Dear Google,
I wish you’d talked to teachers like me before you made that $40 million investment in Renaissance Learning.
I’ve seen the damage Accelerated Reader can do.
I witnessed it for the first time when I tutored a struggling 5th grader…eighteen years ago.
He hated to read.
He hated being locked into a level.
He hated the points associated with the books.
But more importantly, he was humiliated when he didn’t earn enough points to join in the monthly party or get to ‘buy’ things with those points at a school store full of junky prizes.
I’ve seen kids run their fingers along the binding of a book, a book they REALLY wanted read, but then hear them say, “But it’s not an AR book,” or “It’s not my level.”
I’ve watched them scramble to read the backs of books or beg a friend for answers so they can get enough points for the grading period.
And I watched it slowly start to unravel S’s love of reading. It’s why I gave her permission to practice a little civil disobedience and Stop Reading for Points.
You see, Google, I’m a reader, and one of the things I’ve loved about teaching is connecting kids with books.
Books that spark their interest.
Books that make them think.
Books that pull on emotions they didn’t know they had.
Books that teach them empathy.
Books that make them laugh and cry.
Books that make them angry at the injustice.
Books that they come back and ask to borrow…five and six years after they leave my class.
Do you know what Accelerated Reader and programs like it are doing to readers these days?
I’ve heard of teachers being reprimanded for not leveling all their classroom books.
I know of school libraries where children have to show the librarian a card with their reading level on it before they can check out books.
I know of kids excited about books being told, “No! That’s not at your level. You can’t check it out. You can’t read it.”
I know of kids who struggle to read in the first place, having to spend an afternoon reading while their classmates who read get a pizza party or a movie or some other special prize.
I know of kids who never pick up a book unless it’s required because the joy of reading has been sucked out of them by leveled reading programs.
I’ve read about teachers who see what I see. Those who lament the Lex-Aisle.
Those who pull from their own memories of AR and how it ruined a great book.
And parents who see their children afraid to read.
Imagine, Google, if you limited your employees the way Accelerated Reader limits our students. How would that impact the creativity of your 20% time?
Oh, I read the Ed Week article that called this investment innovative, but there is NOTHING innovative about Accelerated Reader and their levels and basic comprehension quizzes.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of education in the U.S. when a move like this is praised.
To say I’m disappointed that Google views education through such a narrow lens is an understatement. For a company that has been built on innovation to invest millions into a program that levels books, awards points for low-level knowledge and comprehension, and creates bad data is a travesty.
And you call this personalized learning? What’s personalized about letting a computer system match kids with books?
You’re missing the point about what reading instruction should be, and you are helping to systematically destroy the joy in books.
If you had taken the time to talk to teachers like me, here’s some of the things we would’ve suggested you spend that $40 million on.
- Books, lots and lots of books. Ones that aren’t leveled.
- Children’s librarians in public libraries across the country.
- Picture books, novels, non-fiction, series (many a reluctant reader has been hooked by a series like Captain Underpants or Goosebumps).
- Full-time librarians in schools, especially those in high poverty areas where they seem to always get cut.
- Um, books. Books kids can take home to keep because we know having books in the home is one of the best ways to increase literacy. (bit.ly/1fGubAj)
- Free Little Libraries – take a book, return a book, gather in your neighborhood
- More books! So many great authors and genres out there!
- e-readers for schools and public libraries to use and loan out.
- A Google library of free e-books.
- Did I mention books?
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
If you need a little more research, check out this list I’ve compiled about the downside of reading for rewards.
You really should’ve talked to me first. I could’ve saved you $40 million.
Chris Wejr said:
Love your passion around this. I am saddened to see that because schools are spending thousands a year on a “home-reading accountability program” that does nothing to teach reading… and plenty to kill joy in reading… RL is worth a billion. From a money perspective, this is likely a smart move by Google as they are investing in a company that removes the importance of the teacher, collects data, and focuses on points for learning…. Much like the US Department of Education is doing.
jenmarten said:
Thanks, Chris. I think we have to continue to speak up for children, our own and those we teach. They are individuals who deserve an education that meets their needs not a canned program that pads someone’s bottom line. I keep feeling like a character in a Dr. Seuss book – either a Who that keeps trying to be heard to prove existence or the Lorax who speaks for the trees.
Heath Oates said:
What do you suggest administrators do when our teachers are the ones pushing this program?
Chris Wejr said:
Having recently moved away from AR at a previous school, I asked the following questions:
What do we want our grade 6 students (the final year at the school) to have/be with regards to literacy?
How do we create the conditions for this to happen?
If we have $2000-$3000 to spend on reading at our school, how would we spend it to best help create these conditions?
What came out was we wanted students who COULD read and ones that ENJOYED reading. When the money was added in, we realized that after 5 years we will have spent $15000 on AR at our school and we were not sure if this would have any impact on a joy in reading (and were worried it might actually take away from it). We also acknowledged that AR does nothing to TEACH reading so we needed to focus on reading instructions and working to create the conditions for students to develop a real love for reading… when the points were removed.
I wrote about our philosophy here: http://chriswejr.com/2012/10/10/creating-the-conditions-a-love-of-reading/
jenmarten said:
Thanks, Chris, for sharing your own experience with this. It’s great to have someone who has moved a school away from AR share about.
jenmarten said:
Great question! I think many teachers push it because it is an ‘easy’ way to assign a grade/number to something they are not necessarily confident in assessing.
I think it is up to admins to find and share the research that points to the long term consequences of extrinsic rewards and reading, but to also empower their teachers to be confident in what they observe within the classroom and help them figure out how to turn those observations into feedback and assessment that truly tells about a child.
In addition, AR is an expensive program to start and maintain. Help teachers see how that money could better be used to meet the needs of students who struggle and those who need to be challenged. I don’t think teachers always realize the cost of the canned programs that are used.
And if teachers have used it for years, maybe it’s about helping them step out of their comfort zones to do what is best for kids not what they’ve always done. Change isn’t always easy.
Withheld said:
This is so personal to me. I can remember being in the third grade, (46 years ago) sitting in a circle reading books that were far below my “level”. The “level” was assigned because we had slow readers in class and it was felt by someone who thought they knew better, that advanced readers should be grouped with poor readers to help “inspire” poor readers. So I sat there reading on the level of Spot spilling the bowl of milk. I could read that complete book in 60 seconds. Since third graders aren’t really wired to coach fellow third graders, what to do with the rest of the allotted time? Well you know what third graders do when they are bored out of their minds. The double edge sword for me was not that I was forced to read in a group well below my level, but I was reading, on my own, well above my grade level.
