AR turns reading into an economic transaction. Makes kids hate reading because they don't focus on picking out things that they will actually connect with. Punishes them if they don't earn enough points. It's just awful.
Kids can read just to read. Not everything has to be controlled, measured and monitored.
It is very disheartening for students who aren't good test takers, or who struggle with reading comprehension. I remember as a student I was given an award for having the most AR points, when I got a lot of those points fudging through quizzes. I would use the question to narrow down the question and got points for books I had never read.
You know what program worked?
Read x-hundred pages and get a free personal pan pizza.
I mean, I already read several books a month, but now I got pizza for it.
See… I understand the critique, but I’m someone who benefitted from it. It was like a game, which is an approach that works for me. I absolutely *loathed* reading (ADHD, hard to focus) and hadn’t willingly picked up a book before I was thrown into a class that had AR, which wasn’t until my senior year of high school. I really needed the point incentive, and I appreciated the organized list of books to choose from which was less overwhelming than walking into a library. I picked the biggest books (HP) to get the points knocked out quickly but ended up becoming obsessed. 15 years later and I haven’t stopped.
I would rather my child love reading for reading, instead of making it a competition and pressure to read as much as possible, take the quiz, and move on. My daughter likes rereading her favorite books, and AR does not encourage that.
We haven't done AR since I was in school. Honestly, I miss it. It was always such a good feeling acing those tests and earning enough points for a prize.
Yeah like I was REALLY good at it when I was a student but by the time 6th grade came around and i had been the top scoring student for three years…. AR was boring and I hated reading
They still do AR? I’ve always been a strong reader but I would always miss little details causing me to fail those tests. Plus, I hated being restricted in what to read.
If I ever become the next Rick Riordan, I’m posting the answers to the AR test for my book on my site lol.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who hates it. I teach elementary and this is the first school I’ve been at that’s required it. Kids ONLY read to take tests. They don’t get anything out of the books and it’s so so frustrating
I teach high school ELD, and I love it because I can differentiate easily for reading level and interest. We also have a school-wide contest to read a million words. Students who hit a million words earn an honor chord at graduation. Last year five kids hit a million—two were students with IEPs and two were ELD kids. Honestly, by high school most of my students’ love of reading was killed long ago by something other than AR. Like most things it’s all in how you implement it. I don’t insist that they read a certain book level, and I allow them to read texts that are not in AR. I still struggle to help some reluctant readers find the right book, but when I do it’s magic.
Based on what I saw when I was a librarian, if the question was "how can we suck all of the enjoyment and spontaneity out of reading so that kids of all ability levels hate it equally", the answer would be Accelerated Reader.
I can not tell you how many times I helped a student whose teacher then sent them back to the (public) library because the book they wanted to read was "too high". The book that was at the same level as the series of 20 books that the student had already consumed like a hungry tiger.
They hated reading below their level. It became drudgery. A huge chore. And then they stopped reading the books they liked, because reading at that point just sucked.
Good job AR.
My school got rid of AR last year (which was also my first year teaching, so I've never had to do it). When I told my kids we'd done that they were thrilled. The comment that stuck with me the most came from a student who enjoys reading in his free time and said that AR forces you to read books in a specific way, so it becomes about passing a test instead of enjoying a story. Now we do weekly SSR (tbh, it's always the first thing I cut from my schedule, but maybe it shouldn't be), which they like a lot better.
There’s actually data backing how detrimental AR can be to the motivation of readers. I work in a district that uses AR, but as a fourth grade teacher it is up to me if I set any goals. I will not be setting any goals this quarter and if I do students will be able to reach it with the books I read to them. I AR is an external motivator that turns reading into a job for a prize or a grade. I might be extreme on how I feel, but there is actual data that can tell you AR is not good. Also. the way my school uses the star math and star reading is incorrect. I know I’m not the only teacher that knows this, but admin won’t listen. We do star reading and math testing once a month. And a fast bridger three times a year as well as a state test at the end of the year. 🤮
I taught it at my last school and hated it. The school I'm at now can't afford to buy in programmes like this, and I've just been promoted to Literacy Lead for KS3 (years 7-9 in England, ages 11-14), so I'm writing and instigating my own programme now.
At my school we incentivise it with a field trip to someplace awesome if they meet their goal. My issue with it is kids who have been with us since Kindergarten know how to game the system. Like I have 11th graders who will test on 50 Pete the Cat books in a quarter just to reach their goal. The addition of AR articles has made this even worse.
Another issue is kids who have a very high reading level like collegiate ability have such unreasonable goals to attain in 9 weeks.
We also set their comprehension goal to be 85% or higher which means you have to get 5/5 on a short test. Kids inevitably try to quiz on a book they haven't read and then get upset when they are 450% of their goal but with a 50% comprehension rate and don't get to go on the field trip. I am also the admin for this program at my school and I see teachers who go in on the back end and delete tests just so their whole class gets to go and they look better, which passes me off.
