Wow, is this a loaded question with librarians! Here is my original post:
Our principal has come to understand that AR levels books according to vocabulary
and not necessarily interest or maturity level. (ie Just because the Grapes of
Wrath is leveled a 4.9 doesn't mean that it is appropriate for a fourth grader).
Here's the background: I've had AG (academically gifted) teachers demanding their
students read books on a 7th grade and above level; as many of you know, there
simply is not that much fiction on that level that is necessarily appropriate for
middle school students. ( I also found it very interesting that Nicholas Sparks
and Dan Brown's popular books for adults run in the 5th-6th grade levels! )
Anyway, after being instructed to spend my budget on high level stuff, I explained
to him that AR levels are based solely on vocabulary, not maturity or interest, and
the difficulty finding higher level stuff that was still appropriate. I also gave
him the Grapes of Wrath example which blew his mind!
Now today, I find out that I am needed in a meeting at 12:00 where we are to
completely revamp the way that we do AR. Among the things that I know have been
mentioned are to drop the requirement of AR, change the name to Book Points (a rose
by any other name is still a rose), focus more on book reports and summaries, etc.
We're not looking for another system like Reading Counts, just a way to fix what we
have now.
My question to put out to the collective experiences of the group is this: Have
any of you gone through a similar overhaul of the system like this? What have you
done to acknowledge the weaknesses of AR's leveling system? Anything else that you
can offer would be greatly appreciated. I am expected to have a lot of input in
this meeting at noon today and with the short notice, I thought I would tap into
the fantastic knowledge base that is out there!
The teachers didn't really set anything in concrete yesterday. More or less I
talked about the good things about AR (getting kids to read large amounts of fun
stuff!) and talked about the grade equivalent levels of AR being based on textual
difficulty (vocabulary, sentence length, etc). I did give out a copy of the
goal-setting chart from Renaissance Learning that many teachers seemed to
appreciate seeing. http://www.renlearn.com/goalsetting.htm
According to the chart, even students with a grade equivalent of 12.0 should be
allowed to read in the zone of 4.9-12.0! Our teachers didn't really come to any
kind of mandated change; Mainly this sheet and ways to be flexible to meet the
needs of students was discussed. Principals encouraged teachers to allow students
to read books that weren't AR and work out some way to let them earn their
"points" for that book! However, I did receive requests for a HIT and many
responses so I am going to share them with you all.
__________________________________________________________________________________
In a previous school we had AR. I went online and ran a search for reading level
and interest level, printed out the titles and then chose from that list. It seemed
to work for us.
__________________________________________________________________________________
AR is used at our school but is not the emphasize like at other schools. What we
do is that all of the students are required to have 25 points per nine-weeks. That
is it. No requirement on reading level.. If a student has their 25 points, they
are then free to read whatever they want. We have a 30 minutes of free reading
time everyday.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Brandy---we all know: Readers Read. Period.
So, how about doing word counts for the higher readers. Say, 50,000 words in a
period. With the Amazon Text Stats, you can find the word count of most books.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Brandy - This is a question that I have been struggling with also - especially this
year! Between AR and lexile numbers our students are missing out on some great
books because the numbers don't match their classroom requirements.
What I found in reading something from Renaissance Learning is that one of the
options would be to set the passing percentage higher. For example if the students
choose the title they want but the reading level is lower than required, then
expect
them to pass at 85% rather than the default 60%.
Sounds like a good idea and may be something to suggest to your group!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Our school faced a similar problem with 5th - high school academically
gifted students that reading on a 6.0 or above zone. We are a PreK-12
school and wanted to challenge the students, but yet provide freedom of
choice. Here is what we are trying:
Beginning at grade 4 students that are reading above their grade level
have a Recommended Reading List.
The RRL provides challenging books at the appropriate grade level and
interest level.
They have a goal, but they only have to read one book from the RRL each
nine weeks. This quiz must be passed at 85% or above to ensure that the
students are sufficiently challenged and are still progressing.
Once this one book has been read and the quiz passed, the students are
then able to read anything else they want to meet the requirements for
the goal.
So far the students love this.
In grades 4-8 only those reading above their grade level are on the RRL.
In grades 9-12 all students must read from the RRl - but the one book
from the list rule still applies so that the high schoolers can read
some of their favorite authors that have a low reading zone - like Todd
Strasser, Nicholas Sparks, Cathy Hopkins, and Lurlene McDaniel.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions about this please feel
free to write.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Does your district have the STAR program? A student takes a STAR test
that gives us the student's reading range. It could say 5.2 - 6.5. We
encourage students to select books in that reading range.
However, that leaves out many books that are good literature, just
because they are below that reading range. So I do suspend the reading
level in regards to same books.
