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!
We need your help! Occasionally we get questions from our members and CMLE doesn’t always know the answer. That’s where you come in! Yes you! This week we have a question about Accelerated Reader and other options. Thanks in advance for your help!
An area media specialist/tech integrationist asked: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?
Another question came from the ITEM listserv: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?
Solutions to this question: Help us fill in the answers! Share your thoughts below and we’ll update this blog post with the responses we receive!
An area media specialist asked:I’m wondering if anyone knows of any place to find the Lexile of textbooks by typing in a portion of the text. At one time, we could do this on lexile.com, but it seems as though that’s a paid, site licensed account now. Right now I have Advanced Placement (AP) teachers getting ready to purchase new textbooks and want to know the level of the potential textbooks. Can CMLE pull on the wisdom of the region?
Answers to this question
Here is a link to an ATOS level finder: http://www.renlearn.com/atos/
You may type in a portion of the level or upload a text file up to 10mb.You should be able to use the ATOS grade level to approximate the Lexile level. It is not exact since ATOS uses a different calculation rate for their ATOS 2000 Scale. The difference as stated by Lexile may be found here .It is unfortunate that Lexile requires fees now, but it is the nature of reduced services and budgets that we are all facing.
My teacher uses lexile.com. She says it’s free but you have to set up an account. To save time typing, we’ve scanned a page from the book and converted it from a .pdf to a .txt and then uploaded that to the site. Just a little time saver!
Shouldn’t the textbook companies have this information? Good question….
A big thank you to the busy professionals who offered their quick support and wisdom! Send an email to cmle@stcloudstate.edu if you are stuck, or have a question you would like to pose to your colleagues to inform your practice.
More Wisdom from the Field? Do these solutions match what you do in your setting? Do you have pearls of wisdom to add to this topic? Please share in the comments field what you know to enrich our toolkit around this topic. Thanks!
An area media specialist/tech integrationist asked:Our District Grad Party Committee wants to show a Shrek movie as part of the all night graduation party. We know they likely have to pay licensing/royalties to do so. What I’m working to find out is why do we pay? And how much is it?
Solutions to this question:
It is wise to ask administration if they already have some sort of performance rights they’ve paid for OR whether they have a procedure in place for doing this. Knowing the internal procedure could help a great deal when working with the business office for payment too. Schools often have information about this because of performance rights that are needed for drama and music. IF there is nothing in place, move on to option 2!
A search was done using the terms “public performance rights” to produce a very helpful page on the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, one of the oldest public libraries in the nation. You will want to bookmark this site, as it includes:
Frequently Asked Questions about Public Performance Rights,
Vendors that Sell Movies with Public Performance Rights,
How to Get Permission to Show Copyrighted Movies,
Vendors that Grant Public Performance Rights for Copyrighted Movies.
In reading the information, our media person then moved on to Criterion Pictures and got all of the information needed to legally show this movie. According to her, “After talking via phone with someone there today–it will cost $75 for the group to show Shrek for the grad party. The amount is based on the number of people, indoors at an school, not charging admission, not using it as a fundraiser. (The cost could have ranged up to about $200). Criterion does movies from two of the big production companies. Other companies do others. They get movies to license when they come out on DVD.”
Wisdom from the Field? Do these two solutions match what you do in your setting? Do you have pearls of wisdom to add to this topic? Please share in the comments field what you know to enrich our toolkit around public performance rights. Thanks!
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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.
