One of the many challenges parents and teachers face, is instilling a love of books in a child. The student must first learn to read independently and fluently. For more than 30 years the Accelerated Reading program has been encouraging young people to find joy in the written word, as well as providing adults a way to understand the best way to assist them on their journey.
The program was developed in 1984, by a mom who was looking for a way to get her children excited to read with improved proficiency. Her method involved giving them short quizzes after each book, to test their comprehension. By doing so, she also found out the areas in which each child needed additional assistance, allowing her to focus on that skill set, which greatly benefited the young reader.
The basic concept is for children to choose books that are on their level of competency, and read them independently. Upon completion, they take a short, computerized quiz of up to 10 questions that will test how well they comprehended the information that they read. The results are compiled into a report that the adult can utilize to see in which areas a particular student is struggling.
There are more than 180,000 quizzes currently available through this program and more are being added regularly. The titles included in the collection range in levels of difficulty to accommodate children in grades kindergarten through High School, are both fiction and nonfiction, covering a vast array genres and subject matter. There are tests that go along with certain textbooks and publications like magazines, as well.
A child's comprehension level is determined through an interactive computerized test lasting approximately 10 minutes. Their responses will cause the system to adjust the difficulty level to find the point of comprehension, called the ZPD, or zone of proximal development. Students can be reassessed periodically.
The quizzes typically tend to go with books that are commonly found in most school libraries, have received rave reviews, are written by popular authors, are volumes in trending series, have won awards, or have been requested by parents or teachers. They are given their ranking based on the number of words in them, and their difficulty level. A conversion scale is used to find the level for any titles that are not currently included on the list.
While the program itself does not offer any particular incentives, many teachers, libraries, and parents, have developed their own systems of rewards. Studies show that when children work toward a goal, they tend to be excited about the task and perform it more diligently. Through this, they practice their skills, honing them as they go, to become more proficient readers while learning to enjoy certain genres or subjects, and choosing to read on their own just for pleasure.
Getting kids excited about improving how well they read is easy when using the AR program. Through the assessment reports, one can see which areas of comprehension the child requires additional attention and instruction. The point system encourages them to work towards a goal, whether it be for their own ambition, or to reach an incentive, while gaining valuable skills and a love of acquiring knowledge or taking adventures through printed words.
The program was developed in 1984, by a mom who was looking for a way to get her children excited to read with improved proficiency. Her method involved giving them short quizzes after each book, to test their comprehension. By doing so, she also found out the areas in which each child needed additional assistance, allowing her to focus on that skill set, which greatly benefited the young reader.
The basic concept is for children to choose books that are on their level of competency, and read them independently. Upon completion, they take a short, computerized quiz of up to 10 questions that will test how well they comprehended the information that they read. The results are compiled into a report that the adult can utilize to see in which areas a particular student is struggling.
There are more than 180,000 quizzes currently available through this program and more are being added regularly. The titles included in the collection range in levels of difficulty to accommodate children in grades kindergarten through High School, are both fiction and nonfiction, covering a vast array genres and subject matter. There are tests that go along with certain textbooks and publications like magazines, as well.
A child's comprehension level is determined through an interactive computerized test lasting approximately 10 minutes. Their responses will cause the system to adjust the difficulty level to find the point of comprehension, called the ZPD, or zone of proximal development. Students can be reassessed periodically.
The quizzes typically tend to go with books that are commonly found in most school libraries, have received rave reviews, are written by popular authors, are volumes in trending series, have won awards, or have been requested by parents or teachers. They are given their ranking based on the number of words in them, and their difficulty level. A conversion scale is used to find the level for any titles that are not currently included on the list.
While the program itself does not offer any particular incentives, many teachers, libraries, and parents, have developed their own systems of rewards. Studies show that when children work toward a goal, they tend to be excited about the task and perform it more diligently. Through this, they practice their skills, honing them as they go, to become more proficient readers while learning to enjoy certain genres or subjects, and choosing to read on their own just for pleasure.
Getting kids excited about improving how well they read is easy when using the AR program. Through the assessment reports, one can see which areas of comprehension the child requires additional attention and instruction. The point system encourages them to work towards a goal, whether it be for their own ambition, or to reach an incentive, while gaining valuable skills and a love of acquiring knowledge or taking adventures through printed words.
About the Author:
If you are interested in accelerated reading, the best thing to do is visit the Web and enter the keywords in a search engine. Alternatively, you may go directly to this website at http://www.speedreadingworld.com.
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