You want to keep the Librarians – get rid of the Accelerated Reader Program.
In our home we enjoy reading. We take our children on regular trips to the bookstore and books are often gifts from family members. However, for the little one, recently, reading is not enjoyable – it is a chore – it is the Accelerated Reader Program.
When we tried to read books that we picked out from the bookstore and enjoyed, we ran up against books that are required reading for the Accelerated Reader Program. If a child reads what is required by Accelerated Reader and does the other reading that is required from a Reading class, in addition to their other homework and an extra curricular – there is no time to read books just for the love of reading a book.
As a matter of fact, my little one's class has had a huge end of the year push to read Accelerated Reader books (a goal which she met two weeks ago). She is now burnt out on reading - I have not given her one more thing to read; I have not encouraged her to spend time in her cozy, little reading corner; and she has not sat in it voluntarily. She needs a break from reading for right now.
So you ask, "how can District 150 do away with Librarians?" Here's how... teachers are suggesting what children should read to get their points. Teachers have many of the Accelerated Reader books in their classroom. Teachers are running interventions and encouraging reading in groups – not Librarians. Once the children read the books, a teacher's aide will oversee administration of the Accelerated Reader testing in the Library (or the classroom) – not the Librarian.
Again, after reading the required Accelerated Reader Books and getting the necessary points within a specific period, there is little time for checking any book out of the Library, let alone reading a personal favorite that Grandma may have given you.
Again, after reading the required Accelerated Reader Books and getting the necessary points within a specific period, there is little time for checking any book out of the Library, let alone reading a personal favorite that Grandma may have given you.
To their credit, Accelerated Reader has now published their list and children who can afford books, can purchase many of the books (which may be more to their liking) from Barnes and Noble. As a result, our Summer reading list will more than likely include the books worth the most points from the Accelerated Reader list.
Accelerated Reader may help children who do not have books in their home/or who will not read unless forced, other than that – it is a hindrance to a family who wants to instill the joy of reading a book just because you can.
Problem is - Accelerated Reader is effective in that it encourages reading and gives children time in school to do so. The District's AYP for reading is 61.7%, I would be willing to bet that Accelerated Reader is helping to make that possible. Today's students have very little time that they can spend in school Libraries. Library times average about 30 minutes per week. In this scenario, the Librarians are not the saving grace for readers who may fall through the cracks - the teachers are.
What is the Accelerated Reader Program?
The Accelerated Reader program is a computerized program that tests reading comprehension. Students select books on their reading level, read independently or with a buddy, and take an independent comprehension test on the computer. Each book is worth a certain number of points based on its length and reading level. Students get a percentage of these points based on how many of the test questions they get right. The program tracks their progress over the course of the school year.
For info on long term effects of Accelerated Reader go here…
13 comments:
My daughter and her classmates are in the Library once a week; her class size is 24 students; they are there to pick out new Accelerated Reader books, they know what to get, because the teachers tell them what the goal is they need to reach. The teacher aides or volunteer parents help in the Library.
The Librarian is present.
Some Librarians (like the one from Roosevelt Magnet) seem to have made themselves more useful.
However, for the most part, clerical work can be done by the two clericals (that District 150 employs at each school) who usually sit in the Principal's office with very little to do but gossip.
Employees are having to cross train to hold jobs all across the country, why should it be any different for people who work in schools?
I don't know exactly how they ran that at your school but... At St. Marks they have something like that, maybe its the same. All the kids are really asked to do is read. If there is a 'test' for it afterward then they take it to see what their comprehension of it was. There was no pressure to read any particular book as the list of level appropriate books was pretty broad. If it wasn't a testable book, no huge deal as long as they were reading. The school tracked the number of books and what level the kids seemed to be at. It was mostly informational for the parents and teachers.
My only gripes were:
a) The program we had is ran by Scholastic Books. This strongly favored books published by Scholastic. They have a huge reading list but still if your kid is reading outside the fold, then there is no test for you. It was basically a subtle marketing effort on the part of Scholastic to get schools, parents, and whoever, to buy their books.
b) Our son (now 12) quickly out grew it. It was a struggle for some unknown reason to find tests for his reading level which is very high. He read the Illiad and the Odyssey both this last school year, on his own with comprehension, among others...
Likely the same program.
In my public school it is now part of the reading grade. The child reads the book and takes the test. If the score is not there, they must immediately begin to read another book and take the test until they make enough points to meet their goal.
Each student who meets the goal gets a prize (the end of the year goal they are all reading fiendishly for now is a pizza party). The students who don't make the goal - don't get a pizza party.
I believe the reason that the Accelerated Reader is so popular in schools is that data is easily collected and analyzed. Administrators like numbers. The tests for each book are usually low level thinking questions. The program implementation requires no teaching, Some librarians oversee this program, some do not.