You see I grew up in an abusive, alcohol fueled, violent household. Books were absolutely the only escape I had, and I was fortunate to have free access to them. The library was within walking distance from home, and my Father was a Trustee. He was also a Policeman (one of only two in our town) and a Fireman, my Mother baked cakes for the PTA, and the weddings in town, she organized the fundraisers for local civic groups. They owned and ran the only Garage/Filling Station town. In my world, I had nowhere to go except books. When your parents are model citizens in a small town no one will believe that hell is for children.
So in school I was a “problem student” with “attention problems”, inability to focus” and the dreaded pigeon hole of “just doesn’t apply himself. While on the way home I was checking out Tom Sawyer, A Wrinkle in Time, My Side of the Mountain and Treasure Island. By the time I was in the fourth grade I had conquered the Iliad and the Odyssey and was working through Lord of the Flys and To Kill a Mockingbird. By the eighth grade, when I learned about Alexander Solzhenitsyn and discovered that he lived in my neighboring State, I read The Gulag Archipelago.
The precious few hours I had between getting home from school and my parents getting home from work were spent flying through my chores and then diving into my precious books. There I could get away, be something else, see something else. I saw the foggy streets of London with Gideon as we guided through them with a canning jar with a candle inside it. The wind whipped my face as I was tied to that ships mast while the Sirens called me with their seductive songs, (oh, what songs can have such power?) I imagined the blissful solitude if living in a tree with a hawk, I knew why he ran away, I could relate.
Alone in my world, Steinbeck and Rawls helped me to see another world through other children’s eyes, and I learned the most important life lesson ever, I learned that dyfunctional families need not be the norm. All I had to do was to survive a few more years and I could move on and never look back. I did survive, I completed school, became professionally employed, have been married to my best friend and savior for over 30 years, and raised wonderful Children.
I cannot comprehend what would have become of me if I were not allowed free access to books that I decided we’re on my reading level.
Brittany said:
Thank you so much for sharing that. That was so powerful – I have goosebumps! Thank God for books!
jenmarten said:
Thank you for sharing your story, and I’m glad books allowed you some reprieve from an otherwise painful childhood.
Debra Allen said:
Touche Jennifer . . . how many times did I as a teacher encourage struggling students to get the book I was sharing during read aloud time so they could follow along with me reading which helped them and encouraged them. Many got hooked on the author or the genre and went on to choose more challenging books . . . sadly that was back in the old days before we became obsessed with Lexile levels and ‘just right’ books. Keep fighting for what’s right for students Jennifer . . . be that voice.
deathmage777 said:
Agreed I may not live in the US where this is happening, but I have been reading my dads books since I was 11-12, I hated roald dahl (my opinion don’t rage) I preferred teen fiction and adult books cause they were more interesting. Having to read books I didn’t like would’ve ruined my love of reading. Children, and people i know don’t understand why I love reading. They’ve obviously never found a good book.
jenmarten said:
I loved Roald Dahl but know many who don’t. That’s the great thing about choice reading. You find what you love and run with it. And I always loved when students would tell me they loved or hated an author or genre because that could initiate great conversations about why.
Rosanne stewart said:
We have AR at my school, and students have to get a certain number of points each nine weeks. However, I tell my students to read anything they are interested in. I don’t care what genre, what author, etc. I just want them to pick up a book because it looks or sounds interesting and read for the love of reading. I think it makes a huge difference when students are allowed to read what they want. Also, our librarian doesn’t turn anyone away when they aren’t reading on the “right lexile level”.
Mark Barnes (@markbarnes19) said:
These are good points in defense, but they don’t refute anything Jen has written. Bottom line, anytime you attach a point value, quiz score, badge or anything other than celebrating a love of books to reading, you risk destroying the entire experience.
Plus, the assessments are ridiculous. My 10-year-old daughter skims her AR books and routinely gets perfect scores on the tests.
Shame on Google, and kudos to Jen on this fabulous post.
jenmarten said:
Thank you for the kind words. Has your daughter ever said anything about how she feels about having to take the AR tests?
Rupert Eliot said:
Celebrating a love of books. Sounds charming. Totally missing the point of attaching objecting standards to learning, as is currently done in every other area of study. Perhaps teachers of science should only be armed with the guideline of “celebrating a love for reality,” lest they take a risk of destroying the entire experience. I think not. And your daughter, a fine case study of one, hardly demonstrates anything that can be generalized.
jenmarten said:
No one is saying that reading skills ought not be taught but rather that they should be taught in developmentally appropriate ways. A love of reading comes from being taught to read for enjoyment not just the mechanics it of it.
I have no problem with standards, but I do take issue with standardization, and programs like AR try to standardize children by placing them in levels based on a very narrow way of valuing/ranking books.
And while this may be a case study of one, if you read through the comments here you will see others, and I would encourage you to follow the link at the bottom of the original post that has a Bag The Web to support the case against reading for points. While there are more anecdotal examples there, the link also includes research articles.
Rupert Eliot said:
No one is saying? I would be curious to know your developmentally appropriate ways, without any standard to reference except “celebrating a love of books,” as the commenter that I had been replying to had implied was possible. He, at the very least, is saying you must teach in entirely ineffective ways.
And I do I admire your mental gymnastics allowing you no problems with standards, but issue with standardization.
And as long as we may introduce case studies of one, In a large way I did not develop a love of reading by being taught to read for enjoyment. In fact, large areas of literature will never be enjoyed if you have enjoyment as your first standard. Sometimes people need to be taught how to enjoy, or they will never have the capacity for it, as it is with any advanced literature. With your standards of necessary enjoyment, never would some books have a fair trial by students, nor could they then be eventually enjoyed.
jenmarten said:
AR is typically used to ‘assess’ independent reading not teach reading, so the issue not about teaching reading but about instilling a love of reading that will last a lifetime. Independent reading should be just that, independent.
It’s different from the contextual reading you mention in your last paragraph. I have conversations with students all the time about reading for a purpose. We have to teach students to read a variety of texts, learn many pieces and parts of text, and of course, start with the basics of word recognition and sentence structure.
As for standards vs. standardization, let me explain. Standards help me teach with the end in mind. They help my students know what is expected of them, and they help me develop lessons to meet those goals. Standardization, on the other hand, implies that all students will meet those standards at the same point in time and through the same methods. I’ve taught a lot of kids in the last 26 years, and they don’t all learn the same way or at the same time, even though they are working toward the same standards.
And the case studies of one? They are the stories that humanize our education system, and they are the ones that need to be told.
Ellie said:
RIGHT ON! NAILED IT!
ProfPete said:
Well said, Jen. This deserves to be read widely among teachers, education bosses, parents, and publishers.
Being in Australia, I had not come across this system. How terrible to restrict what students are “allowed” to read! Surely someone smarter could have come up with a system that rewarded reading almost anything within reason, with higher rewards for choosing more challenging/worthwhile texts?
jenmarten said:
The reward should be the joy the book brings, the satisfaction of finishing something difficult, and the desire to read more. Carrot and stick rewards destroy that intrinsic motivation.