We also discovered that a student's average reading level was somewhat
skewed because student's are mostly reading Fiction. We are making a
concerted effort to add many more NonFiction Ar books to our list.
Reading and understanding the information and passing an AR quiz on that
information is much different than reading just Fiction. Also,
Nonfiction reading parallels the type of reading they are doing in the
content areas. (Social studies, Science,etc.) Next year we plan to
require our 5th grade students to read a certain number of Nonfiction AR
books, to try to correct this problem. (I know, Nonfiction books are
usually not worth the same number of points, but we will take that into
consideration.
In addition, people forget that AR reading levels averages are one way
of determine a student's reading level and competency. It is not the
be-all and end-all.
________________________________________________________________________________
We use AR at our high school, we have never paid attention to level, just points.
I control the levels by the choices I make of what tests are available. The
English teachers decide how many points they want their students to earn each
quarter. Our focus it to get them to read and we use this as a way of tracking if
they have read. None of the English teachers do book reports.
________________________________________________________________________________
Lexiles are a much better indicator of reading ability. If you are
looking for a program that utilizes lexiles . . the reading counts
program utilizes lexiles.
_________________________________________________________________________________
I agree with the response from Lisa Hunt. We have used AR for many
years. From our experience, students become readers by using the
program. We also use the STAR test as a diagnostic tool. The important
thing to remember is NOT to get all hung up on the levels of the books.
When you limit what a student should read, I believe you are negating
the entire program.
Another point to remember is that the more a student reads, the better
reader he will become. It is not reading a high level book that makes
one a better reader. It is the fact that AR requires students to read.
Another point you might want to bring up is the fact that most adult
novels are written around a 6th grade reading level.
________________________________________________________________________________
Brandy, I am struggling with the same thing although we have Scholastic Reading
Counts!. I'm so upset with a couple of teachers who bring students to the library
with instructions that they must choose books on their lexile. At first she said
reading level then after giving Scholastic Reading Inventory, she changed her
criterion to lexile. Not knowing she was telling them, I first helped them find
wonderful age and interest appropriate. She sent them back with those books and
said something like "This is only a sixth grade RL; you have to choose something at
7th grade level." Late it was "My lexile is 1200; I have to choose a book at that
level." I am so concerned; I think this is harmful to our students. We live in a
border town and many of our students don't want to be in school at all let alone
read. Many of us have worked hard trying to get our students to read anything.
I believe, however, that this is not a weakness of AR or RC but it is being used
inappropriately by teachers. Those programs are simply tools. Educators are, or
should be, in charge. I went to our asst principal about this. He thinks it's
simply a matter of differences in philosophies of learning and teaching. I believe
also that if the teacher spoke to an individual student and said "I think you can
read something more challenging; let me help you find a book you'll like and that
will challenge you," that is a whole nother thing. Instead she stood there and
tapped her feet saying "Hurry up; we don't have time to waste in here!" One
student smugly said in front of the other students "I'm reading at the 1140th
lexile; I need a book of that lexile." He had told me only a few days before that
the last book he'd read and enjoyed was "Little House on the Prairie"! Another
student asked loudly, with a silly grin on his face, "Where are the third grade
books? That's where I am."
I'm sorry I'm so long-winded about this, but I am deeply disturbed and hope that
you come up with some solutions from the group. I'll be happy to hear them. I was
actually going to post myself.
________________________________________________________________________________
I am having similar problems at my school. Teachers are demanding that
students read books at specific levels, achieve a set number of points
per grading period, and take a grade. I have met with administration
and department heads to work on this problem. AR was never meant to be
a grade program, it was designed as a reading incentive program. I am
working at allowing students to select books to read, just for the
pleasure of reading the book, and take tests that would allow them to
either replace a low grade or earn extra points. Let me know how things
work for you.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The new thing on the block is Lexile Levels. However, like AR, the
themes in the books are very hard to put on a level.
www.lexile.com
_________________________________________________________________________________
(Can't seem to put all of my thoughts in one email.) The major reason that
we started AR in my last school was to cut down on the cheating on book
reports and summaries. We had many students coming in the period before the
book report was due, reading the book jacket, writing the summary, and
receiving credit for the book report because the majority of the teachers
are not familiar enough with the books or have time enough to catch the
cheaters.
_________________________________________________________________________________
(Additional thought) The school I am in now is very small and all the
books for the entire school is in one room. The first thing that I did was
move all the books that were rated UG by AR to the high school section for
the very reason that you mention; i.e. just because the Grapes of Wrath is
leveled a 4.9 doesn't mean that it is appropriate for a fourth grader. If
you are able to make the list with your AG teachers, perhaps moving them to
a special shelf might be a good idea. At the present time, the reading
teacher in the lower grades makes the decision about which student can read
a book from the high school section and must approve the book.
