A PARENT'S GUIDE TO ACCELERATED READER                                                                                                                                      

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

What is Accelerated Reader?

Accelerated Reader is a computerized reading management program now in use by more than 20,000 schools. The program provides motivation, accountability, and literature-based reading practice for students while giving teachers important feedback about individual reading progress.

How Does The Program Work?

1) A student reads an AR book on his reading level.

2) The student takes a computer quiz to measure how well he understood the book.

3) After each computer test, the scores are written in their folders. 

How is the student's reading level determined?

    At the beginning of the school year, students are given a standardized test to determine their independent reading level and Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

What is a ZPD?

    The Zone of Proximal Development is the level of instruction that most effectively fosters learning.  Practicing reading with books that are too hard results in frustration.  Practicing reading with books that are too easy does little to improve skills and leads to boredom.  A student's ZPD represents a level of difficulty that is neither too hard nor too easy, and is the level at which optimal learning takes place.

Is there an AR test for every book?

      No.  However, Silliman Institute has adopted the AR Reading Program school-wide and has purchased all the approximately 4,000 available AR quizzes so far. If you are interested in purchasing tests for this program, please see Mrs. Grace Clymer. 

May students only test on the books checked out from the Silliman Library?

    No.  Students may read and test on books from home, the classroom library, or from the public library, but they need to check to be sure there is an AR quiz available and if the book is within their ZPD.

How can I find out if there is an AR quiz for a book and what the book's level is?

    There is one Internet site that shows this information.  The site is the Renaissance Leaning Homepage at www.renlearn.com.   You may click the bottom of this page to visit the Accelerated Reader Homepage.   If a student doesn't have a computer available at home, they can search at school. This site lists ALL tests ever made by Renaissance Learning. We only own a portion of this. We must purchase the test in order for a student take a test and get credit for it. See Mrs. Grace Clymer if you are interested in purchasing a test for school. 

Explain the columns headings on the quiz list.  What does IL, BL, and Points mean?

    To help students select appropriate books, every book that has an AR Quiz has been assigned an interest level (IL), a book level (BL) and a point value.  Books are assigned one of these interest levels based on publisher recommendations:

LG  =  lower grades, approximately K-3

MG =  middle grades, approximately 4-8

UG =  upper grades, approximately 9-12

Book levels (BL) are based on readability scales developed by Renaissance Learning.  The full-text of a book is scanned into a computer and the difficulty of the words is analyzed.  The book level is a measure of the difficulty of the text, and helps predict which books students can understand.

    Points are based on both the length and difficulty of the book.  Therefore, the longer and harder a book, the more points it is worth.

How does AR fit into the daily classroom schedule?

    For grades 1^st – 6^th most teachers provide approximately thirty minutes of daily reading practice each day.  During this time students read, test on books, and visit the library to select books. 

  For grades 7^th –12^th students are to have a book with them at all times. They are to read after finishing work in any class. They have a daily assignment to read for 30 minutes nightly. 

Where do students take AR quizzes?

    The majority of the testing for grades 1 – 4 is done on the classroom computer. Grades 5 – 12 are done in the Library. Our school needs more classroom computers, so please consider making a donation to the computer fund!

Since my child is in the 4^th grade he can read any book on the 4^th grade level, right? 

  NO! Parents need to be aware that a book on levels 3^rd through 6^th may NOT be suitable for all students. Some of these have an interest level for upper grades (9 –12). This means that the book is written at a lower level but the content is that of the book is for High School students. These books are for those students that are not reading at grade level but still need a book of interest to them. Please check with the Librarian or check the website to see the interest level of a book. These books are labeled YA in the Silliman Library.