[LM_NET] HIT: New AR high school

["P. Porter" <texasgrad92@YAHOO.COM>]

This is the basic summary of the hints tips and directions I received about AR in 
High School.  Thanks for all your contributions.  My teachers were thrilled that 
their high scoring kids could what  read what they want.
   
  I also encouraged them to set realistic point goals so that after a kid hits 
his/her goal for the month they could read a non-AR manga or Seventeen, or People.
   
  Tricia
   
   
  It's not really the teachers who don't understand; it is the upper 
administration--the central office folks.  The teachers on a whole get it.  As 
Gerri wrote, requiring 1 non fiction book a 6 weeks would probably be a good idea.  
My guys read non fiction so perhaps they need to read 1 fiction a six weeks.   I 
cannot find enough nonfiction about gangs, basketball or  football .  Any title 
suggestions?
  =============================== 
  Educate those teachers who don't understand. 

They might be taking cues from other lower grade schools in your
district and think they have to follow the same course. High school is
a completely different animal - with so much going on in students life,
it's most important to focus on their enjoyment of reading instead of
points or levels. Studies do show that those students who read - and
read a lot - have better test scores than those that don't.

Think of reasons why high school students say "I hate to read." It was
probably from a bad experience, such as pushing them to read something
for the classroom and analyzing it, writing about it, testing on
it....teenagers need what I have heard referred to as "mind candy." 
They're reading what matters to them, which is what YA books target. 

Be enthusiastic with your stance - when presenting use research to back
in up. There's tons out there! And know you want to be on the students
as well as the educators side and that middle ground isn't called
testing or points, but the end all of what the program stands for -
reading : )

PS- most newspapers in the US are written at the 6th grade reading
level and adults read that all the time

==========================
     [input]  [input]  [input]  [input] 
  Thank you.  I hope it works for you.  We don't allow fairy tales/myths or 800 
poetry/plays/etc.  which allows some discussion about
nonfiction and why these books are "non-fiction.".  Biographies do count.  They 
really like animals, cars,  motocross, and learn they don't know
all they thought they did.   The kids are reading more science and history than 
they ever did before so I think it's working.  Good luck.

==============================
  Cool idea ---think I will steal it!! 
==========================
 
    Tricia, I'm in an AR school for grades 7-12. This is my 3rd year as AR 
administrator (no training) and district librarian.  We allow the kids to read
below level and I do have some low level books.  They get some points from class 
novels and the rest from the library collection.
Most teachers require 20 points per six weeks.  The one teacher who only uses AR 
for extra credit has just a few who read.

I added one element this year that seems to help.  It sounds simplistic but our 
TAKS scores are low.  Since the reading selections in
TAKS are non-fiction, I've asked all of the teachers to require 1 non-fiction AR 
point per six weeks.  Most count it as a test grade.
If they score a 9 out of 10, they get a ninety.  If they read another book and get 
10 questions out of  10, they get a 100.  They
will read more this way in search of a higher easy test grade...and this is my 
goal, anyway.  The teachers try to be sure that they
don't all read the same book...i.e. the kids write down titles in the class and I 
run a title check on AR.  I'm finding more 1-2 point AR
books on  7-11 grade reading levels than I realized were available.  I don't go for 
the baby print but some are just 48 pages long.
A number of the kids actually seem to be enjoying this and learning too. This idea 
might meet your goals.  Good luck.


If you can estimate the reading level of what your adult teachers and

administrators like (the mystery and romance writers, the newspaper,

popular magazines, etc.), you can demonstrate to your administrators 

that

good readers often read items that are below their "highest" reading 

level.

I can read high-level literary and philosophical texts, but I don't 

choose

to read them for enjoyment. Our highest reading level means that we can

read and understand  that level. It doesn't mean that every piece of 

text

we pick up has to be at that level.

 

I think reading texts that are fairly comfortable for us allows us to

develop "reading endurance." This means we can read at a solid rate for 

a

longer period of time. This is important for kids in their education --

both in their regular classes and for their TAKS test. The idea is to

increase our reading level (and the length of time that we can maintain

reading this type of text).  The only way to get reading endurance is 

to

read a lot, and kids won't read a lot if they don't enjoy what they 

read.

As adults, we don't read a lot of stuff we don't enjoy, either. So why 

do

we expect kids to do what we ourselves don't do?

