Accelerated Reader experiences/views

[Dreambee]

Hello, I've been tasked with finding out about Accelerated Reader for my middle school. Reading for pleasure is very low on the children's agenda so we are looking for an effective and manageable way to build a better reading culture.

Before I contact a rep to get the official sales pitch, I would be very grateful to hear your experiences or views on Accelerated Reader.

Alternative suggestions are also welcome!

With my parent hat on rather than my teacher one - hate it. It really demotivated my two excellent readers. As they both read longer, more complex books they didn’t take many of the tests which was seen as a ‘bad thing’ by the school. Kids would just take lots of tests of books they’d read a long time ago which were not at the level they were now at and get praised for it. It completely took the joy of reading away.

It may work for those that don’t read much but you risk alienating those that do.

We have the opposite, it's our good readers who enjoy it more as they are very competitive, we have awards for million word readers, I think last year we had a 5 million word reader😁. In some ways it is very helpful, OFSTED like it (if that is any recommendation) and it ensures children aren't reading books far too easy or too hard. The less able readers don't like having to do the tests at the end of the books so there does need to be some encouragement there.
Like all schemes and programmes, it has its plus and minus points, it is quite labour intensive for our younger readers who need support logging in and taking the test but by yr 3, it runs itself.

Thanks for the replies. Interesting to hear to pros and cons!

Keep them coming lovely people!

Not good for my children. One deliberately avoided finishing school books so that she didn’t have to take the quiz before selecting another. Son did quizzes on books he had read years ago or only seen the film of, teacher was alarmed that his comprehension levels appeared to plummet. There was also problem of many books not being on it, then som felt there was no point reading them. Definitely not something I would introduce to a school to promote a love of reading.

I don’t like it. Especially for a middle school. Lots of books aren’t on there ( despite what they say) and never interested my DD who doesn’t read nor my DS who does. Random things also, like book 1 of a series are on there but no others?

As a teacher, the questions are very basic and rely heavily on just retrieval. It feels like forcing the kids to read for credit, not pleasure.

Thank you again for the really helpful replies. It doesn't sound very positive in the balance. I guess I'll need to look for an alternative to reignite the love of reading.

As a teacher at a school that has just started this for y7-8 I'm undecided but erring on the side of not liking it. It breaks my heart to hear the school librarian telling kids they shouldn't be reading certain books because they aren't on accelerated reader. It has been pretty eye opening though that my bottom set can repeatedly fail tests on relatively simple books they have just read. Of course the only thing this achieves though is to demotivate them from reading even more.

I think it really worked with our children, who now read for pleasure all the time - but they had it when they were much younger (y2/3/4/5).

My school uses accelerated reader for y7 and y8 with targeted small groups of children 3 times a week for a term initially, and then usually a terms break , then repeat.

It can hugely boost reading age/ competency.
For example one student who arrived in y7 in September with ks1 reading age has improved by18 months.

Our Accelerated reading sessions include one to one reading with an adult, group reads, whole class story time, games and prizes.

Very expensive, very labour intensive to set up

How expensive?

Tends to work better in primary than secondary so not sure for a middle school!
Able readers tend to not like it IME. I think works well if lots of staff support to choose appropriate (level and interest) books and do quizzes etc etc, as a PP has said.

We do it with inadequate staff support and I don't think it does much. The children who progress probably would have done anyway, those who don't, don't.

So labour intensive to set up and for all new books, yes. Not many book that have actually been assessed above Level 7, especially if you discount things published more than 50 years ago!

As a secondary teacher I hate it. The kids who you want to engage don't - and the ones who do are readers anyway! Kids spend the library lesson taking quiz after quiz and failing them because they have not read the book and it's so labour intensive for the teacher to chase and monitor. I wish I knew the answer to poor literacy - sadly I don't think this is it! 😩