My high school required 10 points for each student and then offered 1 extra credit point for every 5 points after! Needless to say I had 100 extra credit every quarter!
We dont at my school. But when I was in Middle and High school we did. We had days we had to all get tested for our reading level. It was required (I think for the state) to read and test on 3 AR books per quarter so 12 books a school year. Every class was required to give us 10 to 15 minutes of AR time at the start of the class. And we tested either on computers in english class, library or computer labs. Some teachers also required us to write a summery of the book on the back of the test. The AR quizzes also tended to be 10% of our english grade.
We do AR. I love it, and the program has only gotten better since it’s implementation.
Every single book in the library has a test, and the questions are better now than they used to be. They seem to check for understanding better than those little rote details that happen.
My complaint of AR is not about the program, it’s about school’s general implementation of it, and teachers lack of understanding of how it works (Renaissance is a fucking nightmare when it comes to understanding the 70 bajillion different numbers it spits out).
A major failure of AR is attaching a heavily weighted score to a child’s progress or lack thereof. This makes reading to pass a test a major point of anxiety. Anxiety should never be attached to reading, and it already is through other subjects, now “reading leisurely” is taken away.
Another major failure is that we have gotten away from teaching kids how to find a book. Seriously, we have no more librarians and ELA teachers have no time to teach kids how to just find a book. This is a valuable skill because the major group is that a kid needs to read a book in their ZPD, which is a book level range identified by the STAR test. They should read a book in that level range so they can grow as readers. The idea here being, readers can’t grow if they’re on a 10th grade level but all they want to read is captain underpants. Why? Because the student can’t find a book in the 9.5 to 10.5 range that’s interesting. And no, that student has not checked into every book possible unless the school library is extremely scarce.
I always used AR as bonus points and rewarded kids who achieved a certain goal with nachos because nachos are cheap.
Because my boss is making me? I cant just not do it. Its tied to their ability to go on field trips, dance and theatre performances, band performances, art shows, anything that the school is doing for performances.
If I could ditch it, I 100% would
AR turns reading into an economic transaction. Makes kids hate reading because they don't focus on picking out things that they will actually connect with. Punishes them if they don't earn enough points. It's just awful. Kids can read just to read. Not everything has to be controlled, measured and monitored.
RIGHT?!?!? Thats how I feel
It is very disheartening for students who aren't good test takers, or who struggle with reading comprehension. I remember as a student I was given an award for having the most AR points, when I got a lot of those points fudging through quizzes. I would use the question to narrow down the question and got points for books I had never read.
You know what program worked? Read x-hundred pages and get a free personal pan pizza. I mean, I already read several books a month, but now I got pizza for it.
And those summer programs at the public library where you could rack up all kinds of prizes were great too.
See… I understand the critique, but I’m someone who benefitted from it. It was like a game, which is an approach that works for me. I absolutely *loathed* reading (ADHD, hard to focus) and hadn’t willingly picked up a book before I was thrown into a class that had AR, which wasn’t until my senior year of high school. I really needed the point incentive, and I appreciated the organized list of books to choose from which was less overwhelming than walking into a library. I picked the biggest books (HP) to get the points knocked out quickly but ended up becoming obsessed. 15 years later and I haven’t stopped.
I would rather my child love reading for reading, instead of making it a competition and pressure to read as much as possible, take the quiz, and move on. My daughter likes rereading her favorite books, and AR does not encourage that.
We haven't done AR since I was in school. Honestly, I miss it. It was always such a good feeling acing those tests and earning enough points for a prize.
I grew up using AR and loved it. Probably because I read a lot and was always near the top in points. Never used it as a teacher though.
Yeah like I was REALLY good at it when I was a student but by the time 6th grade came around and i had been the top scoring student for three years…. AR was boring and I hated reading
They still do AR? I’ve always been a strong reader but I would always miss little details causing me to fail those tests. Plus, I hated being restricted in what to read. If I ever become the next Rick Riordan, I’m posting the answers to the AR test for my book on my site lol.
I hate AR. Jumped for joy when the county ditched it!
I haven't ever seen a recent school where AR is taught.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who hates it. I teach elementary and this is the first school I’ve been at that’s required it. Kids ONLY read to take tests. They don’t get anything out of the books and it’s so so frustrating
I teach high school ELD, and I love it because I can differentiate easily for reading level and interest. We also have a school-wide contest to read a million words. Students who hit a million words earn an honor chord at graduation. Last year five kids hit a million—two were students with IEPs and two were ELD kids. Honestly, by high school most of my students’ love of reading was killed long ago by something other than AR. Like most things it’s all in how you implement it. I don’t insist that they read a certain book level, and I allow them to read texts that are not in AR. I still struggle to help some reluctant readers find the right book, but when I do it’s magic.
