Thanks to all who responded, sympathized, offered suggestions......
Your input is greatly appreciated and insightful.
A hit was requested so:
I saw your question on what to do with books that are not AR. I must
say that it was a little disturbing. I didn’t see a grade level for
your school, but I am sure students would read books that are not AR if
they were given the opportunity. My students can check out one AR book
and another book they would like. The second book need not be AR. Most
of my books are checked out if they are AR or not.
If you have Pre-K up to 1st, they benefit from just reading books and
not taking tests. Although some students have excelled so that they are
able to take the test. For those students, any book would do.
Also, tests can be written for books of your choice for AR.
In the case of a really great book with no quiz, I just write one. One
year I had a group of teachers write quizes as part of their
self-improvement plan for evaluation. They became more aware of quality
children's literature and I gained some fairly good tests. On a couple
I had to edit the question to fit the allowed number of spaces or
re-word slightly because of the format. All in all it was a great
experience.
AR is not one of our generally recognized criteria for weeding books.
I would consider it an issue only if you have insufficient shelf space
and just have to get rid of all dead wood. We don't have the web-based
AR, but we do have over 3,000 tests. We still have many books in both
fiction and nonfiction that are not AR and will be kept as long as shelf
space and circulation merit it and the book(s) are in good condition.
I had to get really tough with my fiction collection early on because
there were many duplicates of titles that had at one time been very
popular but were no longer being read. I weeded out some books that had
been favorites of mine when I was in school and some by authors that
were highly recommended when I was in library school in the early
1970's. It's never easy...but weeding a book simply because it isn't AR
is not justified. You can always write a teacher-made test for such
books if you or someone else has the time to do it.
Sorry but my first reaction was "You have to be kidding!!!" Please
don't weed a book just because it's not on AR. Maybe you can promote
them somehow - like we promote banned books.
I also think your "folks" need to come up with some ways in addition to
AR to encourage reading since AR often discourages reading. I listened
to a talk by Stephen D. Krashen (Power of Reading ISBN: 1591581699). He
says the same thing. (This book is well worth the $$ - and available
used for a pretty good price on Amazon if you don't have it.)
Essentially he said that reading is a pleasurable activity for most
people. By giving a reward to something pleasurable, it sends the
message that there must be something wrong with finding pleasure in
reading and so the kids end up NOT enjoying reading.
I have a set of books that my English teachers won't allow for reading
credit. The kids really enjoy reading them. I regularly remind the kids
that they can read any book they want from the library. They might not
get book credit but may enjoy reading the book.
I would keep the books and only weed the ones that haven't been checked
out in 2-3 years, are dirty, tattered, falling apart, have inaccurate
information, etc. I would not weed a book because AR did not have a
test for it. I think it would be absolutely horrible to use the AR quiz
list as a selection tool.
Over the ten years we have used AR, I came to realize that the younger
grades used the AR system without tears. After Grade Three, it became
an albatross for most of the students and truly stunted the appreciation
of recreational reading for many of those students. I haven't purchased
fiction quizzes for over a year. Instead of hounding them to checkout AR
books, I can do on the spot book talks for the children. We have had
some great informal conversations that do not revolve around AR. They
are reading books on a higher level because they don't have to worry
about the AR quiz. Circulation is definitely not "down". The chapter
books on the Texas Bluebonnet Master list haven't been this popular in
years.
So to answer your question, I would say keep the books if they have
been checked out and are in good shape.
Weed anything that needs to go, including AR books.
Wow, talk about the tail wagging the dog! Still, I do see what they
are trying to get at. One option is to make your own tests. I don't
know about the new AR Enterprise, but the old version lets you enter up
to 500 teacher made tests. My teachers use different devices to give
kids AR credit for books that do not have tests - the old standard book
report, projects, essay questions, etc.
The same topic has been on my mind this morning. I really need some
shelf
space. Students expect every book to have an AR quiz. I really do
not
want to weed every title that is not an AR book. I would also like to
weed some that are AR titles. That would really raise some eyebrows.
I had one boy this morning check out Peter Spier's Christmas a
wordless
picture book. He was told by others in his class that he could not
check
out a book unless it was an AR book. He was almost in tears by the
time
he asked me for permission to check out the book. I assured him that
it
was one of my favorite books because I could tell my own story with
the
pictures. He left with one AR book and the Christmas book. I have my
fingers crossed that all will go well because his Mom is a teacher in
the
school.
I guess I am venting a little and not helping find a solution to your
problem. I do feel better knowing that others are struggling with the
issue.
Can't believe that AR has such a grip on the pedagogical practices but
that's another argument for
another day ...
Some time ago when I was creating some bookraps (an online adaptation
of literature circles) I found
the most powerful strategy was to get the students to CREATE the
questions, not answer them. So
perhaps you could get your senior students (those moving on next year
if you have problems with them
sharing answers, if that itself is an issue) to develop quizzes for
those non-AR books. You could
pre-select the titles so you are circulating the quality literature you
want them to read.
And in the meantime direct these chuck-out teachers to your collection
development policy which must
surely not restrict books to those with AR quizzes!
Why don't you create your own quiz for them? The AR software allows
you to create a quiz and add it to the quiz bank. If you have good
books on the shelf then probably someone on library staff has read
them.
If they have not been read by someone, then you all have some reading
to
do. It is so easy to create a quiz. I create quizzes, as does my
library aide. I also ask teachers who have read titles to create
quizzes over them.