 

I think a sports analogy can help here, too. When you lift weights, you

normally lift a certain amount of weight for a set number of 

repetitions.

If you increase the amount of weight, you will have to do less 

repetitions.

There is a balance that you are trying to reach in order to  increase 

your

muscle strength. If you choose weights that are very low, you have to 

do

lots and lots of repetitions. If you do weights that are set too high, 

you

risk damaging your muscles because they aren't accustomed to such a 

high

weight. When you trying to increase your "reading muscles," you have to

strike a happy balance, too. I think that students tend to find this on

their own because they won't read stuff too far below their level 

because

it will be boring and "babyish." On the other hand, if a text is too 

high

level, they won't understand enough of the words to make sense of it, 

so

they won't stay with that book very long, either.

 
  Thanks for the update, Kaylia.  I found some info on Renaissance Learning's 
website.  In a section labeled What to Do with Proficient Upper-Grade Readers, it 
says:  "Students usually move up to higher readability levels as their reading 
improves, but upper-grade readers pose unique challenges.  As they move up, they 
find that there are fewer and fewer books to choose from at the higher readability 
levels.  For this reason, we recommend that you not continue to 'up the level' 
indefinitely for upper-grade readers . . .  [it gives some other strategies to use 
and ends with ...]  These students already read well - now they should also become 
well-read. "   Absolutely!
   
    see http://www.renlearn.com/ar/overview/atos.htm and click on the Using 
Readability Levels to Guide Students to Books link in the middle of the page.

   I think that it would be important to know that AR has revised their goal 
setting and recommended reading range for students over the past few years.  Any 
student who is reading at a high school level can read a book that is at a 4th 
grade level or higher.  Pleasure reading is at 5th grade levels and AR has realized 
that they want kids to enjoy reading.  All of those great book from all of our 
various book list are great AR books for HS kids to read.  I think that research is 
important and so are the facts.  Look at how they recommed books now so you have 
the facts.  I was in a HS setting and my kids got all their points with those great 
books such as Tayshas.  Kids don't have to read only 9.0 books if they are in 9th 
grade.
   
  My $ .02
     

   
    I had a similar situation with high level junior high students....what they 
wanted to read was not their level and the titles in their level were usually 
classics.  Fortunately, I had two English teachers who wanted to encourage readers, 
so they helped me out by reading books and writing tests for newer books and I 
entered those into the system as teacher-made tests.  You would need to check to 
see if teacher made tests are still allowed with AR Enterprise.


Patricia,

    High School and AR can work, but it takes some educating of 

teachers and students.  Many books appropriate for high school students are 

written on a 5 and up level.  I've read different "standards" for 

literacy ie able to ready the tv guide, etc.  AR computes reading levels, but 

does not examine complexity of plot, subject matter, etc.  My English 

teacher uses Amy Tan's books, Seabiscuit and White Oleander just to list 

a very few which might fit your population.  If you look on the 

Renaissance Learning Website you will find Oprah's books listed.  Most of them 

are appropriate for high school, but will not have a high AR level.

     You might get a list of books your English Teachers are using now 

and search www.renlearn.com to determine if they have AR tests 

available.

    Good luck and hope it works out for you.

     ===================================

 
  Tricia:  The facts are the best line of defense.  Show your administrators and 
the English teachers the 60 heavyweight titles that did appear.  Show them all the 
Yalsa, Tayshas, etc. books which would be excluded because of their lower reading 
levels and explain why they are recommended for teens.  Show them the reading 
levels of highly reviewed and popular adult titles and also more recent classics 
that have lower reading levels.  Some of the following examples might persuade them 
to let students read below the AR grade level:
   
   
   
   
  AR Level     Title
  4.4              The Sun Also Rises
  5.3              The Glass Menagerie
  5.4              The Old Man and the Sea
  5.4              The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
  5.7              Life of Pi
  5.7              The Secret Life of Bees
  5.7              A Streetcar Named Desire
  5.8              For Whom the Bell Tolls
  6.0              The Lovely Bones
  6.0              A Farewell to Arms
  6.2              Death of a Salesman
  7.3              The Great Gatsby
   
  Good luck!
   =======================
   
   I suspect that a whole lot of the kids are not reading on 10th grade level.  
Since they are buying you all of this stuff, why not get them to buy the STAR test 
(from Renaissance Learning).  Get the kids to take the test to determine at which 
level they should be reading.  Then go from there as to which books you buy.
  p.s.  I'm so sorry you are having to have AR at the high school level.  I have it 
at both of my elementary schools; I see some good, and I see some usage that I do 
not agree with.  At one of our high schools (student pop. 2000+), they just have 30 
minutes of required reading during one of the classes daily, and I suspect that 
does just as much good as having AR would.  I doubt that very many high school 
students give a rip about taking AR tests. 
     