____________________________________________________________________________________
My opinion comes from working with students and watching their behaviors as well as
extensive reading of the professional literature.
AR is very good at some things: 1) helping to motivate young readers by providing
a concrete goal, 2) measuring the task of reading for both teacher and student, 3)
providing a monitoring system IF and only IF the reading teacher uses the
Renaissance method of "conferencing" with students... and that is about all.
When you have young, emergent readers and readers who are struggling to achieve
grade level skills or overcome reluctant reading tendencies/habits AR can be a
powerful tool. When you are working with students who have skills and read on
grade level then my attitude is COMPLETELY different.
5th, 6th and older who read on grade level, even reluctantly should be given a
level of respect. Academically gifted students deserve the best options for their
own growth. Let them read what they want. YES, begin the use of projects, but
don't be too limiting. Have you or your faculty been exposed to the Readers Bill
of Rights? It is an excellent tool to rely upon once students have achieved
reading skills. Let them read what they want, and use creative ways to support
those choices they make when assignments are given out.
The Reader's Bill of Rights comes from a David Pennac's Better Than Life, 1999.
Here it is as posted on a reader's blog:
http://www.bright.net/~dlackey/2004/08/readers-bill-of-rights.html
<https://mail.burke.k12.nc.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.bright.net/~dlackey/2004/08/readers-bill-of-rights.html>
Excellent commentary on the thing:
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/forum/bill_of_rights_comments.html
<https://mail.burke.k12.nc.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/forum/bill_of_rights_comments.html>
__________________________________________________________________________________
We use AR This is a middle school we have reading levels by star test
from 3or4 to 12+ that if you exclude the Special Ed students that are
even lower. Most of the teachers just use the test to know if the
student read the book. if students are reading at grade level or
above. If they are below they use the levels to push the students
some. We just mostly use it to know they have read the books they
say and they have a number of books to read each term about 1 every
two weeks
__________________________________________________________________________________
One of the things that we did at the last school in which we had AR in the
upper grades was to make a special list of books that we thought should be
read regardless of the level--we included books like The Grapes of Wrath,
etc. on the list. There were many books that we felt were good literature
and ones that we wanted our students to read, but because of the low level,
they could not or would not read them. We made the list, but also required
that the classroom teacher approve the book prior to the student reading the
book. In the school I am in now, the reading teacher gives special
permission for students to read good books that are below their reading
level. Perhaps, you and the AG teachers could compile a reading list of
books that would satisfy the teachers without regard to the reading level.
____________________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE post a hit with suggestions. Our administrators are considering doing
away with AR altogether next year. I don't think that is a good idea but do
believe we need some changes.
__________________________________________________________________________________
One thing that I would do for sure would be to contact Renaissance Learning
with the concerns about AR's weaknesses. Another thing that I would do would
be totally opposed to Reading Counts. It has proven to be a joke in terms of
books that are tested according to it.
The other option that you have is to develop your own reading comprehension
testing system using a combination of lexile levels and AR-suggested levels.
If the teachers are so demanding, then they need to be a part of the
solution -- meaning, take part in developing an alternative to AR.
Good luck to you and your efforts!
I will be interested to hear the outcome of your meeting at noon.
___________________________________________________________________________________
We used to use a combination of three goals for the student to officially
achieve his/her AR goal for the six weeks: average book level goal, average
% correct goal, and points earned. I really educated the teachers and
administrators on the books levels and encouraged them that the book level
goals should be set at the lower end of the ZPD and that students should not
be restricted to read at a certain level or even necessarily within their
ZPD. (Giving examples like the Grapes of Wrath one is a great way to
accomplish this.) The idea is just to keep kids reading. If a teacher
feels that a child is reading consistently below their abilities to just
"get by" and not challenging himself at all, the teacher should
address/encourage that child. I always pointed out that we as adults don't
always (or even usually) read on our ability levels. How many of us pick up
a graduate level text book when we are doing leisure reading? We are
capable of it, but that doesn't mean that is what we want to read for fun or
need to read on a regular basis! It's the same with kids, and it's
important to help the other educators in your building to realize this.
I've seen AR produce great results when used appropriately or totally turn
kids off to reading when used inappropriately! Good luck!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Brandy Huffman
Media Coordinator
Walter Johnson Middle School
Morganton, NC 28655
(828) 430-4737
bshuffman@burke.k12.nc.us
"It is our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities."
Professor Dumbledore to Harry Potter J.K. Rowling From Harry Potter & the
Chamber of Secrets
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