I am a firm believer in the Accelerated Reader program, and I've used it with great success for many years. However, I believe that the program needs to be monitored carefully and it needs to be an integral part of the entire reading program. In my opinion it's not effective as an optional incentive program. Many people have asked me how my AR program works, so I decided to add a special page to my Reference Book section describing the components of my AR program. I've included the questions that people frequently ask me along with my responses.

Before I begin, let me state that this is just ONE way to set up an Accelerated Reader program. It works for me, but you may not agree with my grading system or other components. Feel free to glean any ideas you can and modify the program to suit your needs. No matter how strict my program seems, please realize that these methods have resulted in a class full of kids who love to read. I think it's because the AR program more or less forces kids to read, but they are reading on their level (which many have not been able to do in the past). Because they are reading on their level, they begin to find joy in reading and they begin to feel successful about their reading. At first they are reading Nate the Great, then Boxcar Children, and all of a sudden they are devouring Harry Potter!

Do you assign grades in your AR program?

Yes, I do assign grades. In fact this is one of the basic components of my AR program. I will explain this in the section below. However, I realize grading students may not be for everyone. Ask yourself the following questions to decide if grading is a viable option for your situation. If you answer "yes" to these questions, you may want to consider assigning grades to AR participation.

• Are you finding that incentives are not enough to motivate your low-performing reading students?
• Do you teach upper elementary, middle school, or high school?
• Does your school have a large collection of AR books on a variety of levels? (My school has over 2,500 at this point).
• Are you willing to send notification to parents on a regular basis concerning their child's progress toward a weekly or monthly goal?
• Do you have some way of determining the approximate reading levels of your students (like the STAR program or another test) and you are willing to monitor what the kids read to see that they stay in their range? (It's okay for them to drop down to a lower level every once in awhile, but in order to make progress they need to find books in their range.)
• Do you know something about good books for kids and are you willing to help kids find books in their range that they will like?
• Will you provide some class time for silent reading (SSR, DEAR, or whatever you care to call it)?
• Do you encourage kids to read both fiction and nonfiction? If your AR program has mostly fiction, you might want to have them do a nonfiction book report each month in addition to their AR goals.

I don't think it's a good idea to restrict kids to AR books if your supply of tests is very limited. I think the program should be voluntary and not required if kids don't have a big selection to choose from. If you feel you don't have the time to implement the program fully and involve parents, I believe participation should be voluntary.

How do you set up your AR program?

1. I use the AR program in place of using a basal reader. I try to provide some class time each day for silent reading and visits to the library. I also read aloud several times a week. At various times throughout the year we spend a 3-week block of time on Literature Circles.
   
2. During the time when my 5th graders have AR goals, they have to earn at least 5 AR points in a 2-week period. (The gifted students have to earn 7 AR points every 2 weeks.) I excuse them from these bi-weekly goals when we are in the middle of a Literature Circle session.
   
3. Students must read books within their reading range. The books at our school are labeled on the inside cover with reading level and points. We also have our AR list online at our school web site so kids can look up the reading level of AR books they find in other places. For the most part, in 5th grade I've pretty much banned the 1/2 point books. I expect most kids to be reading chapter books at this age.
   
4. Every week parents receive an updated report of how their child is doing toward their AR goal. I print out a Summary Report and use this to fill in a blank on their weekly progress report. The blank says something like "Your child has _____ of the 5 AR points needed by Friday, Jan. 21st."
   
5. At the end of the goal period, I print out a report for just the goal period using the AR Goal Report form found in my File Cabinet (http://home.att.net/~teaching). I simply set the dates on the printout to be the beginning and ending dates of my goal period.
   
6. I record the child's Goal Grade using the grading scale on the form. For example, anything above 5 points is an A+, 5 points is an A, 4 points is a B, and so on. Students who don't meet the 5 point goal have to stay in Study Hall on Friday afternoon while their peers are participating in Fun Friday. This gives them a chance to get ahead on their reading for next time, and is an incentive to meet their goal the following goal period.
   
7. Using information on the AR Summary Report, I record the Percent Correct as a comprehension grade. This encourages them to take their time and read carefully.
   
8. I don't allow retests of any kind. They need to know that part of being a good reader is reading carefully and self-monitoring. I talk with the kids about the fact that even I have to go back a few pages if I'm reading a book and I realize that I don't understand what I'm reading.
   
9. I do have some incentive awards. I give out homework passes for every 25 point benchmark. When I taught 4th grade, the students who earned 100 points became a member of my Pizza Club. During the last week of school these kids got to stay after and be part of a private pizza party. This year, in 5th grade, they have to earn 150 points for the year to get in to the Pizza Club.
   
10. As I said earlier, when I do Literature Circles, I excuse the kids from their biweekly AR goals. I sometimes require them to read one or two nonfiction books during that time. I always make up AR tests for my Lit Circle books, and I have them all take a test on their book when they finish their Lit Circles. During the times when we don't have AR goals, I also try to spend more time using outside resources such as Scholastic News magazine, Weekly Reader, or articles I've printed out from the Scholastic News or Time for Kids websites.
    

Before I wrote my first AR test, I sat down at the computer and took several tests. That way I was able to get a feel for the types of tests they use. Tests on chapter books generally have 10 questions, and each question has 4 possible multiple choice responses. I have found that they never change the order of the questions, but the order of the answers will change from for each test-taker. I try to write the questions sequentially - in chronological order as the events occur in the book. It's okay if the answer to one question is in the wording of the next question because the order of the questions never changes.

I try to avoid the "picky detail" type questions. I don't feel my purpose is to try to trick the kids. If they have honestly read the book from cover to cover I think they deserve to make a 100 on the test. So I stick to main ideas. Like character motives (as long as they are pretty well stated in the book) or how the book ended. I don't make up vague inference type questions, or questions that have debatable answers. As I said, I'm just trying to see if they read the book and comprehended the main ideas. Take a look at some of the sample tests in the AR File Cabinet to see the kinds of questions that might be appropriate.