   
  The reality of our society is that the vast majority of adults do not read 
fiction that is at their reading level.  We leisure read well below our reading 
level.  This is okay---that's why it's leisure reading.  

I am not sure what Renaissance says about High school.  We use it in the HS only as 
a tool to encourage the students to read.  Occassionally, a teacher will use it to 
make sure students read a required text, but for the most part, it's used only to 
monitor that they ARE reading.   For example, the Freshmen are required to read 24 
points in six weeks---we do not look at reading levels at all.  

Some teachers, particularly AP, and pre AP,  have required lists, and the AR test 
is just a quick and easy way to get a grade on their comprehension.  No, it's not a 
perfect system.  My gripe with AR is when it becomes the whole curriculum, and not 
just an instructional tool.  From your note, it sounds like your high school is 
going toward the whole curriculum concept.  Kids will hate reading if they always 
have to read at their level.  If I were you, I might ask the teachers to only read 
at their reading level for awhile.  LOL---nobody would much like that.  Lifelong 
readers need to choose their own reading materials.  Imagine what it would be like 
if Barnes and Nobel was seperated by reading levels.   Ooops...can't read John 
Grisham, he's below your reading level.  You can only read  Tolstoy this year.  
Nope, that doesn't work for me.

Best of luck to you.  As I said, AR can be a useful tool and incentive 
program---but shouldn't be the reading program.
   
  ===============================
  I was on the other side of the fence.  My daughter was expected to read books 
that no high school student would ever be interested in.  I went to the school and 
complained. I complained to the reading teacher, the counselor, and the principal.  
 The school did give-in to my complaints and allowed the strong readers to choose 
any book (with-in reason of course).  The change in policy made a big difference 
for us.  I don’t think any of the policy-makers at her school realized what their 
policy did to strong readers until I pointed it out.  Sometimes policy-makers set 
guidelines that sound good, but they don’t see how it works in reality.  
  if you have a good relationship with some of those who are requiring leveled book 
choices, you may want to invite them to the library to find a book to read on their 
assigned (by you) levels.  You can make the activity fun and then zing them with 
the message about the policy.  Or, you can tell students that complain to send 
their parents up to fight for intellectual freedom.
  ===-=====
    Students with high reading levels have ZPDs of 5.0-12.0 or higher.  In other 
words, they should be able to read within a broad reading level zone.  The 
assumption is that if students have that high a reading level, they have mastered 
the skill of reading, and should be able to read anything they want to for 
pleasure.  Of course, they will still read the classics as class assignments.  In 
our high school, teachers allow students a lot of flexibility to read whatever they 
want to, unless they have lower reading levels.  Those students are instructed to 
read within their zone.  If you don’t have the STAR program to determine students’ 
reading level, I would encourage you to get it.  Every student should STAR test at 
least once or twice a year.

  I use AR at JH.  It is too easy for students to cheat.  One reads the book and 
takes the test.  He then tells the answers to the next student, who takes the test 
without reading the book.  Yes there are honest students, but the dishonesty 
spreads if not caught.  
   =======================

I would work from the ALA best books for YA at their website 

www.ala.org

(they also have a list entitled College bound reading)

it is great to work with the list, you can select the most current and

then some of the most popular titles that students will really read.

Also, the www.txla.org site for the Tayshas books. again a great list.

You will also be surprised to find that hs best books often are in the

6th - 8th grade reading range. so reading range at this level was never

my concern, but more comprenshion and trying to get them up on a little

time on task -lengthen the time they would read at one sitting and 

speed

that they read at ( the more you read the faster you read) - esp the

college bound readers.

just an old librarian's opinion.(30 yrs)


     
  All email is copyright protected.
   
  "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read.  One does not love 
breathing."
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 

Patricia A. Porter, Library Media Specialist 
Home
  Texas
Texasgrad92@yahoo.com
   
   



 
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