Effective practice must:
- have the right level of difficulty
- cover a sufficient amount of time
- be guided by the instructor
- be enjoyable enough to sustain
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. – C.S. Lewis
How AR Enables Powerful Practice
- Provides data that helps monitor and personalize reading practice
- Encourages substantial amounts of practice, according to guidelines based on research findings
- Makes practice fun for students by facilitating successful encounters with text
- Aligns with Core Standards by developing a student’s ability to draw knowledge from text and tackle complex texts independently
Research Proven Benefits
- Promotes wide reading – the most effective method for building vocabulary
- Reinforces student effort through progress monitoring and feedback systems
How Accelerated Reader Works Basic Steps
- Schedule daily time for reading practice in addition to instructional reading time. Students select and read library books that match their individual ability levels and interests
- When a student finishes a book, he or she takes an AR Reading Practice Quiz on a computer. This quiz addresses the general comprehension of the book just read.
- AR scores the quiz, keeps track of the results and generates reports. The data is used to monitor each student’s practice, guide students to appropriate books and target instruction
What Guided Independent Reading Looks Like
Typically:
- Most students are reading quietly to themselves
- A few students are taking AR quizzes on a computer
- Other students will be selecting a new book to read
- Instructors circulate monitoring, coaching, reinforcing good work, guiding book selection, showing an interest in the students and their efforts
Key Concept – Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
- Common sense tells us that whenever we practice a skill, we will get the most from our efforts if we work at the right level
- Practicing with books that are too hard results in frustration
- Practicing with books that are too easy does little to improve skills and leads to boredom
- ZPD represents a level of difficulty that is neither too hard nor too easy and is the level at which optimal learning takes place
- ZPD is a personalized starting point and is adjusted over time
- Comparison: A fitness instructor assess initial fitness level, designs a program based on current abilities and continues to monitor and adjust the program to ensure continued progress.
Key Concept – Book Level, Interest Level and Points
To help guide students to books that are right for them, three pieces of information are used:
Book Level
- Represents the difficulty of the text
- Determined by a formula called ATOS™*
- Reading level expressed in terms of grade (4.5 equals 4th grade, 5th month of the school year)
- Does not evaluate content
Interest Level
- Based on content and indicates for which age group a book is appropriate
- Most cases interest level and book level align but must be monitored
Points
- Assigned to each book based on length and difficulty
- Examples
- Berenstain Bears books at about 8,000 words long are one-point books
- Hank the Cowdog is about 23,000 words long and is a three-point book
- The Sun Also Rises is about 70,000 words long and is a ten-point book
- AR measures practice with points
- After completing a book, quizzes are taken to earn points
- Students must achieve minimum comprehension levels on the quiz to earn points
- Points make it easy to see how much reading practice has successfully completed
Key Concept – Alignment with Core Standards
Core Standards are designed to give a clear understanding of the skills students need in order to be successful in college and careers. AR provides key pieces of information and resources to meet Core Standards:
- Tells what students are reading
- ATOS™ level gives a quantitative measure of text complexity
- Interest Level gauges the qualitative dimension of complexity.
- Measures students’ comprehension – Reading Practice Quizzes provide data of comprehension at different levels.
- Provides opportunities for the transfer of critical reading skills – Students must be able to read complex texts independently which requires rigorous instruction and application. As students are engaged by instructors they can be consistently and deliberately supported in their reading skill growth
- Provides students with the opportunity to move at their own pace, promoting competency – By monitoring the ZPD students can be advanced at a pace correct for them
- Establishes a routine for extensive practice – develops skill, concentration and stamina
Key Concept – Importance of Good Comprehension
Renaissance Learning’s research shows that the most important factor in reading growth is good comprehension
Students are encouraged to strive for high scores on AR quizzes, maintaining an average score of at least 85%.
By encouraging and promoting high scores instead of just points students are prevented from:
- Choosing inappropriate books (too easy or too hard in an effort to acquire points)
- Less skilled readers don’t feel discouraged that they can never “win” and give up
- Cheating to earn points
* Advantage/TASA Open Standard – reading management software offered jointly by Advantage Learning Systems and Touchstone Applied Science Associates.