accelerated reader scheme - help!

[pianomadness]

Ds came home today being put onto the accelerated reader scheme and we have all the log in information etc. he excitedly read his first book and wanted to do the quiz so I logged onto the desktop and couldn't find anything but the book and an empty account - no link to the quiz.

I tried on my phone via the app and somehow managed to find the book quiz - but it said they are only allowed to do quizzes Monday to Friday 8.30-4pm.....are they supposed to be done in school time??

I might be over thinking this and struggling with the obvious but HELP! It's renaissance home connect if that makes a difference!

sir, but if you count kindergarten as school year, how many kindergarten years do they have in US?
My native country has kindergarten, normally two, could be three.
Still, it's very confusing.

Brolis, if your ds likes computer, I recommend readtheory . It's a reading comprehension site, with lots of short passages and questions, which adjust your level.

I looked up some more books ds has. I couldn't look up the classics because they can vary in difficulty.

Beast Quest came back as 4.?
Tom Gates came back as 4.? as well.
Some Mr. Gum came back as 4.? and some 5.?

I really wonder how they measure it. But I do feel it cannot be 4.? = yr5

I'm hoping this image shows, but if not Kindergarten is the same as the UK Year 1, hence the early reader Horrid Henry is correctly classified as a US L2.

Just to clarify Kindergarten is for 5+, unlike our reception, which is of course 4+

So, 2.? = yr1, 3.? = YR2, and 4.? = yr3?
It makes a lot more sense then, looking at difficulty of those books.

irvine K is 1 year and is mostly the same as our reception in terms of approach through play etc. (although not compulsory everywhere and the age differs in different places. Also some 4 year olds start it, but normally only a few months before they're 5 unlike here (e.g you start in september of the year you turn 5 so a december baby is 4.9) That means the difference is more like two terms rather than a whole year.

Before Kindergarten it's called Pre-K or similar.

The AR ATOS are deeply flawed Steinbeck and Hemingway and Mr Gumm Anyone?

Thanks, sir

But the rating still doesn't make sense then. (...not that I care though...really.)
Beast Quest was big hit last year among yr3s. It cannot be aimed at YR5s.(all the ratings are 4.?)
Problem with using US scheme to match UK, maybe?

I don't understand it at all, DD is a very advanced reader, I know she is a good reader without some number being attributed to it.

We only look at the site because school like her to read the odd book that they can test her on so we use it to choose some books.

The Book Thief for instance says

The Book Thief
Zusak, Markus
AR Quiz No. 211399 EN

Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel, a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbours.

AR Quiz Availability:
Reading Practice, Vocabulary Practice

ATOS Book Level: 5.1
Interest Level: Upper Years, Ages 14 Plus
AR Points: 18.0
Rating: 3.5
Word Count: 118933
Fiction/Non-fiction Fiction

What does that mean exactly? The ATOS level, and how does that relate to the number school reckons a child is?

Well, it will make more sense if it was appropriate for yr6 than yr4.
(Horror of WWII)

I just came to a conclusion, just forget about ATOS levels, enjoy reading. That's what's important!

I wasn't suggesting what year it was for, just expressing that I have no idea how it relates to the number quoted by school.

I haven't got a clue tbh, but atos level 5.1 refers to 6th year of school and 1 month according to guide. We are trying to figure out if it's either yr5 or yr6 in UK.

Anyway, it really doesn't matter as long as she enjoys/get something out from reading those books.

The ZPD numbers on the books do not relate to age groups or year groups. At the start of the programme and approximately every 6 weeks, the children complete an assessment. The results from the assessments decide which range the ZPD should be in. The children should then choose a book within their ZPD. The range of books available withi the ZPD should be challenging enough, but accessible and comprehensible to the child.

Quizzes should be taken within 48 hours of finishing the book. My pupils either do it during guided reading session or volunteer to stay in at play time. AR has had a massive impact on the number of children reading at home and the pupils enjoy the quizzes. They receive prizes for reaching a certain number of quizzes passed and we are definitely seeing the benefits of increased reading.

But that doesn't relate to upper years age 14 plus does it which is why I am confused. The number that comes home at every test is 12.9 (just asked her).

I don't care tbh which is why I have never asked school, she reads whatever she wants to, non stop generally.

