Misconceptions/Realities of Accelerated Reader
by Mrs. Schauer, District Librarian, Pettus ISD
During my twenty-one years in the classroom/library, I have listened to/read about many aspects of Accelerated Reader, and have decided to weigh in on the topic. What I have found is there are two defined camps regarding AR among librarians and teachers--those who love it, and those who hate it.
My current district is in our ninth year of implementation, and our elementary school is a six time Master School in Reading Renaissance. By the time our students enter the fifth grade, most of them are mature readers with favorite authors and genres. By the time I get them at the secondary campus, they are a HEAVENLY bunch of kiddos who love books--not because of points, or goals, but because of the BOOKS. We use AR through the tenth grade, but honestly, if they don't take quizzes, it's not a big deal. The focus is totally off of AR by the time they get to me, because we've achieved our goal by then--they are mature, adult lovers of literature who don't need AR anymore---kind of like not needing training wheels. For information on how we use the program, please visit our website at: http://pettuslibrary.net. There is also a fantastic article/video of AR in action in one of our second grade classrooms at the following link (give it time to buffer) http://www.mysoutex.com/pages/full_story/push?article-On+the+Wright+path%20&id=2003722-On+the+Wright+path
Accelerated Reader has been around since the early 1990's. When it was first introduced, it was a simple tool for telling the teacher whether or not a student understood a book. IT IS STILL THAT! AR is a tool, and like any tool, the results you get depend on the amount of training you get to use it, and the WAY you use it. If I purchased a baby grand piano and never took lessons or practiced, I might master the art of playing "Chopsticks" but I probably would not become a virtuoso. Since the early 1990's a lot has changed in the way the company recommends using the program. The thing a lot of people don't understand is that Renaissance Learning is in a CONSTANT state of research gathering--and they use that research to define their staff development and recommendations for implementation. People who do know about the research, and are still negative, say "Of course they have research; but it's all their own--they use it to sell the product." While the company does a great deal of their own research, outside sources have also weighed in on the subject--Important outsiders, like The What Works Clearinghouse, and The National Center on Response to Intervention.
AR, when used incorrectly, can and many times does, literally become a tool of torture that we use to inflict pain on kids. When the focus is on points and book levels, rather on matching kids to books, the results can be devastating. Improper use of AR has probably turned thousands of kids into adults who will never pick up a book once they leave school, and that saddens me greatly. The problem, though, is not with the program--the problem is with the implementation practices. When it is used correctly, however, it can and does, literally save lives. I know that sounds dramatic, but I have seen it and can testify to it.
I would like to point out some common complaints about AR and how they are actually misconceptions, or opinions formed that are based on poor implementation.
Misconceptions:
1. Book Levels: "The book level system used by AR is ridiculous. There is no way a book like Of Mice and Men is a fourth grade book, yet it has a book level of 4.5" Fact: This statement is absolutely true! Of Mice and Men is most definitely NOT a fourth grade book! The ATOS system runs the entire book, page by page through a scanner, and then a program that counts every single syllable and difficulty level of each word in the book. The book level is not designed to be a number that tells you appropriateness in terms of age or grade in school-it is merely the vocabulary level of the words in the book. Looking at a book level only and saying it's a "grade level" is an example of poor implementation. The content in Of Mice and Men is much to mature for most fourth graders (and even older students) to handle, but the vocabulary level makes it so much easier for high school teachers to use it, because students are not hung up on the vocabulary of the book and are able to decipher and analyze the deeper literary elements. Likewise, many books are written on higher vocabulary levels. The biggest disservice we give our top performing students is when we demand they read books on higher and higher levels, just because they have the ability to do so. There is a time and a place for reading on level vocabulary-wise, in school. AR is not the place for that, especially with regard to our best readers! AR should be about pleasure reading, and for most of us, we get pleasure when we read books that are easy to understand.
2. "The questions on an AR quiz don't measure quality comprehesion, they merely ask basic recall questions." This is also entirely true. The purpose of the quiz is to find out whether or not the student understood what was read. When I taught second grade, my goal was to get the kids into chapter books as soon as possible. I explained the abiltity to read and understand a chapter book as "magic" to the kids because there's really no other way to explain our ability to understand only words, with no pictures--it is magical when they make the jump from picture book to chapter book. If someone is reading a chapter book, they are using all of the deeper skills, like character analysis, predicting outcomes, context clues, etc. Once we know they are understanding what they're reading, it's our
job--not the job of the AR quiz--to teach them how to recognize and harness that magic.
3. "Amassing large amounts of points does not create a reader." Again, this statement is entirely true. In the beginning, before the company began mining the research to see what is effective, they did advocate point clubs, point stores, top point earners, etc. Many people don't realize that the company has not advocated rewarding based on points alone for a very long time. All of the research indicates that average percent correct on the quizzes, combined with incorporating that comprehension into direct reading instruction is far more important than amassing large amounts of points. In fact, the research shows that students who amass large amounts of points, yet have low percent correct averages, not only don't grow, they actually go backward in their reading growth.
4. "Students who use AR will not read a book if there is not a quiz available for it." This is true, too--if the AR quiz alone has become the end-all, be-all for those students, because of poor implementation practices. In my own school, if a student wants to read a book that doesn't have a quiz--as young as Kindergarten, they are free to do so--if they will respond to the book in some other way that proves they understood it. If they can do that, they get the same credit given for it as if they had taken a quiz. This may mean talking to the teacher or jotting a summary down. In our district, kids blog books--and at the secondary level, if they will write an insightful blog entry, or create a book trailer for a book, then I don't care one whit if they take a quiz on it or not.
The bottom line is, there is no magic formula for getting kids to love reading and to become critical thinkers--as far as a program is concerned. The magic formula is in the teacher/librarian's ability to know their students, know their books, and have the ability to make the match. (In the words of Dr. Teri Lesesne) The problem with the way many schools use the program is that teachers and librarians want an easy way to let something else make the match....and there really is nothing else besides a relationship between books and kids.
When kids are developing their reading ability, it is important to pay attention to the vocabulary level of the books, because if they don't have to struggle with deciphering the vocabulary, they can focus on what's important--loving the book. A dot on a book that lists the point value/book level is NOT how we should be matching kids to books. Once a student becomes a mature reader, (meaning they can read books written on approximately a 4.0 book level and higher) I stop focusing on their book level goal entirely, so they can move away from selecting books based on book level and focus on finding the books they love.
I can honestly say that Accelerated Reader is one of the main reason we have kids in my district who love books and will continue to love books for the rest of their lives. (On a side note, our ELA TAKS scores are through the roof; we had 24% of our third graders get PERFECT SCORES on their Reading TAKS, and 100% of students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 8 passed. 4th grade had 96%.) It's not about points or book levels, it's about a monitoring system that allows us to teach kids to harness the magic of their pleasure reading.