Accelerated reading scheme - making reading a chore

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

My ds is in Y5 - his school uses the Accelerated reading scheme. This year he and his classmates have been assessed and given a reading level and asked to choose books from their level in the school library, then complete quizzes to get points (and win prizes).

Ds has completed one quiz (not very successfully) he has just completed a second book tonight so hopefully he will complete another quiz this week.

I spoke to his teacher this afternoon and she told me that she was concerned that ds was not reading the min 20mins per day and she was going to ask him to join the reading group during lunch hour.

Ds reads every day (in bed usually) a range of books of his choosing, Horrible History/Science/Geography, Beano comics, Star Wars stories, he read The Hobbit over the Summer. I am not concerned about his reading/ comprehension or vocabulary. I will encourage him to read the school reading scheme books more at home to get the quiz points he needs but I am very much against turning his lunchtime into reading 'work'. He wants to run around and play football with his friends, he needs a chance to blow off steam. He enjoys reading ffs - I think the scheme leaves much to be desired and should not be the only reading assessment the school uses.

Does any one have some experience of this scheme to reassure me that it will not put ds of reading for life! He was very distressed today, as the books he has read at home are all well above his 'level' so he is confused about why there is such disparity and completely uninterested by the range of library books at his level. He says he can't read books he is not interested in and I sympathise.

Whilst I am not convinced it is a particularly great scheme I think that children should be able to read books they are not particularly interested in as that is what they are likely to have to do in secondary school. That said, if they are reading 20 mins a night I am not sure it really matters what they read all the time, just that they need to read books that may not interest them some of the time.

I do sympathise though as my DS1 is the same so we do the minimum school reading he needs to then he reads what he likes, fortunately the school are happy with this as they do not use this scheme. I would be really unhappy about the lunch time reading unless he is actually behind.

There seem to be other issues with this scheme as apparently not all books the children may choose have quizzes so they cannot get their points even though they have read.

All I can suggest is that maybe you get him to read say 15/20 mins of a school book then he can read what he like. TBH 20 mins is not much for a Y5 child and should give plenty of time for reading other stuff. My Y3 DS does this so we can write on his reading card then I leave him to read whatever he wants at bed time.

Is he actually behind with his reading? If he has read The Hobbit it doesn't sound like it. I'd encourage him to read the scheme books and do as well as he can on the quizzes to show that he can read and understand them. That way he should be move to a more appropriate level quickly. I'd also mention some of the stuff he's been reading at home to the teacher and say he seems bored by the school books. I certainly agree with you that he shouldn't be missing out on his lunch break and needs that time to let off steam and play with his friends.

hi bigmouthstrikesagain

DD1 was put into a scheme like this in Y4 but had total freedom of book choice - although she was gently steered away from books that were too easy.

Having read your description it is slightly worrying that your DS is assigned books to his level but is not doing well on the quizzes - this suggests that he may have problems with comprehension.

My advice would be to start having him read to you for those 20 minutes at least 2 or 3 times a week. It most likely will reveal one of two problems:

1. skipping words - often the important words for general meaning/ flavour of story & therefore missing the meaning/ part of the plot.

2. not understanding the meaning of words properly - and just not saying.

DD1 was guilty of both and by having her read to us (quite a lot at first and then eventually less and less) we broke her of the habit of just reading the words and got her working on understanding what the words mean.

Sometimes schools put so much emphasis on reading aloud that they rather forget the minor fact that words join together to have meaning - and unfortunately this rather results in a child who understand how to read out loud but has no clue what the words he's reading are going on about IYSWIM.

By the way, DD1 went on to read nearly 90 books in Y4 and now reads every spare moment - so although it was a battle for the first term or so - we did get over the hump.

I'd also talk to the school about whether you could source appropriate books from home and not just read books from the library/ accelerated reading scheme. Our school were a bit surprised at first when we asked - but agreed. DD1 would just bring the books in first for the teacher to 'approve' - and off she'd go.

HTH

DD uses Accelerated Reading Scheme and it really isn't how you describe it OP, assuming we are talking about the same thing.

The books are not specifically written 'scheme' books like the ORT books, say, but they grade a wide range of 'normal' books (including Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Roald Dahl etc.) based on reading level and content....So really, using the scheme should not prevent your DS from picking books he's interested in and then searching the system to see if that particular book has been graded and included in the scheme, and then doing the multiple choice quiz....that's how my DD uses it.

Although she has a high reading age, basically she picks whatever books she is interested in from the library...and often these are ones 'below' her maximum reading level, then when she finishes a book, she goes into the system to see if a quizz exists for that book, if it does, she does it, if it doesn't it doesn't matter...she's reading, that's the important thing. But the teacher has a policy that one of her reading books at any one time has to be a 'stretcher' book so that she is being challenged.

The school I know of sets a target number of points each half term which is qhat causes the issue, particularly if there is no quiz for that book.

Fortunately, dd doesn't get set target points for quizzes....yet.

I think the rule of making sure she is reading a scheme book, at her level, at any one time is a good one. She chooses books from the school library and the books included in the scheme are easily identifiable with a black/red/blue/yellow sticker on the binder and a sticker on the back page stating the level and content suitability. From what I've seen the scheme seems to cover many of the popular children's fiction books. Sometimes dd even reads books from home (e.g. Enid Blyton, horrible histories) not knowing whether they are in the scheme, goes in to check, finds them and does the quizz.

I think it's a useful scheme. But good or bad depends on how it is used.

Op...is it because you are misunderstanding how to use the scheme and the system for the quizzes, i wonder....why don't you sit down on the computer with him, log into the system and search for the quizzes for The Hobbit and Horrible Histories....usual search techniques - type in book title or author- and sit with him while he does them...You will find quizzes for these books which you mentioned he has read already, I'm pretty sure.

DD has done many of the horrible histories quizzes on accelerated reader.

There are quizzes on books he owns/ has read but they are at a higher level than he has been assigned so he was worried about being able allowed to do them. I hope he can. But he does not like the range available at his given level, so progress won't be made until he gets over that issue.