Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Let's talk about Acclerated Reader.....
I feel like throughout my time in school I've given AR a pretty fair chance. AR started at my school when I was in 3rd grade, and since then it's grown like a weed that you just can't kill. I feel like the program (or maybe it's the people who implement the program) actually discourages lots of kids from reading at all. The books I wanted to read seemed to never be on the list, so instead of reading something I wanted to read for pleasure I was forced to read something I hated, which in turn made me not want to read at all! I'd really like to hear the other side of the story though....anybody out there who thought AR was useful to them? Anyone who has used it in a classroom and thinks it works well? Complainers like me, I'd love to hear your AR horror stories too! :-)
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8 comments:
I used AR in elementary school. I liked it because they would rewadr us with prizes at the end of every year based on how many points we had. At my school, they didn't make us read a certain levels though. So, everyone would go and get the little picture books and do the tests just to buil up our points so we could get prizes. It was pretty easy to take advantage of the program at my school. Also, the question were always really simple that you didn't have to do any complex thinking for, you could just flip through the books and find the answers real easy. In the Corbin school system they're using a new program called reading counts. The questions in it requires a little more thinking because the questions don't come straight from the text. Some of them do but you have more complex thinking questions. I don't know a lot about RC but the librarian at one of the Corbin schools says that it does challenge children a little more on reading comprehension than AR does.
I can see the pros and cons both of AR. I have personally never had experience with this before and haven't even heard about it until tonights class. But, from the few things I heard from tonights class I feel the cons weigh out the pros tremendously. I like that in the lower levels that they give students rewards for reading, but as it gets to higher levels such as middle school or high school that it discourages those to read. I also do not agree with setting everyone to the same goal for reading level. I really do hope that this does not occur in schools because I know if I had difficulties reading I would be very discouraged if I had to be set at a level in which I could not succeed.
I think I was first introduced to the AR program while in the 6th grade. We were told that we had to read from a certain reading level and had to have so many points by the end of the 9weeks and if we didn't then we got so much taken off our English grade. Which at the time the grade school that I was attending didn't really have the best library so it was really hard to find a good book and I couldn't understand what they were goin to do with the students that couldn't read on that certain level. It just didn't seem fair. Another thing was I played sports and every evening we had practice or we had a ball game and by the time you got home it was late and you were tired so you didn't feel like reading.
While in middle school they didn't really focus all their attention to the AR program they worried more about all the other stuff, but they still wanted you to get a certain amount of book points but if you didn't then it didn't hurt your English grade as bad. In high school it seems like all my English teachers stressed how important it was to get those book points like you were goin to win a new car for gettin all of them. I feel like I suffer alot when it comes to writing papers for classes because my English teachers spent so much time on helping the students get their AR points than teaching us about grammer and all that good stuff. I'll be the first to tell you that I am horrible at writing papers and it aggravates me to death and makes me feel so stupid... I guess I don't understand why they made everyone in the schools do the AR program... Why wouldn't they just do it for those students that were having a hard time reading?
My daughter used to love to read. From the time she was big enough to sit up, we read to her, and she would sit and listen for as long as I would read to her. She became an independant reader in Kindergarten and continued her love of books until 4th grade. That's about the time that AR became part of the curriculum. Her love of reading diminished after that. Since the school library did not have an adequate supply of books for kids on her reading level (which was about 7th grade), she was forced to read books that she didn't enjoy, and had no time to read books she did enjoy. Her teacher hounded her about getting all of the "points" and she got her first "B" in reading that year. She lost her love of reading after that, and to this day, (she is in 11th grade now), she hates to read. I blame the school AR program for that.
Incredible insights! I appreciate you sharing these on the blog!
The AR program in my home district works well in the elementary level since they are involved with the reading first grant and the Save the Children project. Once you leave elementary school however, AR becomes more about grades and forcing kids to read rather than allowing them the enjoyment of reading. I love to read, that is I love to read books that interest me and not books that I am not only forced to read for a grade but also books I do not enjoy. My teachers would tell my mother that I needed to read more than I did and she told them that I did in fact read jsut not the books they insisted on, she is a teacher at the high school and dislikes AR as well.
It's been cool to hear what you guys think, I know a lot of people dislike AR and it's nice to hear some personal experiences. I have real concerns about AR's future, especially with my major being what it is (LBD w/ English and Comm. 5-9). I want to teach Special Ed, but if I ever end up as an English teacher I plan on fighting the district tooth and nail to make sure my kids don't have to do AR for a grade. I don't know if it will work but I sure plan on trying.
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