Confessor I didn't know why this was done at all. If a child is already voracious reader what are the benefits then other than introducing another metric?

Is it something that all schools do now or just some?

Apologies to the OP - I would have started my own thread if I was concerned. Your OP just made me curious.

The number refers to the difficulty of understanding the book. Some books that are not really suitable for younger children have quite low numbers because they are actually rather easy to understand, and some that are written to appeal to younger children use some more challenging vocabulary so have higher numbers.

You will have been given a range of numbers to choose from, which is roughly in line with what your ds can manage now. Don't get too hung up on trying to match the numbers to ages, obviously the higher numbers are for better readers, but it's not going to do much good to read difficult books while not understanding them, you have to build the understanding up from where they currently are.

I teach in secondary school and encourage my form to read and take the quizzes. The children who seem to benefit the most are the reluctant readers who will actually read whole books for the rewards, where they may not have read whole books without them (I'd rather they read just for the pleasure of it, but they've already decided that's not for them so rewarding them at least gets them reading). The better readers, and kids who read just for pleasure, find it a bit restrictive (dd1 hated it when she was in y7), but most of them can find a book within their range to read at school and then read other more interesting things at home.

You can check the level of most books by googling " AR bookfinder", which means you can do quizzes on non-school books- meaning books that you read at home will count.
As I understand it, 4.8 does mean Year 4, 8th month. But the way they level is word frequency and difficulty, not content. Which is right, it means that you could have a Year 5 child who is a poor reader reading a 2.3 book but which has content more suitable for older children.
And I was surprised at how many year 3 and 4 children love Horrid Henry, they are the most popular books for that age group in my school.

Thanks all - interesting info here.

I think when I said ds was put on 3.2-3.8 that does equate to year 4 in the uk as his reading age has come back as 8yrs9mo which is year 4?

I'm a teacher. My DD's school have AR. I wouldn't put too much into reading ages. Focus on good reading habits and enjoyment.

I'm also a teacher. The AR data part (RA and ZPD) is used alongside other evidence to inform our assessments. IME the RA are not terribly helpful but ZPD is. Book levels can be helpful in finding the right type of books for a child who is reading particularly well (for example the Rainbow Fairies books are usually Level 4 or 5 because of their vocabulary and grammar structures so are great for a KS1 advanced reader as they are challenging but still appropriate interest level.

I find AR useful in the area I teach (deprived, parents hard to engage and often can't read brilliantly themselves) as a means of motivating the children to read and, to be honest, in letting me know whether they are actually reading books at home rather than someone just signing a card to say they have!

I wouldn't worry too much about it, my own DC have AR in their respective schools and enjoy watching their word count increase etc and DS does like the recognition he gets at high school for the massive amount of reading he does (3 million words this year apparently) but would read anyway.

But that doesn't relate to upper years age 14 plus does it which is why I am confused.

The interest level refers to the themes and content in a book rather than how easy the text is to decode. So a book with an IL of 14+ has content that would interest students of that age and may contain content that is inappropriate for younger children even though the book level suggests that it is readable by a US 5th grader or a child in the 5th year of school.

Did you choose the example of the Book Thief on purpose or was it random? IME it illustrates the importance of using the ZPD as a guide rather than a strict criteria for choosing books for or with children.

It was me who posted The Book Thief, no it wasn't random. DD had finished A Faraway Island and wanted something else about that period.

I have read it and thought it could be suitable at a stretch but came away none the wiser after looking it up.

I have no idea how the info on that book relates to the number that came home.

What is ZPD?

Zone of proximal development. It's the range of book levels an individual child 'should' be picking books from (e.g. 3.2-3.8 in the OP's case) because they are deemed to have the appropriate text complexity.

What's interesting about the Book Thief is that it has a high school interest/content level with a primary age reading level and seems to pop up regularly as a book teachers recommend as a good quality text. A Colour Purple has the same issue.

Totally feasible that in a school that uses AR an average or able child could miss out on those books unless they read them outside the AR scheme because they never hit the right interest and book level at the right time and the school are too hung up on the ZPD. Which is a very odd message to send to pupils if broadening their reading is what you are aiming for.

That is why we only look for a book a month on the list Rafals, ridiculous but it is just a box ticking exercise. After reading why the scheme exists I am less inclined to bother. We only have a few weeks left of primary anyway.