Lori Gray said:
Yes and my 18 year old son just said the other day, that is why I don’t read, AR ruined the enjoyment of reading. It is a stupid program.
jenmarten said:
I have heard that a lot over the years, and it always breaks my heart.
Charlotte Randolph said:
But reading should be its OWN reward. Kids are smart. If we tell them they’ll get a prize for reading a book, they’re likely to think it’s a bribe for something distasteful otherwise. Why not tell them that if they finish their work early, they can choose a book and read.
jenmarten said:
Exactly! It needs to be intrinsic!
Jason said:
I have seen AR abused and used correctly. When abused it does take the joy out of reading. When every child has to get the same number of points or there is know flexibility it can be destructive. When students are placed in a level where they can be successful, have attainable goals and are given flexibility within their choice of books so they can stretch and grow, when done this way it is successful. Unfortunately most don’t use a little common sense or evense the program the way it was designed. It was never meant to be a trap, but a way for kids to find success and grow.
Jason said:
I do know the difference between no and know. Unfortunately my device thought differently.
jenmarten said:
I hate auto correct. 🙂
jenmarten said:
I just don’t believe reading should be quantified in this way, even if it is used with the flexibility you speak of. I believe we need to treat teachers as professionals and give them the autonomy to meet the students where they are, and build relationships around reading. I never needed a computer program to tell me that about my kids.
mrkimmi said:
Both AR and Lexile give teachers the ability to meet students where they are, and the data to support that decision.
jenmarten said:
I suggest you read this post from Donalyn Miller http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/2012/07/guess_my_lexile.html?cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS2 and this one from Lisa Van Gemert http://www.giftedguru.com/3-reasons-i-loathe-accelerated-reader/ about how those lexiles and AR levels are determined. Numbers give schools a false sense of accountability.
TheSub said:
Great points. There’s a lot to be gained when students set a goal and then reaches it. AR is just a tool…not a curriculum.
Peter said:
I am a 3rd year college student at a respected state university, and I am a voracious reader. What turned me into a voracious reader was Accelerated Reader. Granted I was always an advanced reader and it came easily to me. AR turned it into a passion. I participated in AR in my 4th and 5th grade classrooms and it pushed me to read like never before. The library at my school allowed you to check out books at any reading level so my classmates and I became competitive. I read books way beyond what I thought I was capable of to show my classmates I could. I learned so much from those books. I learned to struggle through difficult sections. A skill that still helps me with my assigned reading. I gained a lifetime love of sci fi and fantasy. Instead of watching TV, playing video games, or fighting with my little brother I read. When I wasn’t at a sporting event or school I was reading. Through all that hard work I ended up being third in the school and given an incredible prize. A choice of any five books from the book fair. AR was my most valuable experiences in grade school.
jenmarten said:
I’m glad it was something you saw as positive, but don’t you think you could’ve learned to love those books and gained that knowledge without the extrinsic rewards? And should we only give books to those who read the most rather than putting them in the hands of all readers. I, too, am a voracious reader, but I became that way because I was always allowed to read whatever caught my eye, even if it was above my head.
ACJennings said:
I am thrilled to read this blog and also all of the comments that are following.
My family is currently involved in a punitively administered AR program. My child was an advanced reader who literally read from book to book to book. When AR was first introduced at the school, it did have rewards and the children had quarterly goals to try to achieve. There was no punishment for failing to achieve the point goals. One time a semester, the AR store was open to all kids. Yes, the prizes were junky, but there were prizes so that every child could pick out something. And best of all, a child could read any book they chose. Sometime in my childs 4th grade year, the rules changed… when he finished 4th grade the upper end of his ZPD was 11.8! We weren’t quite sure what was going on, but all of a sudden, our child who had read about 1500 pages weekly on his own was becoming increasingly resistant to reading. This fall it was laid out, there were new AR guidelines at the school (secretly 95% of the teachers do not support this program). This year, their quarterly goals are subdivided into two week goals and the children were given at 3/10th point window for their reading range. Also, if a child missed their two week goal, their citizenship grade was to be lowered a full letter grade and also they were required to achieve an 85% or better on their AR tests. There were also other punishments, such as having their reward of being a classroom helper stripped from them if they did not achieve their points and and 85% average. First of, the first reading levels assigned to my 5th grader was lower than the level he finished his second grade year reading! The 3/10 range was prohibited to the child who wanted to read a series by an author as those jump all over the place. My child now only reads what he has to read to achieve his goal. There are so many more cons to the program at our school, but when my husband and I really lost it, was when our child was told he couldn’t read a book because it might be too hard!
We met with the principal and my childs classroom teacher and while we were their we got a few modifications that allowed a bit more flexibility for my child, but I’m not satisfied for only my child. My child is an advanced, motivated reader with a solid home and I’ve seen what AR has done to him with regards to reading. I worry for the struggling students who it is truly an accomplishment to finish a book at any level, who’s parents aren’t interested or worse, will punish without question.
I see teachers who do Teach from the Heart, stuggle with this program. yet fear for their jobs, whose hearts are breaking for their children.
I actually had to request the teacher stop raising our sons level, as there were only 7 fiction books in the library at his level and three he had already read and tested. Yes, there are informational text, but very few that are not basically mini encyclopedias on a specific topic. That requires time spend studying and memorizing facts packed into the pages… for a 5-10 question test that awards .5 points… that is not reading in my book. How about teaching a child to analyze different types of literature if you’re going to push them so high. And, my child is not gifted, so he gets no extra instruction.
Has anyone read the short story, Harrison Bergeron?
Thanks to you all for the good ideas, alternative ways to encourage reading. I’ve read Chris Weir’s blog from the top as well. Now, do I dare share all of this with my childs principal?
jenmarten said:
You point out concerns that many parents have for kids on the high end of reading as well.
I would encourage you to share this or one of the posts in my Bag the Web which is linked at the end of this post with your child’s principal. It might be conversation that starts a movement. 🙂
Melinda said:
But what about your peers who struggled to read? Who learned to hate reading? Who saw it as punishment?
I have 127 9th grade students who grew up in an AR system. Three of those students feel the way you feel. The other 124 walked through my classroom door finding the idea of reading abhorant. Now, after seven months of conversations, booktalks, hundreds of books available in the classroom, and encouragement to read anything, 110 of them have become voracious readers.
They talk to each other, they make recommendations, they get up and walk across the room to share passages, and most days, they BEG for more reading time.
While there are still 14 who are not voracious readers, they no longer HATE reading. And, given enough time, and enough reading material, we’ll have them begging for more reading time!
mrkimmi said:
Thank you, Peter! I know Peter hasn’t replied, but I don’t think he did all that reading for the prize, seeing how he didn’t mention it until the end.
