What?

1

• What?
• Why?
• How?

2
What?

• Accelerated Reader (AR) is
• a daily progress monitoring, computer-assisted
  assessment used by primary and secondary schools
  for monitoring the practice of reading. It was
  created by a company called Renaissance Learning,
  Inc.
• a self-paced, individualized reading programme
  which involves Children reading books and then
  taking computerized, multiple-choice tests that
  measure their comprehension of the books they
  have read.

3
Why?

• To raise attainment in reading and to engage
  children who, for whatever reason, do not enjoy
  reading
• To provide frequent progress monitoring so that
  challenge and support can be given where
  appropriate
• To determine whether or not a child has read a
  book and the pace/amount of reading a child is
  undertaking.
• Build a lifelong love of reading and learning

4
How?

• Pupils choose and read a book
• Second, pupils take a quiz
• Third, the teacher receives information to
  assist, motivate reading, monitor progress, and
  set targets

5
How...in more detail?

• Initially, pupils take a reading test called a
  STAR TEST to ascertain an approximate reading age
  and to establish their ZPD (Zone of Proximal
  Development) a range of numbers which suggest
  the readability-level range from which a pupil
  should be selecting books for optimum growth in
  reading without frustration. e.g. a very young
  reader would usually be reading texts from a
  range of 0.8-1.8. It is recommended that pupils
  start at, or near, the beginning of this range.
• Once a ZPD range is known, the pupils, with
  teacher assistance, can choose an appropriate
  fiction or non fiction book, textbook, or
  magazine within that level. At each level, the
  books list an INTEREST LEVEL too, so that a young
  very able reader is not reading material which is
  for a more mature student and vice versa.
• The pupil then reads the book. Teachers monitor
  reading. Some children will be reading
  independently, others will have someone read with
  them, and others may be read to. This is taken
  into account when they do their quizzes.
• On completion of the book, the pupil immediately
  takes a multiple choice quiz of 5, 10 or 20
  questions. This quiz checks that they have
  understood what they have read.

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How contd...

• The pupil is shown their score as a fraction and
  a percentage and any mistakes are indicated and
  correct answers shown. A TOPS report, to praise
  progress, is then generated for the pupil so that
  they can see their score, an encouraging remark
  and other data regarding progress with targets
  and average scores. The pupils need to score
  an average of 85 over 3 books before they can
  move on to the next level. This can be
  increased to 90 if teachers feel more challenge
  is required.
• The pupil keeps a copy of the TOPs report for
  their personal Record of Achievement file and a
  copy is taken home.
• The teacher uses the data generated form the
  pupils taking the tests and quizzes to monitor
  reading progress and shape subsequent reading
  instruction. The data helps the teacher identify
  significant improvement or pupils who are
  struggling and require additional or different
  guidance (perhaps help with book choice a
  different interest level or a more appropriate
  level with general encouragement with an
  adjustment to the time limits for quizzing or
  other issues as they arise)
• The teacher can set individual targets relating
  to ZPD levels or points towards reading levels
  (next slide), to both motivate and check
  progress. Various diagnostic reports regarding
  reading level and comprehension skills are
  available through the software.

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Points and Certification Levels (criteria)

• Accelerated reader describes you as being one of
  the following and once you achieve each level you
  get a certificate ......the idea is you rise
  through the ranks!!
• Ready Reader
• Accumulate 5 AR points on books Read To, Read
  With and/or Read Independently.
• Independent Reader
• Read independently and pass Reading Practice
• quizzes for 3 books at a 1.2 book level or
  higher.
• Rising Reader
• Read independently and pass Reading Practice
• quizzes for 3 books at a 1.6 book level or
  higher.
• Accumulate 10 points in independent reading.
  Only the books read independently at a 1.6 level
  count towards the three-book goal.
• Super Reader
• Read independently and pass Reading Practice
• Quizzes for 3 books at a 2.0 book level or
  higher worth 1 or more points each.
• Quizzes for 3 books at a 4.0 book level or
  higher worth 4 or more points each.

