We asked and you answered! Our questions about Accelerated Reader drew a bunch of great responses from the field. Thank you for taking the time to write in! In this post we summarize responses from question 2. The question 1 summary can be found here.

Question 2 from the field about Accelerated Reader: Our school is into the AR (Accelerated Reader) program.  In the past, there has been a “store” twice a year for students to spend their points.  I want to come up with a different plan or a better plan. What do your schools do?

For question 2 we got a lot of detailed descriptions of school’s AR reward program. Most were “not a store, but rather a progression of simple prizes.” Prizes ranged from pencils to ribbons and were awarded when students reached certain pre-determined goals (i.e. 10pts, 100pts). One responder said they distribute prizes every Friday and prizes are usually from Amazon or Oriental Trading.

One response pointed out a problem that some schools have with AR and struggling readers: “Occasionally, some students didn’t earn the points and I struggled with what to do with those kids. Often, a few days before the end of our timeline, if a student wasn’t at his/her point goal I would request that those readers come in before school or during recess or free time to catch up and get their points so that they could attend the ‘party.’ Rarely, did we have anyone not make it!”

“I think AR is a highly effective reading program. It helps create good readers because students get a lot of reading practice and with practice we all get better at the skill we are trying to develop.”

We would love to continue to hear from you about Accelerated Reader. Comment below, email us, or continue to fill out the questionnaire!

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We asked and you answered! Our questions about Accelerated Reader drew a bunch of great responses from the field. Thank you for taking the time to write in! In this post we summarize responses from question 1.

Question 1 from the field about Accelerated Reader: We have used Accelerated Reader for the past 16 years and are exploring other options/alternatives.What are other schools using to help create strong readers?

We got a mixed bag of positive and negative responses about Accelerated Reader. Some found it “limiting and detrimental to a lifelong pursuit of literacy and takes all the joy and choice out of reading,” while others noted that at their district without it, “circulation dropped by over 50 % and… reading scores have also tanked.”

Unfortunately we didn’t get a long list of alternatives but there were a few! One person said their district is using Daily 5 and CAFE. Another person said they are using Read 180 but only for their “lowest” students. Most of our responders mentioned making sure to have proper motivation for students. Luckily this ties directly to our second question. Stay tuned for next weeks post!