ACJennings, that is frightening! Any program misused would be awful though, not just AR. I would show this to the principal and possibly the superintendent.
Melinda, do you think AR is the sole reason they learned to hate reading? Is it the program’s fault, or the educators who administered it? This is nothing more than a computer program, RL makes it, sure, but it is up to the people who pay for it to decide how to use it.
jenmarten said:
There is research to support that when AR is removed, students do not continue to read at the same level as students who did not use AR.
mrkimmi said:
I am sure that there is. Human being behave differently when they are held accountable, they just do. How often do the number of books you read vary from year to year?
I am not saying that it is a great program and right for every child. As with all problems in education, it is the adults who cause the issue. AR can no more guarantee a long-lasting love of reading than you can. There are a myriad of factors that come into play when it comes to literacy and the majority of those are outside our influence.
I agree with you on almost all points. Put books in kids hands, loads of them…from varying levels. Let them explore, encourage them to try, and don’t close doors.
If anything, I am happy Google has gotten involved. Perhaps their innovative style will influence RL to become better.
jenmarten said:
I wish I could be that optimistic about Google’s involvement, but I fear that it is a corporation seeing that RL is worth over a billion dollars and investing in a bottom line, not kids.
th3bak3rman said:
Accelerated Reader as well as various incentive programs can motivate some children. I believe the point which others are making, is that many students focus on the rewards. Research shows this to be least effective for long-term learning, not to mention a love for reading.
Dan said:
Can you say PBIS! Behavior mod for all at a steep price in professionalism and cash.
Alex Darc said:
Peter can you remember any of the books you read for this competition? Do you remember the titles/authors/plots/ characters? Or do you remember how often you won/lost.
Laura Dropps Goss said:
yay for you. Not everyone is competetive, but everyone deserves a chance to read what they want in the amount of time they need.
The Styling Librarian said:
Hear, hear! Thank you. All my thoughts put to print…
jenmarten said:
Thank you! Glad to know that I am not alone. 🙂
Bryant McEntire said:
Hi Jen, I agree with almost every point you have made. The exception to my viewpoint, your’s, and those of the vast majority of my respected colleagues lies in the source of the many negatives you have accurately outlined about the programme. I chose to write my Master’s paper on intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation in reading programmes and researched such programmes as AR. AR is not the source of what is wide spread poor practice by teachers, librarians, and/or parents. I also have robust personal and professional experience with AR through the years to inform my practice and viewpoints. I do not think Ren Learn advocates using the programme in the ways you have described although in the distant past the company was much more forward about school stores, points as cash, etc. I readily admit that what you have described is, most unfortunately, precisely the way many individuals and indeed entire schools use the programme. But I wonder how many are using it very well with lots of ‘opt in’ options for their students? How many are rewarding students with more books or more reading time for reading goals that are achieved? We all know that bad news travels twice as fast as good news. That is just human nature. As I have a great deal of confidence in most educators out there I’m willing to wager that for every poor practice with AR there are three teachers doing an excellent job of balancing the programme with other pillars to motivate reading both intrinsic and extrinsic. AR and any other pedagogy founded on “testing” students requires good administration from the top levels of a school to shape it into a tool that helps most students most of the time with long term benefits. It can be utilized in very damaging ways in the wrong hands but that does not mean it should be tossed out like the proverbial baby with the bathwater. Just about anything we do concerning teaching and learning can demotivate, disengage, kill creativity and enthusiasm, if not down right abuse students in our care. AR is not exempt to the curses of poor administration and execution in classrooms, libraries, or in the home. It is a neutral tool at the mercy of the hands that wield it. This is why we as teachers are still relevant in the 21st century as no programme will ever be able to get inside students’ minds and hearts to help them ‘learn how to learn.’ Human beings are charged with this delicate dance of divination with one another. Hopefully all of us in this space know the importance of reading and I pray that as the world turns educators will again return to the basic premise that “readers are leaders” and that reading mass quantities of books changes the brain in positive ways that we can only pretend to understand to this day. I do appreciate your article, I have read loads of these comments, and feel that provocative tools such as AR are exactly what is needed to keep education moving forward as the platform serves as a source of dialogue for reflection and CPD (Continuous [supply your own word: “Professional, Parent” etc] Development), understanding, and education. 🙂
jenmarten said:
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I agree, Renaissance Learning may have been well-intentioned, but the moment you start quantifying everything this tends to be the result. Reading should be about more than 10 point quizzes, and I struggle most with the leveling of books and children. Lisa Van Gemert addresses issues with how the books are even leveled in her post here. I don’t agree that rewarding students for reaching goals is any less detrimental than punishing them for not – it is still extrinsic.
3rd Grade Teacher said:
My students all love AR and are successful using it. I think it really just depends how the teacher utilizes it. It is one of the many tools we use for reading. I do however don’t think it should be the only tool that schools use. There are many more programs and strategies that can promote higher level thinking but AR is something students can do independently.
Melinda said:
Have you checked on former students who have moved beyond the grade levels that use AR? In the years after the AR program is no longer in their lives, do they continue to read for pleasure?
jenmarten said:
THIS! Yes, this is exactly one of my biggest problems with ANY reading for rewards program. It gives an extrinsic prize for something that should be intrinsically motivated, and when the prize is removed, there is no longer motivation. Research shows the don’t read as much or at all. Thanks for bringing this point out.
ACJennings said:
I’ve talked with many teens I work with at my church who went through AR who only read assigned reading. No leisure reading at all…my child has a growing stack of books by his bed that are reserved for spring break and summer…
jenmarten said:
My DD13 and I were just talking about how we both have so many books on our ‘to read’ lists. It makes my heart sing to hear her say that.
jenmarten said:
Do they love to read or do they love the prizes? Therein lies the problem for me. Also, do you take quizzes after you read for fun? I don’t. For me, and many other people, that would totally suck the joy out of reading. Why not just let them read independently?
azuremarie said:
Well said!
jenmarten said:
Thanks. It’s a topic I care deeply about.
Mariah said:
I have seen AR work brilliantly, especially in quintiles two through five, and doubly especially with boys. These are groups that need the most help in finding the value of reading and books. Yes, for sure, there is probably some blowback for a non-trivial number of students, but AR to me is like the ACA in health care — more people are benefiting from it than are being harmed. That’s utilitarianism, and it makes sense.
To me, the reading killer to be upset about is the close-reading of texts being done in middle schools and high schools that turn language into dry dissectable data, and wreck the reading experience for more than are helped by it. End that, instead of AR.
jenmarten said:
I’ve taught for many years, and I never had problems getting the boys in my class to read. The key was building relationships with them and figuring out what they were interested in. If they read for points, it is about the competition, not the reading. I tell my kids, my personal ones and the ones I teach, I want them to still love reading in 20 years. Extrinsic reward programs won’t give them that. It is about the joy of reading. If I have to read, take a quiz, earn points, read, take a quiz, earn points – where is the joy in that? Plenty of research out there to show that even kids that ‘enjoy’ AR stop reading or read considerably less once the program ends/prizes removed. Reading should be intrinsic.
