One of the many challenges parents and teachers face, is instilling a love of books in a child. The student must first learn to read independently and fluently. For more than 30 years the Accelerated Reading program has been encouraging young people to find joy in the written word, as well as providing adults a way to understand the best way to assist them on their journey.
The program was developed in 1984, by a mom who was looking for a way to get her children excited to read with improved proficiency. Her method involved giving them short quizzes after each book, to test their comprehension. By doing so, she also found out the areas in which each child needed additional assistance, allowing her to focus on that skill set, which greatly benefited the young reader.
The basic concept is for children to choose books that are on their level of competency, and read them independently. Upon completion, they take a short, computerized quiz of up to 10 questions that will test how well they comprehended the information that they read. The results are compiled into a report that the adult can utilize to see in which areas a particular student is struggling.
The program currently has an excess of 180,000 quizzes in their cache, with additional ones being uploaded regularly. The titles that are included in the list range from those suitable for kindergartners, all the way to high school, containing fiction, as well as nonfiction, and a variety of subject matter and genres. There are also tests to go along with various publications like text books or select magazines.
To determine a child's reading level, they are given a 10-minute, interactive test on the computer. Depending on the student's responses, the difficulty levels will adjust until it can be determined the stage at which they maintain comprehension, called their zone of proximal development, or ZPD. This ranking can be adjusted periodically.
Books on the program's recommendation list tend to be those which teachers or parents have requested, award winners, trending series, popular authors, those that have been reviewed favorably by leading publications, and especially those commonly carried the most school libraries. The rankings are based on the difficulty level, and number of words found in each book. Titles not currently included in AR can be ranked using a conversion scale.
While the program itself does not offer any particular incentives, many teachers, libraries, and parents, have developed their own systems of rewards. Studies show that when children work toward a goal, they tend to be excited about the task and perform it more diligently. Through this, they practice their skills, honing them as they go, to become more proficient readers while learning to enjoy certain genres or subjects, and choosing to read on their own just for pleasure.
Getting kids excited about improving how well they read is easy when using the AR program. Through the assessment reports, one can see which areas of comprehension the child requires additional attention and instruction. The point system encourages them to work towards a goal, whether it be for their own ambition, or to reach an incentive, while gaining valuable skills and a love of acquiring knowledge or taking adventures through printed words.
The program was developed in 1984, by a mom who was looking for a way to get her children excited to read with improved proficiency. Her method involved giving them short quizzes after each book, to test their comprehension. By doing so, she also found out the areas in which each child needed additional assistance, allowing her to focus on that skill set, which greatly benefited the young reader.
The basic concept is for children to choose books that are on their level of competency, and read them independently. Upon completion, they take a short, computerized quiz of up to 10 questions that will test how well they comprehended the information that they read. The results are compiled into a report that the adult can utilize to see in which areas a particular student is struggling.
The program currently has an excess of 180,000 quizzes in their cache, with additional ones being uploaded regularly. The titles that are included in the list range from those suitable for kindergartners, all the way to high school, containing fiction, as well as nonfiction, and a variety of subject matter and genres. There are also tests to go along with various publications like text books or select magazines.
To determine a child's reading level, they are given a 10-minute, interactive test on the computer. Depending on the student's responses, the difficulty levels will adjust until it can be determined the stage at which they maintain comprehension, called their zone of proximal development, or ZPD. This ranking can be adjusted periodically.
Books on the program's recommendation list tend to be those which teachers or parents have requested, award winners, trending series, popular authors, those that have been reviewed favorably by leading publications, and especially those commonly carried the most school libraries. The rankings are based on the difficulty level, and number of words found in each book. Titles not currently included in AR can be ranked using a conversion scale.
While the program itself does not offer any particular incentives, many teachers, libraries, and parents, have developed their own systems of rewards. Studies show that when children work toward a goal, they tend to be excited about the task and perform it more diligently. Through this, they practice their skills, honing them as they go, to become more proficient readers while learning to enjoy certain genres or subjects, and choosing to read on their own just for pleasure.
Getting kids excited about improving how well they read is easy when using the AR program. Through the assessment reports, one can see which areas of comprehension the child requires additional attention and instruction. The point system encourages them to work towards a goal, whether it be for their own ambition, or to reach an incentive, while gaining valuable skills and a love of acquiring knowledge or taking adventures through printed words.
About the Author:
If you are interested in accelerated reading, the best thing to do is visit the Web and enter the keywords in a search engine. Alternatively, you may go directly to this website at http://www.speedreadingworld.com.
