Accelerated Reader at HWA
What is Renaissance Accelerated Reader?
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a computer program that helps teachers to manage and monitor children’s independent reading practice. Your child picks a book at his/her own level and reads it at his/her own pace.
When finished, your child takes a short quiz on the computer – passing the quiz is an indication that your child has understood what has been read.
Since they are reading books at their own reading and interest levels, most children are likely to be successful and enjoy the books and quizzes.
Best of all they learn and grow at their own pace. They are given lots of opportunity to practice – with one weekly AR lesson in the library, three tutor time reading sessions and fifteen minutes reading homework a day.
What is a Star Reading test?
Star Reading is used to determine your child’s reading level. It is a computer-based reading assessment program that uses computer-adaptive technology.
Questions continually adjust to your child’s responses. If the child’s response is correct, the difficulty level is increased. If the child cannot answer a question or answers incorrectly, the difficulty level is reduced. The test uses multiple-choice questions and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.
What is a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?
ZPD is the range of books that will challenge a child without causing frustration or loss of motivation. Your child will receive a ZPD, or reading range, after taking a Star Reading test. It is important for children to read with a high degree of understanding and within his/her ZPD. This means that your child will not only be able to read the book, but understand enough of the words and meanings to have a good comprehension of what has been read. This sound understanding will also help your child to more easily draw on contextual clues to decipher words, phrases or sentences which are less familiar.
What is a Book Level?
Inside each library book, there is a Book Level (BL) on a white sticker. Book Levels are reported using the ATOS™ readability formula and represent the difficulty of the text. The levels range from 0.5 – 13.5. Books are chosen based on the ZPD range recommended for each pupil by Star Reading.
How does my child take a book quiz?
We ask students to quiz as soon as possible (ideally within 24 hours) after they finish a book. This gives us the clearest idea of how well they understood the book. Your child can quiz during their weekly AR lesson (in the library) but there is a strong chance they will need to quiz from home too. Weekly reading homework is set on SMHW, with a link to our Accelerated Reader site, but you can also easily access the link from the student navigator page on our web site. They have been provided with their log in and password (via a sticker in their planner).
What feedback will teachers and pupils receive?
Accelerated Reader provides instant feedback for pupils and tracks all scores. Teachers monitor quiz results and provide encouragement and guidance. Students try to average 85% or above on their comprehension quizzes. This indicates good comprehension and will lead to greater progress in reading ability.
Can my child read outside of the ZPD range?
In the same way that an adult will choose a relaxing read, an old favourite or a more challenging novel, children are free to select a book outside of their given range. However, it has been shown that when 60-70% of a child’s reading is within their ZPD range, more progress is made.
What is an Interest Level?
The Interest Level indicates for which age group a book is appropriate, based on the content and themes. These are recommendations only and teachers and parents are encouraged to use their best judgement when guiding pupils to books.
Interest Level Age
LY : Lower Years 5-8
MY : Middle Years 9-13
MY+ : Middle Years Plus 12+
UY : Upper Years 14+
How can I help my child become a better reader?
As with anything, performance improves with practice. According to Renaissance Learning’s research, children who read at least 20 minutes a day with a 90% comprehension rate on AR quizzes see the greatest gains. Encourage your child to read at home, discuss books, ask questions about what they have read and visit your local library.
Choosing Books
Children can continue to choose a book from our school library. However, you may wish to use your local library or books from home with the programme.
Visit AR Bookfinder at www.arbookfind.co.uk to conduct a search of all available books with AR quizzes. Parents and children can carry out a quick search to see if a book has an AR quiz, or use an advanced search to check for books at a certain level or a particular genre or topic. For example, the search facility means that you can see if there is a quiz for a book that a child owns at home.
Celebrations
Different aspects of AR will motivate different children. For some, seeing an increasing word count will be encouraging; the number of words in each book and each quiz are added to a running total. Who will be the first to a million words? We will celebrate with children as they meet their own specific goals (e.g. reading a wider range of books than before, reading more regularly or challenging themselves to learn new vocabulary found in their reading).