20 year teacher said:
The phrasing “there is probably some blowback for a non-trivial number of students” bothers me. No child is trivial, in the first place. In the second place, if we have story after story of kids who no longer love reading, or who equate reading with bribes/competition, or who develop anxiety about reading, that is not “some blowback”; that is a huge problem!
Boys? Boys are easy to hook on reading: nonfiction, survival stories, manuals, dumb joke books, magazines — you name it! I’ve taught many, many boys who thought they hated reading. Once they were paired with the right book, they couldn’t be pried away!
Chris Wejr said:
I think a key piece here is that there are many teachers that have always used AR and there is the perception that it “works”. Much like other things in education, we rarely get to see the long term impacts of our actions… so something that works for a few months or a year (often rewards-based) may have detrimental effects long term. It has been well documented that once you start rewarding something for a task, if there is any requirement of higher level thinking involved, once the reward (prize) is removed, the motivation that may have been there at one point will now be lost.
At my former school, we ended AR and there were some that thought that the amount students would read would drop. It did… until we moved deeper to work to find out what REALLY motivates kids to read (interest, skill, a culture of reading, etc).
As Deci and Ryan write, “we cannot motivate others… we can only create the conditions for people to motivate themselves”. What conditions are we creating for students to motivate themselves as readers?
I highly recommend Steven Layne or Donalyn Miller’s books… when you create the conditions, you see that points, prizes, and pizza parties are unnecessary and, although they feel good at the time, can actually do more harm than good.
jenmarten said:
Exactly! It is truly about building relationships and a culture of learning within your school and greater school community. Carrot and stick reward systems make a competition out of things that should not be competitive.
AR points and similar programs are like the dunce caps of pioneer schools for those who struggle. It draws attention to the disparity and does nothing to close the gap.
Imagine if the money spent on AR was spent on growing book collections in classrooms and on providing more teachers to schools so that reading can be taught authentically.
ACJennings said:
I believe that reading, is reading, is reading and the more a child will read – at any level, slowly they will improve and without even realize it, they will be selecting more challenging books. I we pigeon-hole a child to a level, even selecting a book becomes a chore, let alone reading the book you “have” to read. Also, for advanced readers, there quickly becomes and issue of the appropriateness of the books available. Just because a child CAN read a book doesn’t mean they SHOULD. Many teachers with advanced readers neglect to pay attention to the AR interest level in and effort to find a book a child can read.
jenmarten said:
Excellent point! There’s a book called “Some of My Best Friends Are Books” that addresses this – many times the fiction is where the appropriateness comes in. Another great resource is this Pinterest board from Mensa where kids recommend books for kids. http://www.pinterest.com/brightkids/books-for-kids-recommended-by-kids/
carriegelson said:
I am so pleased you wrote this post. I always say that the secret to reading success is simple: a room full of books and time to read them! Of course, some other things need to be in play: a passionate teacher who reads and promotes the love of reading, the books themselves need to be there – full classroom and library collections, children need to be given the time and skills to see themselves as readers – great instruction and a classroom climate that supports reading is key. I love your list of what this $$ could be spent on – and that it includes books, books and books again!
jenmarten said:
Yes! They have to see themselves as readers, and that requires them to read lots of books and have conversations and question things, not take 10 point quizzes.
You can’t teach a love of something through drill and kill, and that is exactly what AR is.
Alex Darc said:
I agree 100%. I have readers. My daughter was reading Harry Potter when she went to kindergarten. The school was an AR school. They not only had no books of any interest to her in the school classroom or school library, but they forced her to read books that they determined were on “her level” (admittedly the highest level in the school) but to her they were just bland, and awful. She had to take quizzes and keep a daily journal. It threatened to drain her love of reading. It was very sad. We worked a deal with the teachers that she would read their books, if she’d be allowed to also read books she brought from home, which worked for a while, until the tecahers decided it was “encouraging kids from lower levels to try to read outside their level”. Shouldn’t they be encouraged to read outside their level?
Who wouldn’t want to read Harry Potter rather than a book called “The Big Stick”?
We finally pulled her out to homeschool and have used the Core Knowledge reading list to help us decide what is “at level” ever since. Books like Alice in Wonderland and Treasure Island taught in elementary school. They encourage read-aloud until kids can read to themselves. They firmly believe you can’t inspire a love for reading with mediocre books written specifically so they are “at alevel”.
Charity Harbeck (@harbeckc) said:
Thank you for saying it so eloquently.
jenmarten said:
Thank you, and thanks for sharing it through google+ – maybe someone at Google will notice. lol
Melinda said:
Kelly Gallagher’s book Readicide address reading programs and other ways in which well-meaning educators have murdered the love of reading. It is a slim volume, but it packs a wallop. I highly recommend it to anyone who truly wants to revive/avoid killing the love of reading in our students.
Melinda said:
*addresses
jenmarten said:
One of my favorite resources! Thanks for mentioning it here. It is an excellent read.
The Flag Style said:
Great job and really interesting! Visit my New blog, hope you like it! 😊
nikkiharvey said:
Once upon a time there was a girl who loved stories. She was plodding along learning how to read, enjoying the stories, and progressing at a normal pace for her age. Then she found a book she really wanted to read, but it was well above her reading level. With the help of a dictionary (and her mum to read her the dictionary), she read it anyway and was soon well above the average reading ability for her age.
jenmarten said:
And that is why we let kids read based on interest and desire not computer generated lists from points and quizzes. Glad you had that support. 🙂
awax1217 said:
I taught for forty years and their were some tough students. Two lessons I taught that was out of the box. I noted my tough students loved to fish. So in history we studied how the colonist fished. How they cooked them and what foods they ate. The culminating activity was a fishing trip to a fishing area. Parents went to. I was amazed but it worked. Second lesson that really went over was based on Pit Bulls. I made a law that they were to be outlawed and why. The students had to find proof that the pit bull law was illegal. This worked too. I also tended to get in trouble because I pushed the students hot buttons to get them out of I hate books concept. Usually it worked but I was lectured by the administration not to rock the boat.
jenmarten said:
Lucky kids to have a teacher who understood where they were coming from. Teaching is about building relationships. If you do that first, then even the tough stuff isn’t so tough.
Choonsik said:
Thanks for sharing your thought. Very helpful.
Blended Family Chaos said:
Yes, yes, yes!!! Beautifully written and every word rings true. If you have time, check out my blog post titled “Books I Loved as a Child, and How They Changed My Life @blendedfamilychaos
allthoughtswork said:
“I know of school libraries where children have to show the librarian a card with their reading level on it before they can check out books.”
