support from other staff members.

The principal is also asking the staff to include AR reports to her
quarterly because they've invested so much, the principal wants to be
assured that it's being used effectively.

Sound too good to be true?

+++++++++++++++++
This final response includes many sections and is well worth reading.

15. This is very long, but you hit a subject near & dear to my heart.  Good
for you to try to move your program from quantity to quality!    (Maybe you
can cut & paste some of this to use with your staff/principal.)
Please bear with me--you may already do a lot of this, but being a
linear person, I just thought back through our whole sequence of
implementation and thought you may pull out some ideas.  It was not easy
for me even with the principal's support.  Initially, some of the
teachers resented the training and instruction he asked me to provide.
But after traveling over some large & small bumps, we finally came
together at the end of our road....

We, too, were simply an "AR school" when we started in the fall of 1999
at Peculiar Elementary in Peculiar, Missouri.  The students just read
books and took tests, and there was very little monitoring, intervention
or guidance involved.  I was a 3rd grade teacher at the time.  We
weren't told we had to use it, and each teacher implemented it in their
own way at first.

Seeing how enthusiastic my students were about the program, I knew I
wanted to do it justice, so I spent lots of time reading the AR manual
and adjusting my practices until my students and I were able to get it
down.  We earned Model Classroom Certification after the first semester
and then Master certification by year's end.  It was very hard, but oh,
so rewarding!  And it got other teachers to start asking questions.

I got the opportunity to go to RR training and came back convinced this
was something our school could do.  Outlining the program for the
principal and gaining his support was the first move.  He formed an RR
committee in March and we slowly began to work on full implementation
for the next school year.

We began the first day of school using Reading Renaissance and by year's
end we had 13 Model Classrooms, 9 Master Classrooms, a Model Library and
we've just applied for Master Library and Model School.  By closely
following the guidelines we learned at the seminars and by constantly
referring to the manuals and fine tuning our program our 462 students
read over 50,000 books this year and made an average grade equivalent
gain of 1.8 on the STAR test.

Here are several things we learned:

1.  RR vs. AR:  Success means using Reading Renaissance (RR), not just
AR.  RR consists of four parts:  Monitoring (DAILY), Assessment (AR),
Intervention, & Motivation.  This is the most important 1st
step--recognition that AR is only the computerized assessment and just
one small part of the program.  You are ahead because you understand
this; your hurdle will be helping others to understand this.

2.  LEADERSHIP:  Your principal MUST be on board as the program
cheerleader!  This means s/he must understand and promote the program
principles rather than the "read a book, take a test" approach.  It will
be very difficult to implement a uniform program if you don't have
his/her leadership behind it.  Is there any way you could steer him by
laying out a plan of attack for him to follow?

3.  COORDINATION:  Someone has to be the coordinator so that information
flows uniformly and implementation runs smoothly.  The principal can do
this, but it's unlikely most principals have the time.  As LMS, I
tackled this role--sheduling the meetings, training other staff,
tracking paperwork, installing new quizzes, monthly newsletter and daily
resource person to answer questions and help out.  Some lucky districts
have a full-time person just to do this job.  It's very tough to
maintain all of your LMS duties also, but I learned to rely heavily on
volunteers for book labeling and daily shelving.  Parents loved the
program so much that I had quite a few who were willing to help
regularly!

4.  GETTING STARTED:  An RR team is a great way to get everyone on
board.  We had a rep from each grade level, special areas, the
principal, LMS and aide, and PTA rep who formed our RR committee.  These
were the people who discussed how to implement RR so that it fit our
school and students.  They met at least monthly and worked on sub-teams
to tackle all of the school-wide activities connected with RR (bulletin
boards, parties, assemblies, etc.)  This will help relieve you of having
to do all of the work.  Once people understood the whole picture, I was
surprised how much everyone pitched in!

5.  LIBRARY:  You can't do this without flexible scheduling and a
full-time aide, plus volunteers.  Even then, you'll find yourself
overwhelmed at times.  I held 14 storytimes for K-2 each week and
various skills lessons for 3-5.  These were not release times.  My
wonderful aide kept the circulation desk running.  Students must be able
to come to the library to get a new book as soon as they finish quizzing
and meeting with the teacher about the previous one.

6.  60 MINUTES OF DAILY PRACTICE:  RR must become the backbone of your
reading program.  We still used basal readers for short periods of
skills instruction, but we restructured our whole school schedule so
that students were sure to get that 60 minutes of reading practice each
day.  It cannot work without building the practice time into the school
schedule!  The RR training & manuals give lots of good suggestions on
this.

7.  STATUS OF THE CLASS:  Teachers must meet with every student every
day.  Sounds impossible, we know!  But ultimately, we were able to make
it happen.  The more we met with students, the more successful they were
and the easier it got to manage.  The students began to self-manage
because they knew they would be held accountable each day!

