what are you views on Accelerated Reader, good or bad?

[magicpixie]

i've heard a few different comments about this

some saying that it doesn't really help comprehension, just recall

other saying its really good

our school is introducing it soon and I wondered what others thought to it

[QueenofLouisiana]

We are half a term in, only just got all the books sorted- it's really labour intensive.
The tests came as a bit of a shock, many children realised they were reading words and not understanding the books. Gradually this is changing, but many children were put out at having to read "easy books" rather than what they were reading.
A lot of the questions are about recall, but if you didn't understand it, could you recall it to any great extent?
I'm not a huge fan, we'll see what happens over the year.

[Asleeponasunbeam]

I was in a school that used it in my second year of teaching A Long Time Ago. It was pretty revolutionary at the time and the school took it on whole heartedly. The head was particularly enthusiastic about it, which helped. At the time it was hard to get books that weren't American, although that didn't really matter as their children's literature can be fantastic.

I'd love to see it in its current form and would be happy for DD's school to use it.

[QuiteQuietly]

We got it last year - only juniors and top-reading infants are on it so far. DD1 reads long books (and takes her sweet time over them) so that she doesn't have to spend time quizzing (and possibly failing). DS appears to get better quiz scores for the books he hasn't bothered reading. He chooses easy and formulaic books to keep his percentage scores up. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the system per se, or merely our school's implementation of it, but I'm not blown away by it. Perhaps things will improve once it's bedded in - I can see how it might be good if it was embraced properly, but at the moment it seems rather easy for children to game the system.

[MissyMew123]

Yep, half a term in too. Bit of a shock to daughter as used to being a free reader at last school.
She has no recollection of doing the star test at the start of term to set level, in her defence she had just started at a new school so a lot to take in. She's taken a while to adjust to the system and I have had lots of complaints about the level she's on because she thinks it's too easy, but it has focussed her attention on the story and recalling facts.

I am not so sure a quiz can fully assess comprehension, but it does seem to help her remember what she's read. Which she will need to do as her education progresses.

Will watch with interest as I am not a huge fan as it restricts book choice. We have got round this by picking whatever she wants to read at home, she can also choose other level books from the school library in addition to the level book.

[FlowersForAlgernon]

It's good and bad.

Good - they have to read every night to finish book on time.

Bad - can't choose challenging books as only have 2 weeks to read them. This really bothers me.

So, at the moment I'm sitting on the fence.

[Allegrogirl]

My DD seems to be doing well on this scheme. She is having behaviour problems and school is stressful to say the least (beginning process of assessment for ADHD/ASD). DD was slow to get going with reading but has been told she has read the most words so on the scheme so far this year. Usually get 90-100% on the tests too. It's nice for her to actually be succeeding for something and see it in black and white on her reading log. She likes getting some choice with what she reads too.