Oh. My. God.
My brain is lining up all the derogatory epithets it can muster but out of respect for you, I’ll limit it to a resounding “What a steaming pile!” and let it go at that.
You have my support, keep going.
azuremarie said:
Isn’t it horrible?! First time I heard that happening, too. No bueno.
jenmarten said:
The sad thing is, it’s been around for close to 20 years and is in 70% of public schools in the U.S. Breaks my heart.
jenmarten said:
Thank you. I’m not saying that librarians WANT to do this; many of them are forced to by teachers and administrators who buy into these programs. Although some do buy into this as well.
Imagine wanting a book and being told no – kills me.
allthoughtswork said:
I’d get a friend or family member to check them out of the library for me, then read them, then blog about my journey on WordPress. That would be one hell of a blog, especially if it was anonymous and had more than one kid writing in.
Man, that would be one good read.
ACJennings said:
At our school, it is the librarian who is driving the detrimental, useless program!
Alex Darc said:
Our school library was like that. My daughter had the highest “level” on her card, which meant there were a grand total of 17 books in the school library at her “level”. She was not allowed to pick below level. Her teacher told me, Sophie loves to read but we have a tough time getting her to pick out abook at library time. When I asked my daughter why she said, “Mommy, I’ve read all those books, and we have more and better books at home.” Sad.
amrita said:
A very good read…..it makes me wonder if CEOs or whoever runs these companies have their own kids follow these programs
jenmarten said:
They send their kids to private schools who don’t buy canned programs and aren’t required to keep endless amounts of mindless data.
swanarbuckle said:
I’m sure someone’s already said this, but Accelerated Reader also creates a false sense of superiority among those who excel on the tests. It doesn’t challenge them to think critically about why certain things happen in the book or why certain settings exist in the first place. It doesn’t challenge students to juxtapose fictional stories with the real world. The fact that some students don’t perform well on them only inflates the idea that some students are great without trying. When the cold reality hits that life is not always so easy, and at some point only the exceptional get praised, it’s too late for many of them. They’ve been trained to believe they’re capable of something that won’t equate to much in the real world. The damage goes both ways…especially in poor neighborhoods.
jenmarten said:
Oh, thanks for pointing this out! It’s a great point. 80-90% of AR questions are low level knowledge questions. You can’t discuss, delve into, critically think about, or argue about a book in 10 questions. It definitely creates a class system within in the class, ranking by how many points and what level you’re at – no place for competition in reading.
Janelle Weibelzahl said:
This is a great post and thank you for writing it. My husband claims he started to hate reading in second grade, because he was reading a book “above his level” and the teacher made him stand in front of her and read aloud until he made 10 mistakes, then told him he couldn’t read that book anymore. Not 10 mistakes in one page, or one paragraph… just 10 mistakes at any point.
jenmarten said:
Oh, that breaks my heart! What purpose did that serve other than to humiliate a child? I make mistakes when I read all the time, and I still have to look up words. I hope your husband reclaimed his love of reading after that.
Isengrapher said:
Reblogged this on ISENGRAPHER™ and commented:
Dear Google,
I wish you’d talked to teachers like me before you made that $40 million investment in Renaissance Learning.
I’ve seen the damage Accelerated Reader can do.
jenmarten said:
Thank you for reblogging!
Isengrapher said:
you’re welcomen, i like your post, maybe someday there will be books no more, because google had everything students needs
The Drunk Duck said:
Add it to the list of crazy things they are doing in schools these days.
jenmarten said:
Sadly, it’s been around for almost 20 years. It is one of those things that makes people feel good because, you know, numbers don’t lie. Blech.
The Drunk Duck said:
Odd, I don’t remember it growing up. Just programs where if you read a certain number of books the class would get a pizza party and things like that.
jenmarten said:
I’ve been teaching for 26 years, and it has been around for most of them. You’re talking about Pizza Hut’s Book It program which is also still around. I’m not a fan of it either, but it doesn’t tie kids to levels or limit them as readers, so it is the lesser of the evils.
The Drunk Duck said:
Yes that’s what I was referring to. I agree that any program that ties kids to levels is just absurd though. What about the Book It program do b you disagree with?
jenmarten said:
Kids have to read a certain amount, get signature – no real tie to the value of reading, just a prize. Plus it tends to make liars out of poor readers who want the coupons but can’t ever meet the goals. And I’ve seen it make liars out of good readers who want to be the one with the MOST minutes or pages each month.
I just find anything that extrinsically incentivizes reading to be lacking in true reading development.
krrisd said:
Sadly your ideas won’t fetch them million dollars. The Google you are writing to is gone. Now it’s a big money mongering enterprise.
But keep fighting. Stick to your views. And save the children.
jenmarten said:
Agreed. Money talks. I keep hoping that somehow the voice of reason will prevail, and companies will care more about people than profit. One of the most rewarding things about teaching is talking to former students about books. Just yesterday I talked with one of them, young man in his early 20’s, and he suggested a series of books to me, and I suggested a different series to him. It was so great to spend 10-15 minutes talking about reading with him. Did my heart good to know he is still a reader.
krrisd said:
That’s the hope you got. Cheers
lomejorparandroid said:
Reblogged this on Todo lo mejor- Android.
m981 said:
Reblogged this on m981.
jenmarten said:
Thanks for reblogging!
Jonathan Caswell said:
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
ALRIGHT—TELL THEM!!!!
jenmarten said:
Thanks for reblogging!
Jonathan Caswell said:
My Pleasure!
Dancing In The Weeds said:
Brilliant! Just brilliant!
jenmarten said:
Thanks, just writing from my heart.
toobabaig said:
Reblogged this on Illumine.
jenmarten said:
Thank you!
Organizational Specialist said:
YES! I love your emphasis on what should/could be done to to facilitate reading, especially focusing on libraries and librarians. In a time when local communities are cutting funding in libraries and viewing children’s librarians as a luxury, now is a great time to invest in learning and enrichment by supporting the local library. Thank you!
jenmarten said:
Thanks! My kids have had library cards since they were toddlers, and we have always relied on the children’s librarians to help us find new books and authors. It is also a great place to go for story time and other literacy related activities.
Organizational Specialist said:
I am a little biased, my mother is a children’s librarian.
jenmarten said:
It’ a noble profession. My kids have benefited greatly from the children’s librarians in our local libraries.
