Thank you all for your wonderful responses that will help guide me as I incorporate
the AR program at our school. Below are ideas received:
We have two libraries using AR, elementary K-6, and secondary 7-12.
We arrange our AR books differently.
In the elementary she arranges her books by fiction or non-fiction and then
by AR level. She even goes so far as to have her students read i.e. Third
grader reads 3.0 in August, 3.1 in September, etc.
In the secondary I have a section of easier books, 4.0 and under for the
slower students. All the other AR are shelved with the regular books. I want
students to browse other books on the shelf besides their particular level.
I have AR books all together. I have a color system per book levels and charts
posted on the walls for the children to see. My shelves are also labeled according
to level. We are a "huge" AR school and I have gotten over 6600 AR tests over the
last 4 years. Let me know if you would like more information.
Our AR books have red dots at the top of the spine. In the "E" books, they are
pulled and shelved together because we have so many more regular books than AR
books at that level. In the FIC, the books have red dots and are mixed in with all
the rest.
Personally, I think it's a pain to have the E books separated. The previous
librarians have these sections: Tall books, cardboard books, regular E books, and
AR books. Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes (exaggerating a little, but not much)
to find an E book. And then, of course, some are in the Caldecott section. I have
no other award winning special sections. I hope to get them mixed back together at
a later time.
I use bright pink stickers with a picture of a book on the spine so that the AR are
identifiable. The fiction are intermingled with my regular fiction. The
nonficiton is in a separate bookcase at the end. When I have "downtime" or extra
help, I put in the point levels for the books so that students can search the OPAC
by points or levels. Good luck! Debbie
I have the library organized in 4 sections...E, F, NF (Dewey), and B/92.
Our AR books have a colored sticker to denote the reading range (this
was in place when I got here) blue is less than 1.0-1.4; orange is
1.5-1.9; green is 2.0-2.9 and red is 3.0 and up. I give out AR
necklaces and charms (dogtags) based on point levels (also in place when
I got here). I purchase books based on the needs I see in the
collection and curriculum. If a test is available and funding allows I
buy it, if it isn't I don't worry about it. Some of my teachers have
made tests for books that we didn't have tests for and some 5th graders
have made tests up also...I have to go in and enter them, and double
check the answers the students turn in but all in all it seems to be
working out fine. I do run a report once a week and put in the
teachers' boxes. I run AR, AR doesn't run the library.
Make sure that one person (yourself) is the only person with the admin
password! Do not give it out to others...
Since you are starting up, you can probably print all labels and that
will save lot of time.
There are pros and cons of AR, but if it is managed well (I tell kids
to make sure that they check out one book for AR and two for personal
interest) then it is great. With the small budget that I have,
donations toward the AR have helped to build a great collection.
Deb Hendrickson
We have used AR in our school for 10 years. When we first started out we devised a
color coded labeling system to indicate that we had tests for those books and what
book level they were. We purchased tests that were availalbe for the books we had
and now I buy tests for every book I purchase. Thanks to a grant, we have been
able to buy a lot of books and tests. When we had more AR books than not, we
reorganized the library (district mandate) so that all AR books are together and
arranged by book level. Our 0.1 - 0.9 books have an orange label and are placed
right beside my circulation desk so I can help the little ones. 1.0 - 1.5 book
level have a yellow label, etc. I have 8000 AR tests and our children don't even
look at the few books that still remain that have no tests. They ARE kind of old
and moldy :-) Putting them together has really helped, because our children (K-6)
can come into the library, go to the approp riate section, pick out a book and be
back in cl
ass in just a few minutes. Some people worry about children being ridiculed
because their book level is evident by the label, but I can honestly say that has
never been an issue or problem. Most kids are envious when they see a friend who
can read a lower level book, because the picture books look so much more
interesting than some of the chapter books with no pictures. Let me know if you
have any questions I could answer.
6 years ago I was tasked with starting AR in our school. One of the first
things you need to consider is if you have enough materials. AR has a
recommended # of books per child. If I remember right it is 3-5 books for
grades 3-5, 5-7 books for grade 2, and 8-10 books for 1st. I would strongly
recommend obtaining voice quizzes if you are going to do AR in grade 1 or K.
