Accelerated Reader

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iaskedalice09

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Personally, I am vehemently against it in all education, but especially Deaf ed, where many students read English as a second language.

My other gripes about it include: lack of higher level thinking questions (analysis? Socratic method?), the fact that it does not ask questions connected to the "big picture" of the book, and that in my old Honours English class where it was used, it actually boosted cheating.

I think it is often used to SUBSTITUTE teaching and I hate that. My soph English class used no AR, and was basically just a free-form discussion of the book we were reading using the Socratic method. Students that didn't like reading for pleasure started showing interest and each student's analysis skills was bolstered.

I took Accelerated English in 8th grade. Basically, it is 8th grade books taught on a 9th grade Honours level. What distracted me from focus on what REALLY needed improvement - writing and analysis, and organisation - was AR. And most kids were doing all HS classes so they cheated on AR!

The teacher hated AR, too, she bumped down the number of required points from 40 to 30. The teacher hates standardised testing and let us know that.

Now, as a student at a Deaf school that uses AR, I am even more enraged, especially among struggling readers. I am in the upper English class but still...AR distracts teachers from REAL goals and kills motivation in both teachers and staff. All while the AR company rakes in the profits!

There is a percentage of us at OSD that speak English as a first language, and for those the "hearing school" problems of AR apply. But for ESL learners...why the Hell would anyone in their right mind implement Accelerated Reader?!?!

Stay strong, Deaf Education militants and hearing advocates (Extra cookies to Shel and Jillio)!!

P.S. - Who, in OH, wants to start a letter-writing campaign to Strickland and the Reps/Congresspeople to abolish the Ohio Graduation Test?
 
I guess it depends on the child. My children enjoys reading AR books and are rewarded doing so by the school. It is not mandatory for them to do so in our district but encouraged. Maybe I am not clear on the facts.

But please do explain more.
 
Hi Babyblue, the idea is to make it mandatory, and encourage them by rewarding points. Unfortunately, many schools take AR points for graded quiz, which is where the faults begin. They aren't hard once you learn to memorise the little parts of the book but that's really not a skill needed for the real world or SAT.
 
I understand your view

In my view.....
The idea of AR is to encourage children to read. As for the test is to see if they comprehend what they are reading. My kids do the quiz on the computer at school. But not for grades. But to see if they understand what they read. And after so many points they get a free Pizza from Pizza Hut.

now for the children that are not at the standard reading level are tested before to establish the ceiling level of the childs and encourage to read books at his/hers level. And questioned or quizzed about the book to see if they comprehended what they read.

With the FCAT and the SAT. I don't see anything wrong with prepairing a child for reading comprehension.
 
Teachers and, more importantly, PARENTS should teach reading comprehension.

But, my big problem is forcing it as a grade. I hate that...why can't I just read? I already have papers, etc. to prove I read and understood the story and class discussion. AR is overkill.
 
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