ACJennings said:
Love all the positives from the post. We too have always frequented the library. When our son was very young, we checked out the maximum number of books allowed each week. They got to know us so well that when our son was in 3rd grade, he was reading the first Percy Jackson series on after the other. One of the books was always out on loan when we stopped in, so we finally put in a hold request for the book. The next afternoon, we got a call from the library that his book was in and he could stop by and pick it up. When we got there, he was handed a wrapped package with a card and his name on it! When he openned the package, it was a brand new, hard back copy of the book with a messege about the wonders of reading from his Secret Santa! Oh my goodness, I still tear up to this day when I think about the lovely ladies at out local branch! Thanks to the pubic librarians of our world!
maurnas said:
Some of my favorite books now are the ones that sent me to the dictionary over and over. The ones that I had to re-read the paragraph once or twice to really consider what the author meant. I was a smart child, but these books were high school or college level. I don’t want to imagine being turned away from them. They have helped shape who I am.
jenmarten said:
I’m working on a doctorate. Last week as I did the readings for my class, I had to look up multiple words, and I had to reread several times. It’s part of the learning process. I think there is a time and place to teach reading skills and development, and a time and place to leave them alone to pick and choose books they want to read.
azuremarie said:
Reblogged this on azuremarie.
toobabaig said:
Reblogged this on illumine
How true. I have personally experienced the limitations of AR. And yes for points/marks. It is of no help, not even a bit of knowledge is gained. What we read in books is what remains in our mind be it conscious or subconscious. It is recalled when it is required. AR reading just provides with a nasty smile. Book reading is so very important. I have been a book worm before I got busy with kids. It so irritates me when I see the pile of books I have collected and don’t have much time to read. Still, reading a page or two in a day helps.
jenmarten said:
Thanks for reblogging! I find myself reading a lot of non-fiction these days because I am going back to school, but I still sneak in some fun reading when I can. And, I can say I have never felt the desire to do a 10 question quiz when I’m done. Instead I want to talk about the story, just like our kids do.
You'll Soon Be Flying said:
Quite possibly the worst thing we can do to a child is dim their light by stealing their innocent joy for reading and turn it into yet another measurable benchmark to fall short of. You have just highlighted why so many people have lost faith in big business like Google and the like. What a shame. Reading is the spark that ignites a child’s flame to learn more about life; and its also the match. Anyone who has ever succeeded in life can appreciate the benefits and importance of having a love for reading, Google execs included. With AR that spark is extinguished the second a child doesn’t measure up. Being proficient at reading (performing for someone else) should come, if it must at all, secondary to the pure love of stories, words, pages, covers and spines. The moment a child is told their imagination and curiosity is bigger than their vocabulary or comprehension ability, their light grows a little dimmer. Watching a child’s imagination and interests flourish by allowing them to open and attempt any book they choose (performing solely for themselves, not anyone else) is the greatest measure of where a child might go in life, not measuring how fast or slow they learned to get there. Reading should be seen as the greatest treasure there is, because it is. I am lucky enough to have been allowed to discover that treasure for myself. I will pass this gift on to my four children. We have “high” level readers and “low” level readers in my home, and you know what? We never speak of that. We all just grab whatever suits us and read, because its the love of it that’s important. Its the spark that will one day take my children places they can only imagine.
jenmarten said:
Beautifully put! When S was reading the Harry Potter series (3rd/4th grade), when she finished one she would spend an afternoon rereading Magic Treehouse or Junie B Jones books because her mind needed a little fluff. She’s now 7th grade, and earlier tonight we were talking about books, and she said, “There are just way too many books I want to read!” What a good problem to have. She just finished reading Lone Survivor and is almost done with The Roar – two totally different books, but ones she enjoyed. THAT is what reading is supposed to be about.
You'll Soon Be Flying said:
Here here! My bug, also a 7th grader, brings his tattered Harry Potter hardbacks along almost anywhere we go. They are like his security blanket. Anytime he has a few hours to kill, he rereads them again and again. I still fondly recall back in his 3rd/4th grade years when he would triumphantly complete each book for the first time and I could see the excitement in his eyes to crack open the next! Agreed, that kind of passion is most certainly what reading should be about. Another of my sons, Monkey, a 5th grader, still struggles to complete an entire book at “grade level.” And his confidence is constantly questioned at school by the damn AR testing. He loves to write stories, and thankfully still has a beautifully wild imagination (a bit like his mama), so I have taken to fueling his wavering passion for reading by having him write me stories in his poor penmanship, limited vocab, and technically nightmarish grammar and spelling, and then once he’s through, read it to me. He knows what he intended to say, and so it builds his confidence both as a reader and a writer. I would be crushed if his love of stories was ever extinguished because of his struggle to be “proficient.” How can one become proficient at anything if we are taught by the fear of failure? I could go on and on! ~Best, Julie
jenmarten said:
Good for you! What is ‘at grade level’ anyway? You have to find books that speak to you, level be damned. It’s why I enjoy the same books as my 13 year old daughter and why I cried when I read Wonder at the suggestion of my 9 year old. Books aren’t meant to be quantified!
Rory said:
I’m here from Freshly Pressed. What a great suggestion, WordPress. I love your post. Thank you!
Your post sparked a question for me.
My kindergarten son has recently developed a love of reading, and looks forward to his class’s Monday trips to the school library with such a passion that he fell apart over missing library time because of snow days this week. Recently he came home with a chapter book that was well above his reading level. The librarian added a note, “Wise [my son’s blog name] was interested in this book and I told him he could take it home and maybe you could read it together.” I just thought, how nice of her! We read a chapter a night and loved it. But now I’m thinking, is his school librarian a radical?
In any case, I now feel really lucky in addition to disturbed by Google.
jenmarten said:
Lucky you! That is a librarian who understands what it means to help young readers develop. There are lots of them out there, but unfortunately, many are not being given the autonomy to do what they know is developmentally appropriate for reading development. Make sure you let her know you and Wise read the book together. I’m sure that will lead to many other books being put in your son’s hand that you can enjoy together.
pezcita said:
As a library worker, I despise AR. Answering questions about what’s on the list for which grade level and how many points each book counts for is pretty tough for someone so unfamiliar with the AR system. Like you said, it’s heartbreaking to kids refuse to check out books that aren’t AR. (Even worse if they want to and their parents won’t let them.)
Then again, the former student in me almost likes the idea of AR. Growing up, I always had to read set assignments from anthologies, whether I liked the stories or not. Certainly giving kids a choice from a list of books on their level is better than giving them no choice at all, right?
jenmarten said:
We need to educate parents about the downside of extrinsic rewards and encourage them to let kids just read.
I think Basals are less of an evil than AR because at least then everyone was equal. AR creates a level of competition within the class which can be unhealthy. Plus, I think, too often, it is used to dictate independent/pleasure reading, and that is just wrong.
pryan51 said:
Reblogged this on Union City Library Blog.
pryan51 said:
Thank you! Beautifully reasoned and written. I’ve reblogged on the Union City Library blog. One reason the powers that be, whoever they might happen to be, like things like AR and STAR testing is they are easily quantifiable. Statistics are everything! How do you quantify eagerness, curiosity, excitement at learning new things and skills?
jenmarten said:
Agreed, it is an ‘easy’ fix, but like you said, some things just cannot be quantified, and a love of reading is one of them. Thanks for reblogging.
tasuvali said:
Reblogged this on Learn to laugh and commented:
I agree..reading is a journey that has kept me sane thru my nightmares, I would baulk at the prospect that I cannot read WHAT I want, WHEN I want…
jenmarten said:
Thank you!
