Remembering Accelerated Reader (AR)
My favorite day in elementary school was the end-of-year award ceremony. All of the classes would gather in the gym and sit for an impossibly long time on the bleachers while we watched hundreds of kids get awards for a variety of reasons. This one has perfect attendance. That one makes excellent pictures. All of these awards were meaningless because everyone was waiting for the same information. Who had the most AR points?
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a program used by K-12 schools to encourage reading in students. If you haven’t heard of AR before, because not every school uses this program, I’ll give you a basic description. The process starts with choosing a book. Each book is classified by the program as more or less difficult. Each book has an allotted point amount according to length and difficulty. The child will then read the book. Finally, a test is given to the student and points are awarded based on the score. In May, awards are given to the students with the most points.
So why was this program so important to me? The AR program allowed me to understand that I was actually good at something. I had always struggled with math and science and this made school really hard for me. I felt alienated from my classmates because I felt that I was not smart enough. When I started AR in the second grade, I started reading books faster than anyone in my class. I would read a chapter book a day. My friends thought I was insane when I began walking up the stairs with a book two inches from my face. During the year I was obsessed with racking up more and more points. I had to have a respectable amount of points for the awards ceremony.
I’ll never forget my fifth grade year’s ceremony. I was awarded a trophy of a gold book with a shiny, black base. I was ecstatic and could not contain my smile. My mom was in the crowd and I remember holding the trophy into the air and hoping that she could see how magnificent it was. The other kids beside me had trophies that were similar, but mine was special. I had the most points out of the entire school that year. I was incredibly proud of myself. AR was a great program for me, but does this program help all students?
My younger sister does not have the same fond memories of this program. Some children don’t have the same capacity for reading and test taking as others. Just like my struggle with math, I saw other students struggle to get any AR points at all. More unbelievable to me, some kids hated reading.
There should be a new way of introducing reading to children. AR only helps through providing books to read and time to do it, but what inspires participants to read. A trophy at the end of the year? There must be a better way to inspire students to read. I don’t know the answer, but I do know that we need to try something new.
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a program used by K-12 schools to encourage reading in students. If you haven’t heard of AR before, because not every school uses this program, I’ll give you a basic description. The process starts with choosing a book. Each book is classified by the program as more or less difficult. Each book has an allotted point amount according to length and difficulty. The child will then read the book. Finally, a test is given to the student and points are awarded based on the score. In May, awards are given to the students with the most points.
So why was this program so important to me? The AR program allowed me to understand that I was actually good at something. I had always struggled with math and science and this made school really hard for me. I felt alienated from my classmates because I felt that I was not smart enough. When I started AR in the second grade, I started reading books faster than anyone in my class. I would read a chapter book a day. My friends thought I was insane when I began walking up the stairs with a book two inches from my face. During the year I was obsessed with racking up more and more points. I had to have a respectable amount of points for the awards ceremony.
I’ll never forget my fifth grade year’s ceremony. I was awarded a trophy of a gold book with a shiny, black base. I was ecstatic and could not contain my smile. My mom was in the crowd and I remember holding the trophy into the air and hoping that she could see how magnificent it was. The other kids beside me had trophies that were similar, but mine was special. I had the most points out of the entire school that year. I was incredibly proud of myself. AR was a great program for me, but does this program help all students?
My younger sister does not have the same fond memories of this program. Some children don’t have the same capacity for reading and test taking as others. Just like my struggle with math, I saw other students struggle to get any AR points at all. More unbelievable to me, some kids hated reading.
There should be a new way of introducing reading to children. AR only helps through providing books to read and time to do it, but what inspires participants to read. A trophy at the end of the year? There must be a better way to inspire students to read. I don’t know the answer, but I do know that we need to try something new.
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