Accelerated Reader
What is Accelerated Reader?
Accelerated Reader (AR) is a self paced reading practice program designed to encourage students to read books within their tested reading level and provide measurable feedback on the student's progress. This is a voluntary program which MIS highly encourages.
During eLearning, AR tests may be taken here.
Develop lifelong readers and learners
All learning starts with reading. It’s a skill and, as with every skill, it requires not just instruction but practice. AR enables powerful practice by providing data to monitor and manage substantial amounts of personalized practice, and reinforce the understanding of content-area topics. It is designed to serve as the practice component of a comprehensive reading program.
With AR, teachers can:
Excite students. Students will be motivated to read constantly—in class, during study hall, at lunch, at home, anywhere.
Utilize reliable, objective data. The data cover reading comprehension, vocabulary development, literacy skills development, and much more.
Help every student master standards. Students receive a large amount of reading practice with immediate feedback. As a result, students become capable of reading increasingly complex texts at high levels of understanding – and scores improve on state tests.
Improve students’ attitudes for learning. Success spurs enthusiasm, higher attendance, fewer discipline problems, and better attitudes.
Challenge all students. Students are guided to books where the level of difficulty is neither too hard nor too easy—and the level at which optimal learning takes place.
Mary Immaculate AR Program
At the beginning of each school semester, each student in grades 2 through 6 will take an AR Star Reading Assessment Test. Grade 1 will take this assessment in January. This is used to calculate their particular AR reading range through reading comprehension.
At the beginning of each AR period (MIS has 4 per year, 1 each quarter), students are given a goal of a number of points to accumulate. Each AR book is worth a certain number of points based on the complexity of the writing, and the length of the book. A student will select an AR book that meets their criteria of points and reading level (and hopefully interest) from the school's collection of quizzes. He/she will read the book at his/her own pace, then take a computerized quiz of 5, 10, or 20 questions (depending on the number of points and reading level) to evaluate the student's understanding of what they read. Points are awarded to the student based on the book's possible points and the quiz score. At the end of each AR period, those students making or surpassing their AR goal are invited to an AR "Reading Celebration". Points are not the goal, they are simply an objective way to measure progress and encourage reading.
In the event MIS does not have a particular AR book that the student wishes to read, they may visit any library and check out the book. In this way, MIS expands it's AR book offering to all the AR books available without having to purchase every book. MIS provides access to over 160,000 quizzes on AR books.
The process is simple:
Student selects a book within their reading level from the MIS library, any public library or from a bookstore.
Student reads the book at their own pace
Student takes a quiz on the computer at school
Student and teacher get information
AR Book Finder
Typically, students can either flip through the list of books that MIS owns and which they have an AR test or they can go through the library shelves and find books with the AR labels. An online tool known as AR Book Finder also allows you to use a simple search form to find books the student is interested in, as well as in their reading level range.