We do not do AR in grade K.
Buy a copy of bookguide and upload your MARC records and quiz info to obtain
these STATS, and to order tests. Our school board provided extra monies to
enlarge the collection to do AR and provides extra monies every year for
tests to match our books. Even with our generous budget, there are never
enough early readers. Also, you will find novels that are not AR will not
check out. This doesn't seem to effect non-fiction choice as much.
Also, look at some of the teaching guides available at AR. We have multiple
copies of some of these in our professional collection.
I tagged the books with a colored dot system to help the students locate the
books. I hate having the color coding system, but with our young students
it seemed necessary. If I had it to do again, I would probably only color
code the books on the very earliest levels (up to 1.5 and 1.5 to 2.0). The
other books I would just tag as AR with commercial stickers, because I
believe the older students could use the label that you will place inside to
find their level.
Also, I would strongly recommend that you and some select teachers go to the
Reading Renaissance conference. Search the archives for the pros and cons
of AR, because you may find yourself in the middle of a political storm (I
have).
I would start one grade level at a time. Be prepared! There was some
resistance by my staff "Why was I making them do this." You will find some
teachers do wonders using AR, some won't participate (unless forced), and
some may take the competition too far.
I NEVER make a student take a book because it is AR or refuse to let them
have one because it is not in their level. When asked for recommendations,
I ask the students if she is reading it for fun or AR. Sometimes it is
tricky finding something they want in their reading level, another reason to
not start the program until you have enough materials.
It helps to have some school-wide motivations PLUS a classroom system of
motivations. We have an AR store and point club. I do the point club, the
PTO does the store. For the point club, we announce the students who have
10, 25, 50, 100 or 200 points. For our younger students (grades 1 and 2) we
have a primary point club which is 5 points. I put an ellison cut-out leaf
in the teachers' boxes with the students' names on them. The students then
come to the library with a leaf to put on a tree. I give them some tape to
stick it up and congratulate them. The leaves are a different color for each
club level.The theme changes every year. Last year we had fish in the ocean.
AR has oodles of suggestions. They recommend a Wall of Fame where
individual goals are posted as well point clubs. The teachers would need to
buy in on this. We have had a hat club as well. A good motivator, but
expensive.
Good luck.
Rosemary Wilkinson
LMS
Powhatan Elementary School
Ihave only 5 desktops to run AR 6.12 for a school population of 1300+ elementary
students. I started by allowing only grades 2-5. My problem is that it is under
utilized. They have a hall pass after the teacher sends me the student information
I need to pull the kids into classes. It opens at 9:00 and closes at 2:45 daily.
The children come with the hall pass, sign in on a clipboard, enter the room, go to
the computer assigned to their grade level (2,3,4,5)[that is to have room for all
to participate], log in, take the quiz, & wait for their TOPS report to print out
and return to their room. I have over 4000 quizzes and a collection of over 20,000
books. I can't get my teachers to set a point goal or bonus/incentive to get the
kids to read and come down. They complain that they want it in their classroom,
rightfully so, but the building network and hardware can't support the 6.12 version
right now and there's no hope f or improvement on that in the near future. Som
e!
days I may have as many as 50 kids come in and out and other days as few as 5.
Right now, we're trying to get the 1st graders that are high functioning to come in
with a helper and get started. I've tried everything to get the kids inspired but
they are just not going to do it without a requirement or something from their
teacher.
Feel free to email me with other questions. All of our AR books are marked with
colored stickers as we identify them. The kids know to check with me on our quiz
list to see if their chosen book has a test in the system. Good luck.
kaszac@educationcentral.org
A. Chika Ngozi, Library Media Specialist
Heilmann Elementary School
15510 E. State Fair St.
Detroit, MI 48205
313.642.4854 ext. 130
Email: adedagbo.ngozi@detroitk12.org
Website: www.heilmannmediacenter.com
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