All I know is that at the high school level, I did not like the Accelerated Reader program. I agree with what Emege stated and what Patrice says about "administrators like numbers" and that the questions--and often the books--were low level thinking questions. They weren't even thinking questions--just factual information to prove that the student read the book.
Emerge said, "However, for the most part, clerical work can be done by the two clericals (that District 150 employs at each school) who usually sit in the Principal's office with very little to do but gossip." This is a problem in every office in which I have ever worked--and that was a long time ago before teaching. There are times when there really is little, if anything, to do; but then there are very busy times when clerical help, especially at schools, have to work past quitting time to get a particular job done. The same goes for time of day--there are times of day when there is more work than at other times. The solution probably isn't easy because the busy times can't be predicted and help can't be brought in just for the busy times. At least, at Manual over the years clerical help, I believe, has been cut.
It's probably time to do a "collage" from responses on your blog so that I can once again be embarrassed. :) Another thing I remembered about the Accelerated Reader--and didn't like. The "classics" that went along with the program were often watered-down for easy reading. When a student from my high school classes chose a book, I thought he/she would be reading the "real" thing--not so. The classics aren't written for content only--the author's style, etc., shouldn't be destroyed just to get the content.
As someone who has extensive training in administrating the AR program, I would like to clear up a few misconceptions:
1. AR does not limit what children can read. It gives suggestions on what sort of books children should read based on their grade equivalent reading level, ZPD, etc.
2. Many schools buy their AR test one at a time therefore the kids who read the current books may not have the opportunity to take a test, therefore they may feel "stuck" reading books that they feel are boring. However, there are schools who invest in the AR Renaissance program which has access for every test for every book published. So if you have an 8th grader who can comprehend and easily read Stephen King they can take the test on it.
3. AR if used properly can be a way to differentiate instruction for students.
4. Too much emphasis is placed on points instead of percent correct on the test. Many students meet their goal easily, but their test percentage correct is often low.
5. AR can be used for other things such as vocabulary practice, literary skills, etc which many teachers do not use the program for. Many teachers just have kids read books and take a test which is not fully utilizing the program.
I hate to always get on the same pony and ride but . . . I thought the AR program was fun for the kids, and gave me a bit of leverage to get them to read regularly at home because they needed to meet a goal at the end of the year, UNTIL they lowered the annual goal so much it was hardly a goal. Many good readers can meet the AR goal well before mid-year.
I was "frustrated" as usual, that the easy path was taken and the general goal for the student population was diluted. A better approach would have been to set individualized reading goals for each child based on the tested reading level at the beginning of the school year. In this way a meanful and realistic goal is established for each student.
I was also frustrated that the hours children could go to the library were so restricted -- I believe it was only once per week.
My daughter, who is 17 now, fell in love with reading in first grade. She would pick up anything and read away. Her second grade teacher was craaaaazy about the AR and wanted them to get lots and lots of points. There was a constant push to read & test, read & test, read & test. My daughter wound up being so pushed to do the testing and get the points that the love of reading fell away. Today, if it's not required, it's not read. I have no doubt that she lost her love of reading that year in second grade because of AR. If there had been a quiet time for the kids to read in class and the teacher read them stories and there wasn't an intense pressure to "get the points", I believe I would have a daughter who still reads today. I now have another daughter heading into second grade. I'm scared to death I will again confront the AR monster. I will do my very best this time around to make sure AR doesn't take over LoB (Love of Books).
Today, Luciano mentions the following reasons for keeping Librarians (at our school the teachers do all of this and well):
"The district's librarians don't just punch due dates inside the front coverer. They run intervention groups to help kids struggling with reading. They hold accelerated reading programs to boost students' abilities. They launch reading clubs to get children to talk about books. And they promote family reading nights to get parents and kids to gather around books."
The Librarian has very little to do with any of it. Oh, the activities are held in the Library.
The librarians in my childrens' district help facilitate all those things. Most are not certified media center/library science individuals. Most follow the lead of the District librarian and/or the classroom teacher.
We're not in 150 (we're up in Mossville) but my kids are huge readers and very, very rarely has there been a book that they read that they couldn't take an AR test for. The one major exception to this is nonfiction books. Many teachers at our school use AR as *part* of the grade, and kids in all grades are encouraged to participate. However, every teacher that I've dealt with has options in place so kids who do read books for which there is no AR test can still get credit for them. That seems pretty simple to put in place.
If reading books for AR is seriously limiting what your child reads, I think it's probably the way your school is implementing it (i.e., not acquiring enough tests) rather than the AR program itself. And in that case I think I would just let the teacher know that my child loves to read and that I don't feel compelled to limit his/her reading to suit some program.
In addition, I think it's great that kids can compete and be recognized for something at school besides athletic prowess.
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