Why accelerated reader doesnt work

The personalized approach of AR might benefit some kids who struggle with reading. They may also like choosing and reading books that match their interests and abilities. Some educators have reservations, though. Here are concerns about the program and kids who learn and think differently. AR quizzes might not suit all abilities.

They generally ask kids to recall rote or basic details about what they read. This can be very hard for some kids who struggle with focus and working memory. Some teachers give out reading prizes even though AR recommends not to. They might give out prizes to students who reach their point goals in front of other kids.

This can lead to unfair competition among students. And it can make struggling readers feel even more pressure to fill their quota. Frequent quizzing can cause test anxiety. That may make it even more difficult for struggling readers to find pleasure in reading. Educators: Consider alternative assessments. AR offers another type of quiz that checks for comprehension. Kids might also take the quiz orally instead of online. More broadly, you can also read about structured literacy , a research-based approach to teaching reading.

Who are the characters? This can help kids think through the book. Learn more about helping your child with reading at home. More on: Reading and writing. At first, he would just sit there quietly, taking things in. But by middle school, he began to be more vocal about his needs.

Share What is Accelerated Reader? Podcast Wunder community app. Unfortunately, not all of my colleagues are thrilled. Lamenting the loss of AR became a regular topic in our monthly department meetings, regardless of the agenda. Faced with these complaints, I try and try and try and try to make my case against AR, citing the following reasons:. This designation has no reflection on the quality of the text, its reliability and relevance to our students, or its potential impact upon them as readers.

When we require students to read books only from this list, we greatly limit the potential of them finding their next favorite read. I am not the only one who feels this way. Being a middle school educator, I took these complaints with a grain of salt … until I was confronted with the assessment for The Outsiders.

This classic is often the first novel that even my most resistant of readers will admit they enjoy. During our reading of this book, we discuss many things as a class — which characters could be classified as heroes, whether people are perpetually limited by their social class and whether Greasers and Socs could ever truly be friends.

With a plethora of themes and connections to focus upon, the creators of these quizzes decided that a relevant question to ask students would be what color eyes Ponyboy hates.

Really, Renaissance Learning? As adults, when we have finished a phenomenal text, we talk about it with others. We lend the magical title to our friends. We may even share it on our social media accounts.

But the quality of the literature did not. Year 9s still read the works of Jeff Kinney and David Walliams and, lo and behold, their reading levels remained relatively low. Given how much curriculum time we allocate to independent reading, is it not incumbent upon us to search for a better solution? It is a grim prediction, and one all too likely to come to fruition in a sector that invariably looks to the latest digital product for solutions.

As a profession, we need to think more deeply about trade-offs and opportunity cost. In the case of reading programmes like AR, the opportunity cost is huge. For every minute spent on it, a minute of curriculum time spent on a challenging text with a subject specialist teacher is lost. So too is the whole-school influence of a passionate librarian. The personalisation on offer from such data-driven systems is a sham.

We should read more books as a whole class, guide our students in grappling with complicated narrative structures, idiosyncratic narrative perspectives, enigmatic plots and multi-faceted characters. To narrow the reading gap, he encourages us to model reading aloud instead of opting for independent reading.

My experience of AR convinces me he is right. Many schools halt any effort to foster reading at key stage 4, in part because of the dent AR leaves in their budgets. But what improvement might we see across the curriculum if we truly valued collective reading over data harvesting?

Accelerated Reader supports the central relationship between teacher and student. Software cannot and should not replace that. We agree that students endlessly quizzing can simply produce spreadsheet data, and this is why the teacher and librarian are so important. Schools should use data to understand where their students are and as a jumping off point to discuss books and suggest new ones.

Reading in a space which is not effectively supervised like the one Shivan describes is unlikely to be effective.

But we never prescribe or restrict choice. We want teachers and librarians to be able to suggest new texts based on what students would enjoy and what would stretch them. Happily, schools that adopt Accelerated Reader buy more books, lend more books and make the role of librarian even more important.

Well said Shivam Davis! As a retired Ks1 teacher I remember the joy of shared reading and the excited realisation when a child had become Reading Ready. There then followed a steady process in which children discovered the written word and using it as a key to access an exciting medium of communication, information and magic!!

Teaching professionals experienced in guiding children through the pathways of reading do not need the the evidence of testing. Constant testing is time consuming and may only confirm what the experienced teacher already knows. Shared storytime with all Primary aged children at the end of the day is an activity which I do miss. Happy and stress-free reading to everyone! Joanna Shardlow. There should be a list of mandatory literature for all year groups to read.

I disagree. AR is fine if it is used appropriately. Parents are encouraged to be proactive to achieve this.