Below is the original post. Somehow my question was transformed into
"shelving by AR levels." I shelve the AR books by Dewey and they are
color-dot labeled also just above the call number. The responses are
below the original post. I think QuizList Interactive is the way to go.
Thank you to all who responded.
Susan M. Davis on Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 9:33 AM -0500 wrote:
>I've looked in the archives but don't see this particular twist
>addressed. I am in a PreK-5 school. I have scheduled classes all day,
>30 minutes each. Between check-out and a lesson, each class is a mad
>dash. The days of helping students select the right book for them
>disappeared when they cut my clerk two years ago.
>
>In the past I have color dot labeled (with the exact level number and
>points written on the dot) the 2000 books for which we had purchased AR
>tests over the years. This has been successful. When students would
>come in looking for an AR book all they had to do was scan the shelves
>for their color and then read the exact level number.
>
>Now we're going online with AR with 90,000 tests available. Since
>potentially all of our 10,000 books will have tests, how will our
>students know which books are their level? The worst scenario I can
>imagine is all 20 kids in each class spending most of their time at the
>computer looking for books their level, then back to the stacks, etc. I
>see this as being especially frustrating for the younger students, if not
>just impossible.
>
>I certainly don't have the time to color dot all the books in the
>collection.
>
>How do those of you using the online AR deal with matching books with
>kids?
>
**********************************************************************************************
We are not online but we are district wide with over 9000 quizzes. Our
students have a "Wish List" they maintain throughout the year and bring
with them when they visit the library. They can construct this one of
several ways. They can search the AR Book Guide for titles in their
level that we own. (It can be customized.) They can search our online
catalog for titles in their level that we own. (We put the level and
points in the MARC record.)
I have also seem districts which post leveled lists of the titles they
own on their websites complete with call number.
All of these methods reinforce information literacy skills by allowing
students to locate books by call number rather than bumping into the
right colored dot. This year we will be phasing out the Book Guide in
favor of levels in the MARC record. We hope this will encourage better
use of the automated catalog and build skill in searching it.
*************************************************************************************************
We don't use AR online. But one thing we do in addition to using a
colored dot on the spine is to print a label for the book using the AR
program and put it on the inside of the cover. Maybe you could have a
label party or something like that were all the teachers help do these
labels?
**************************************************************************************************
I sounds like you have a semester's worth of lessons at your fingertips.
You can teach the students about authors who write primarily in a small
range (Bill Wallace, Andrew Clements, Sharon Creech, Dav Pilkey) as well
as series fiction and non-fiction. Teach students to shop the shelves
looking for authors instead of just looking for that perfect book level.
Maybe in time they will develop their own methods of searching for the
correct level. That's just what we want them doing as adult readers,
choosing the perfect level of reading to answer their needs. Good luck.
***************************************************************************************************
I don't have web access to AR; however, we have several thousand quizzes.
Our OPAC allows students to search by reading level for AR and pinpoints
exactly which books are those particular levels. (Also, have maps in the
record that will show student which set of shelves to go to) The OPAC is
also available in the classrooms. You can within AR print a list sorted by
reading level and keep those in a notebook or maybe two or three available
in your library. We did that the year we did not have internet access in
the library.
****************************************************************************************************
When I was the 1-2 grade librarian, most of the AR books were color coded
already.
I would help the students learn which books were their reading level by
adding a color coded dot to their library card. I only did this after
collaborating with the teachers and obtaining a list of the reading levels
from their STAR test.
Another idea is to print out an AR quiz list by reading level and letting
the older students browse through this.
**************************************************************************************************
I think you will be experiencing the same challenge many others have. One
solution I found was to purchase the add on search engine QuizList
Interactive, that lets our library users enter subject of interest,
interest levels (very important when young students have access to the
whole database of quizzes) reading levels as well as authors/titles. They
can then look at or print a list of the books they are really interested
in reading that will be appropriate for them. It looks just like the
search results from an OPAC with summaries, subjects, page numbers, etc.
One of the options in QuizList is the ability to upload your library MARC
records to the company and your quizzes will be matched to the library
holdings. Students will see which books you have for the quizzes and will
see the school’s call numbers for those books. They could have done this
search before coming to the library if there isn’t time or equipment
enough available to them in the library. Parents can also become
involved, doing the search from home. Schools find that QuizList is
heavily used by families. In fact many PTA groups fund this program
because of its value in making family friendly reading choices. It’s a
yearly subscription service.
You can download some Premade Book Lists which will match to your quizzes
and show to the left of your search page. Notice that the State reading
lists are there. Also a number of topics can be found under Jo's
Recommendations. You can preview all the Book Lists and some excellent
advisory tools at:
http://www.quizlistinteractive.com/AcceleratedReader_BookLists.aspx
It is very effective to make Book Lists for your
curriculum-related reading lists. You'll see some at my former school, The
Bear Creek School, at link below.
The Bear Creek School, a K-12 school in Redmond,
WA: http://www.quizlist.net/search.aspx?id=2
The Intradata company hosts QuizList www.quizlistinteractive.com which
relieves school server issues, making it very accessible anywhere, any
time on the web. So, students and parents can search your school’s list
of quizzes from the public library, home or anywhere they have access to
the web. You can try it free for 30 days, easy and no strings attached.
*****************************************************************************************************************
Susan Davis
Media Specialist
Bennett Elementary School
1755 NE 14 Street
Fort Lauderdale FL 33304
754-322-5464
FAX 754-322-5490
susan.davis@browardschools.com
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