THANK YOU to everyone who helped me out with this touchy subject! I had some great
suggestions!
"The best compromise that I could come up with is allowing students to check out 2
books, one on their AR level and one anything that they would like to read.The best
compromise that I could come up with is allowing students to check out 2 books, one
on their AR level and one anything that they would like to read."
"The students now get to check out 2 books from the media center (grades 3-5). It
is their choice as to what to check out. One of them must be and A/R book though.
They are getting to know the collection. I am teaching about how to file the non
A/R books. A suggestion would be for the students to do something with the books
they read. Having students do something creative like a rap, song, poem, poster,
etc. could be some ways to stir up reading books other than A/R."
"The best way to balance AR but yet not ruin the joy of reading is to do away with
kids only reading books based on AR reading levels. Tell your administrator the
problem with AR reading levels (lexile levels too). Show them how a John Grisham
book has a low reading level. Tell him that if adults could only read books at
their level, that means that they would not be able to read any of the books on the
top ten lists - only classics and professional books. Explain that when AR
assigns reading levels, they don't look at the content of the book but rather just
the number of compound words and/or the number of words in a sentence. Kids today
want to choice in what they read. They want to read books that interest them.
They don't want to have to worry about reading level according to some mathematical
formula devised by a company as a way to sell their product."
"In my library giving the students a way to find a book on a topic in which they
were interested at their reading level made all the difference!
Consider a trial subscription to QuizList Interactive. I used it in two of my last
schools. It works!"
www.quizlistinteractive.com
In my meeting this morning, I was able to stress the importance of reading for fun.
I looked up some levels on adult books (The Firm - 4.6, The DaVinci Code - 6.4,
and The Kite Runner - 5.2) and shared those with my teachers. You should have
heard the gasps! I reminded teachers why we, as adults, pick books to read and we
should give our students that same choice. At any rate, I was able to communicate
the importance of reading on interest level more than AR reading level and allowing
students some flexibility in their ranges. Even if a student's level is above
grade level, starting next semester, his or her AR reading level will start at his
or her grade level and go up. Previously, this was not the case and many teachers
would limit as far as allowing students to only check out 3.1's of 3.5's, etc. At
least now there will be some consistency.
Although it's only a small step, I think it's a step in the right direction. More
importantly, the conversation has started, and teachers and my principal are
becoming more aware of possible drawbacks to AR if enforced in negative ways. We
are having a meeting with reading teachers in January to continue the conversation.
Wish me luck!!!
Jessalynn McCoin
Library Media Specialist
Collins Elementary
Bristow Public Schools
jmccoin@bristow.k12.ok.us
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