8.  GOALS/CERTIFICATION LEVELS:  You're right!  Setting individual goals
is crucial!  We used the STAR results to set goals using the goal
setting chart the company provides.  We found we adjusted these quite
liberally depending on each student's needs.  Some students wanted an
increase in point goals (challenge) while others needed them lowered to
meet special needs.  That's the beauty of the program that many don't
understand.  It's very individualized and works best when you use it
that way.  I would NEVER set goals in stone for any student and
certainly wouldn't use the same criteria for each student.  It's also
important to use the certification levels.

9.  READING LEVELS:  The reading levels are very important.  It takes a
while for students and teachers to understand that they really do serve
a necessary purpose.  They are not meant to limit a student's reading
choice, but to start s/he out where they are successful.  The steady
increase in reading level as ability improves will continue to result in
even more improvement.  The students who jump around in levels do not do
as well.  The reading levels go hand in hand with the scores mentioned
below.

10.  SCORES:  The scores are very important.  Staff and students must
value the 80% or higher criteria as a measurement of success.  If the
score is below 80%, then length, level, interest area, reading speed,
etc. must be examined during an individual discussion between the
teacher and student.  They can determine the next step by thoroughly
examining results.

11.  RESPONSIBILITY:  Staff and students are responsible for the
results.  It took a while for some of our teachers to stop saying, "Oh,
well, too bad--if they want to read a book that's too high and get a
50%, then maybe they'll learn a lesson!"  Our job is to help students
make good choices in reading material and that may sometimes go against
what they think they want to "read".  (We don't let kids drive at 12
when we know it's better for them to wait until 16 or older.  I'm
thinking of all our students who insisted they wanted to read the fourth
Harry Potter just because it was so popular.  When this happened, we
would encourage students who weren't ready to tackle the level or length
to check out those books as "read tos" and have a family member read
to/with them.)  The difference this makes is that every book that leaves
the library is actually READ rather than just carried around in a
backpack for a week

12.  MOTIVATION (Students):  The biggest motivator of all was that RR
achievements were announced at the end of each day.  Our principal
announced when students met goals or achieved a new/repeat certification
level or point club membership.   We used a Wall of Fame for each grade
level.  We used a Royal Readers Point Club Board outside the library to
recognize Point Club membership.  We made a huge point goal thermometer
to track the number of points earned school wide.  Our students received
a plastic bookmark with colored tassles designating each certification
level achieved.  Our principal challenged the kids to reach 30,000
points and he would let them duck tape him to the wall.  They reached
30,000 in April, so after he was "unstuck" he rechallenged them to reach
35,000 by the end of school and they could make the assistant principal
into an ice cream sundae.  They earned over 37,000 points by May 15th,
so they got to scoop!  The PTA sponsored an ice cream party for all
students who reached their goals EVERY quarter.  We printed the
certification level certificates and gave them out a parent/teacher
conferences or awards ceremonies.  The principal/asst. principal held
"kick-off" assemblies each quarter to focus on our school wide goal and
help kids see how their individual efforts would make a difference
toward our school-wide goal.  He played pumped up music and his focus
was "Peculiar Elementary Kids Love to Read".  Each grade level shouted
out one of those words (K-5)--even 5th graders participate if they can
YELL!  Notice that our committee chose motivators that weren't gimicky
and cost very little.  We did not want to reward the kids with tangible
do-dads, but with recognition instead.

13.  MOTIVATION (staff):  The best motivator is to find at least one
teacher you can work with who is interested in achieving Model Classroom
Certification.  Call the RR people and ask for Model Certification
packets (they're free).  Work with the teacher and help him/her map our
the road the certification.  When they achieve it, you'll be surprised
how many others will want to find out about it.  And if they're working
toward Certification, they are much more likely to be working the
program the quality way.   Classroom Certification works best on a
voluntary basis (like National Board Certification).  Our principal
rewarded teachers who read and took AR quizzes themselves with jeans
days, catered lunches (nothing fancy!), teaching their class for an
hour, etc.

I hope these suggestions help.  Implementing the full RR program was the
best thing our school has ever done.  It brought staff, students and
parents together as a team and our students' reading abilities and state
test scores showed dramatic improvement.

I know there are many out there who think that "AR" is a literature
limiting experience for children, but my experience has been just the
opposite.  I could quote  from dozens of children who said variations of
a what Ricky, a student of mine, said after reading his first chapter
book. "When you first told us about this RR stuff, I knew I wasn't going
to do it 'cause I really don't like to read.  But after I started this
book; it was really good.  I didn't expect that!  And I got a 100% on
the quiz.  This is great!  Can I go back to the library right now and
get another?"  At conference time, his mom was thrilled with all of the
books he'd read.  What more could any teacher, librarian or parent ask
for?  Good luck--


Stephanie Jones, LMS
Kilpatrick Elementary School
Jonesboro, GA 30238
sajones53@hotmail.com

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