• Advanced Reader
• Read independently and pass Reading Practice
• Quizzes for 3 books at a 3.0 book level or
  higher worth 2 or more points each.
• Accumulate 10 points. Points may include books
  Read To and/or Read With, but only the three
  books read independently at a 1.2 level or higher
  count towards the three-book goal. Points earned
  for Ready Reader are not included.
• Star Reader
• Read independently and pass Reading Practice
• Quizzes for 3 books at a 4.0 book level or
  higher worth
• 4 or more points each.
• Classic Reader
• Read independently and pass Reading Practice
• Quizzes for 3 books at a 6.0 level or higher
  worth 7 or
• more points each.
• Honours Reader
• Read, pass Reading Practice Quizzes, and
  accumulate
• 100 points for books on a list of challenging
  literature
• that a teacher creates. Teachers must manually
  keep
• track of pupil progress towards this level by
  monitoring
• TOPS Reports or the Pupil Record Report.

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How Good is it? General comments......

• Ross, Nunnery, and Goldfeder (2004) studied 1,665
  students and 76 teachers (grades K-6) from 11
  schools in Memphis and Tennessee. Teachers were
  randomly assigned to use Accelerated Reader or to
  continue regular curriculum without the software.
  Students in classrooms with Accelerated Reader
  demonstrated gains. Additionally, many of the
  teachers responded positively to the software and
  highly supported the software. Many also
  indicated that they would continue to use the
  software
• In another study, Nunnery, Ross, and McDonald
  (2006) assessed the reading achievement of
  students in grades 3-6. Their model incorporated
  the effects of individual, classroom, and school
  variables that impact on reading achievement.
  Regardless, those in Accelerated Reader
  classrooms still outperformed students in control
  classrooms. Furthermore, students with additional
  needs in high implementation classrooms did not
  encounter difficulty as much as similar students
  in low or no implementation classrooms.
• Criticism has been the limited choice of books
  available within the scheme (it is pretty wide
  and expanding regularly) and that it only teaches
  reading for recall, not higher order thinking
  skills (critical thinking evaluating,
  analysing, using inference and deduction,
  suggesting outcomes, giving and backing up
  opinions and problem solving) The scheme does
  attempt to assess these but possibly does not go
  far enough.

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How Good is it? Specific observations......

• Most children are engaging in reading with
  interest and enthusiasm and are enjoying the
  scheme
• The children like the multi sensory approach
• The books in the scheme are a mixture of popular
  titles, interesting and relevant non-fiction
  texts and traditional classics something for
  everyone and a range of genres
• The children enjoy taking the quizzes and seeing
  their scores on their TOPS reports
• The teachers are finding the monitoring and
  recording mechanism easy to use and highly
  effective. The scheme is generating data which
  is very helpful for assessing progress on a
  regular basis
• Attainment in reading has significantly improved.
  Many childrens reading ages have increased
  dramatically since June 2010

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Next steps

• Continue to encourage active engagement
• in the scheme and aim for 20 minutes
  reading/day
• Teachers to continue to regularly review and set
  targets to ensure best progress and give help
  where needed
• Teachers to discuss point scoring system and
  certification levels
• Teachers to help pupils become more aware of how
  well they are meeting their targets and what they
  need to do to improve
• Wider celebration of achievement (certificates)

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Any questions?
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Note on ATOS

• ATOS is a readability formula that results in a
  readability level for books. The purpose of ATOS
  is to assist with guiding students to books
  suited to their reading abilities. Renaissance
  Learning reports that "ATOS is the first formula
  to include statistics from actual student
  book-reading (more than 30,000 students, reading
  almost 1,000,000 books), not just data based on
  short test passages." Books with quizzes in
  Accelerated Reader are analysed during the quiz
  creation process and assigned an ATOS readability
  level.
• Specifically, ATOS Readability Formula for Books
  is the readability formula that provides reading
  levels based on the entire contents of books.

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Higher order thinking skills

• Higher order thinking skills are valued because
  they are believed to better prepare students for
  the challenges of adult work and daily life and
  advanced academic work. Higher order thinking may
  also help raise standardized test scores. A
  curriculum emphasizing higher order thinking
  skills has been found to substantially increase
  maths and reading comprehension scores of
  economically disadvantaged students
• The idea that thinking can be divided into higher
  and lower levels was elaborated by Benjamin
  Blooms 1956 Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,
  usually called Blooms taxonomy. Bloom identified
  six levels of cognition, with knowledge being
  lowest and analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
  being highest
• Knowledge (memory of facts)
• Comprehension (understanding of facts,
  demonstrated by organizing or interpreting them)
• Application (using understanding to solve
  problems)
• Analysis (recognizing patterns suggested by
  facts)
• Synthesis (producing something new)
• Evaluation (judging quality of a solution or
  theory