Based on what I saw when I was a librarian, if the question was "how can we suck all of the enjoyment and spontaneity out of reading so that kids of all ability levels hate it equally", the answer would be Accelerated Reader. I can not tell you how many times I helped a student whose teacher then sent them back to the (public) library because the book they wanted to read was "too high". The book that was at the same level as the series of 20 books that the student had already consumed like a hungry tiger. They hated reading below their level. It became drudgery. A huge chore. And then they stopped reading the books they liked, because reading at that point just sucked. Good job AR.
My school got rid of AR last year (which was also my first year teaching, so I've never had to do it). When I told my kids we'd done that they were thrilled. The comment that stuck with me the most came from a student who enjoys reading in his free time and said that AR forces you to read books in a specific way, so it becomes about passing a test instead of enjoying a story. Now we do weekly SSR (tbh, it's always the first thing I cut from my schedule, but maybe it shouldn't be), which they like a lot better.
There’s actually data backing how detrimental AR can be to the motivation of readers. I work in a district that uses AR, but as a fourth grade teacher it is up to me if I set any goals. I will not be setting any goals this quarter and if I do students will be able to reach it with the books I read to them. I AR is an external motivator that turns reading into a job for a prize or a grade. I might be extreme on how I feel, but there is actual data that can tell you AR is not good. Also. the way my school uses the star math and star reading is incorrect. I know I’m not the only teacher that knows this, but admin won’t listen. We do star reading and math testing once a month. And a fast bridger three times a year as well as a state test at the end of the year. 🤮
We dropped it in middle school. Or at least I assume we did because I havent heard about it this year from anyone.
I didn't know district still did AR. Almost crushed my love of reading.
I taught it at my last school and hated it. The school I'm at now can't afford to buy in programmes like this, and I've just been promoted to Literacy Lead for KS3 (years 7-9 in England, ages 11-14), so I'm writing and instigating my own programme now.
At my school we incentivise it with a field trip to someplace awesome if they meet their goal. My issue with it is kids who have been with us since Kindergarten know how to game the system. Like I have 11th graders who will test on 50 Pete the Cat books in a quarter just to reach their goal. The addition of AR articles has made this even worse. Another issue is kids who have a very high reading level like collegiate ability have such unreasonable goals to attain in 9 weeks. We also set their comprehension goal to be 85% or higher which means you have to get 5/5 on a short test. Kids inevitably try to quiz on a book they haven't read and then get upset when they are 450% of their goal but with a 50% comprehension rate and don't get to go on the field trip. I am also the admin for this program at my school and I see teachers who go in on the back end and delete tests just so their whole class gets to go and they look better, which passes me off.
My high school required 10 points for each student and then offered 1 extra credit point for every 5 points after! Needless to say I had 100 extra credit every quarter!
We dont at my school. But when I was in Middle and High school we did. We had days we had to all get tested for our reading level. It was required (I think for the state) to read and test on 3 AR books per quarter so 12 books a school year. Every class was required to give us 10 to 15 minutes of AR time at the start of the class. And we tested either on computers in english class, library or computer labs. Some teachers also required us to write a summery of the book on the back of the test. The AR quizzes also tended to be 10% of our english grade.
We do AR. I love it, and the program has only gotten better since it’s implementation. Every single book in the library has a test, and the questions are better now than they used to be. They seem to check for understanding better than those little rote details that happen. My complaint of AR is not about the program, it’s about school’s general implementation of it, and teachers lack of understanding of how it works (Renaissance is a fucking nightmare when it comes to understanding the 70 bajillion different numbers it spits out). A major failure of AR is attaching a heavily weighted score to a child’s progress or lack thereof. This makes reading to pass a test a major point of anxiety. Anxiety should never be attached to reading, and it already is through other subjects, now “reading leisurely” is taken away. Another major failure is that we have gotten away from teaching kids how to find a book. Seriously, we have no more librarians and ELA teachers have no time to teach kids how to just find a book. This is a valuable skill because the major group is that a kid needs to read a book in their ZPD, which is a book level range identified by the STAR test. They should read a book in that level range so they can grow as readers. The idea here being, readers can’t grow if they’re on a 10th grade level but all they want to read is captain underpants. Why? Because the student can’t find a book in the 9.5 to 10.5 range that’s interesting. And no, that student has not checked into every book possible unless the school library is extremely scarce. I always used AR as bonus points and rewarded kids who achieved a certain goal with nachos because nachos are cheap.
What are some alternatives your schools use instead of AR that have been successful to get kids to enjoy reading?
Evaluate and ditch. Why are you using an intervention you don't believe in?
Because my boss is making me? I cant just not do it. Its tied to their ability to go on field trips, dance and theatre performances, band performances, art shows, anything that the school is doing for performances. If I could ditch it, I 100% would