This has been a bit of an issue here as well. I have a policy in place
that every student is allowed at least one free choice, regardless of
any other restrictions on borrowing. If teachers need the kids to have
a research book, or an AR book at their level, their second book (or
third, if they're one of the "big kids") is always completely their own
choice. It seems incredibly absurd to buy only books that have AR
tests. I hate to think that AR, rather than the curriculum, drives
collection development..
The other thing to bear in mind is that presumably, the collection also
supports units taught in the classroom. We have lots of books on life
in the 1800's, on weather, and on the planets, many of which are not AR.
The teachers use these in the classroom when those units are taught.
They are certainly necessary, regardless of whether or not they're AR
books. Since I'm in a building that has pre-K and kindergarten kids, I
also have plenty of picture books and easy-reader format non-fiction for
our 4 and 5 year-olds to check out. They don't need to be AR, because
the kids are not yet ready to use the program.
Besides, with AR, one can always add "home-made" tests. If kids are
trying to earn AR points and really want to read a "non-AR" book, I have
them write the test for me. I think creating five sensible questions
and four answer choices is actually a better measure of their
comprehension of the book than just answering the questions! One young
man just brought me a set of questions that a volunteer is going to type
in today.
I have faced similar decisions and determined that fiction books that
don't circulate need to be weeded. In several cases, though, I
decided
to create custom quizzes for books that I was certain students would
check out if they were AR books. Is this custom quiz alternative
still
available with AR Enterprise? If so, you might consider it.
I wouldn't weed them for not being AR books ... unless your collection
development policy states only AR books.
I would suggest trying to get or make a test for them.
One of the things that we do is make quizzes, or have students make
quizzes for for those books we do not have quizzes for. I don't know if
this is an option with the enterprise version of AR or not, but if you
can do this it might increase circulation of the books in question.
We have the stand alone version of AR
When students read books that aren't AR, they come and get a short
book report form from the media center. We have a fiction and
nonfiction
form. They turn this back into me. I check renelarn.com/store to see
how many points it is, or I use a similiar book to compare it to if
renlearn.com doesn't have the test either. I manually go in and create
tests based on point value such as 0.5, 1.0. I enter their points
manually. This way the students aren't limited to just the "AR" books.
Since our PK and K students do not use AR---we use the Easy books for
them to check out. However, we finally weeded all of our non-AR chapter
books. We just didn't have the space to keep them. We are still hanging
onto non-AR nonfiction because some of the teachers allow their students
to check them out whenever they reach their independent goals for the
six weeks. The students love it!!!!
While I am not an advocate of AR at all, I will say that some of the
books that are NOTARmight need to be looked at more closely to see if
maybe they should be weeded. I would never say to weed simply because
it is not AR but I have found the books currently in my K-4 library that
are not AR probably are outdated. I guess this applies mostly to the
Fiction - not so much the nonfiction or easy books.
I fight the AR battle too but what we try to do is allow the students
to do a brief summary or oral retelling, etc. to the teacher after which
they will receive credit for the book. If they are earning points, then
the teacher gives points for something comparable. The students are not
as likely to do this because it is easier to sit down and take a quick
AR test but it does open up that option. My teachers HAVE to allow
students this option. I am K-4. We are not Enterprisebut the large
majority of our books are AR.
You need to have a balanced collection regardless of whether the books
have AR quizzes available. You wouldn't want to build a collection
solely based on AR. If that is the temptation perhaps you are using
AR
incorrectly. It should be a tool and that is all not the entire
reading
program. Just my 2 cents.
We started using AR at my school 2 years ago. The first year the
teachers really pushed their kids to check out AR books, but since I'm
the one there when they check out, I was able to remind the students
that a book doesn't have to be on AR to be a good book. Putting books
on display or using them in my library lessons usually makes them more
popular. Also, this year we have new principals that don't seem to
really support AR, so we aren't using it. It makes me a little sick to
think of all the money (not from the library budget, luckily) that has
been "wasted" the last couple of years on AR tests if they aren't going
to be used anymore. I'm just glad I never got around to marking the AR
books.
I have a seperate AR section which is getting smaller every time I
weed. Most of the new books that I order are AR, but there are a few
that are not. Eventually, I may shelve everything together, but at this
point I feel it is still important to have the seperate sections.
Our kids are able to check out several books. Most teachers require
them to have one AR book and then the others we call free choice. Free
choice can be a non-AR or an AR.
This has helped circulate those great books that just don't have the
quizzes:)
Why not use them for displays - hand them to students who are waiting
to
leave after check-out, offer them to teachers to read aloud... this way
you
can count them as in-House Use and show some circulation for them.
I would stand firm against weeding books just because they aren't AR.
What is your weeding policy? I wouldn't think this would qualify as a
reason for discarding books that the district has purchased, that are on
grade-level and are good resources with up-to-date information. You
know, at the high school, we have reference books that are never checked
out, but they are a critical resource that we update continually.
Betsy Ruffin
librarian-technologist
Cleburne ISD
Cleburne, TX
betsy.ruffin@cleburne.k12.tx.us
Stephen Abram, vice-president of Micromedia Ltd., Canada's largest
electronic publisher. "But although technology is vastly changing their
roles, librarians are still seen as "trusted agents" and their role as
navigators of the Internet will be critical to everyday life and the
future economy."
It is the policy of Cleburne ISD not to discriminate on the basis of
race, color, national origin, gender or handicap in its school programs,
services, or activities.
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