Mr Seah said:
Oh gosh. I really really need to reblog this later. Yes, reading should be about joy and interest and that RUSH of reading. The levels bit helps many readers, but when it gets incentivized badly, bad things happen..
jenmarten said:
Thanks! A teacher who knows his/her students can pick out those levels without a computer program spitting out lists. That same teacher can match interest and knows how far to push the reader without getting to a point of frustration where there is no return. It takes human contact and conversation to develop good readers who remain readers for a lifetime.
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jenmarten said:
Thank you for reblogging!
awax1217 said:
I saw trends in teaching but the one thing that killed them all was the lack of funding for their continuation. They started out strong and got everyone fired up and ready to go and the next year the funding went into something else. For example one year we had the kids write and publish their own books. Swell, but two months in and the money evaporated. The next year history went into geography with new books and supplemental reading material. The next year we were responsible for a mini law course and so on.
UnpracticalGaming said:
You’re giving a giant company too much credit. I saw that you said that they’re missing the point with these programs. The truth is that they hit the mark with it. In a corrupted world, power is everything. Such books like 1984 express this clearly. Google is a very powerful company, and for their decision, I applaud them on how smart the are. But the pure greed and evil behind the decision is disgusting, but we’re giving these people too much credit, like, “I just don’t know why they would do that! They’re no innovative!” Things like that continue to give them power. Everything that has been bad, that has been implemented in schools, is for the sake of power and greed. It’s a very pessimistic attitude, but it’s also a realist attitude.
jenmarten said:
Oh, I realize it is about the bottom line, but to not call them out for it puts me in collusion with them. Evil thrives when good people do nothing. Change only happens when people speak out. Google may not hear me, may not care, but others do, and this post has generated a lot of conversation. There will be a tipping point – that last little Who who added his voice in Horton Hears a Who – “We are here! We are here! We are here!”
spokethepoet said:
Wow! I don’t usually read blogs, actually yours is my first. It grabbed my attention immediately with your passion and incredibly wise words chosen so perfectly. I had to comment just to say that I’m proud of people like you who stand up for what they believe in, no matter what. I had to tell you that you’ve touched my heart and as I can see you’ve touched many others as well, not just through this blog but as a teacher in this forever changing world. Keep it up, never stop fighting for what you believe in. People like you are the ones who actually make this world a beautiful place! Thank you for being a voice for so many people who deserve better. God bless you, teachers are what keeps the world going round!
Don Royster said:
When did our schools become prisons and the children become prisoners? That is what the state of public education sounds like these days. If anything, reading has one goal. To read more and not have borders. If a bird doesn’t spread its wings, it will never fly. So why is this not true for our children?
jenmarten said:
It started in the 1980’s with the publication of “A Nation at Risk” and it tumbled the bipartisan approval of No Child Left Behind and has morphed even further under Race to the Top. We expect our schools to produce a product rather than develop children. It is a sad commentary on how big data and corporate dollars drive public education.
Don Royster said:
Two observations. Corporations and Washington bemoan the state of education in America from Washington. But on the local level, they are laying off teachers. I wish an interviewer would ask one of the CEOs when he/she is spouting off about the lousy state of education one question, “Would you be willing to pay more in taxes to improve education?” Secondly, the critics dump on public schools, yet the private schools get off scot free. Let’s see private schools do as great a job if they are required to follow the same rules as public schools: take all students (don’t just pick and choose), pay decent salaries. And those are just two things I see as wrong. And start praising teachers for the great jobs they are doing with so little.
jenmarten said:
When they start to see students and teachers as people not data points, then maybe we will make progress. Equitable funding of schools is a must as is equitable resources and opportunities.
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thesartorialpenguin said:
I’m 16 now and I did AR in elementary school but we were never forced to buy books our level. Heck, I checked out books higher than my level. For the point tests I just did the tests on books I already read, which I’m not sure is a good thing on a learning level. Since I was in honor classes in middle school AR wasn’t relevant to me anymore. I think they made other kids confine to A.R. because they felt it would force them to read.
jenmarten said:
The word that jumps out at me is in your last sentence – force. This is my big issue with AR. It treats reading like something we have to force or bribe kids to do.
So many other ways to instill a love of reading.
thesartorialpenguin said:
I agree. I feel like the reading “culture” for teens at least is growing though and seen as more fun (well I think). Mainly, because of the excitement I see from teen youtubers who talk about their love of books a.k.a booktubers. I love watching their videos it makes me want to read more. I just want to have walls of books like they do! 🙂
Does A.R. actually make a difference in improving your reading level compared to just picking up a book you’re interested in? I have a feeling it doesn’t.
jenmarten said:
Agreed. There is such a huge body of YA books out there that kids want to read.
There is actually research that shows that while there may be an increase in reading while students participate in AR, there is a significant drop off when the program is removed.
Plus, have you looked at some of those lower level books? If you struggle to read already, we should be putting good quality, age-appropriate books in your hands.
thesartorialpenguin said:
I’m confused are the lower level books not as good as the higher level books? I actually don’t go to public school anymore so I don’t really know.
jenmarten said:
It’s about choice. If a child really wants to read a book, the level should not be a reason to tell them no. And it associates point values to the books.
The Farmer's Daughter said:
My 12 year old son used to love to read until AR. The first quarter he missed his goal by maybe two points. He’s more interested in reading hunting and truck magazines.
Over the past few years he’s come to dread reading. Doesn’t help that he is a slow reader, no matter how much he enjoys what he’s reading. Last year I talked to his teacher, and this year again, and one out of every 2-3 books we download a book from audible, really no different than the occasional read-abouts (audio books from school) that the kids get to bring home. I’ve always sat and read a book with him as he’s read, and do the same when he listens to the audio books, and still have him read other things to me to make sure that he is still moving along with his reading. AR does cause a lot of stress with many kids and do believe that it does cause them to lose their love of reading.
jenmarten said:
I had a student who preferred to read the instruction manuals that came with the farm machinery his parents owned. Talk about technical reading! I always had my kids bring in magazines for silent reading time if that’s what they were interested in. For me, it was about getting them to love reading.
Glad you continue to read with your son and encourage him. He’s lucky to have you on his side.
The Farmer's Daughter said:
Sounds like you were a great teacher! Thank you!
jenmarten said:
Thank you!
erica0407 said:
That’s terrifying. This is so contrary to American ideals.
MindTechNorms said:
really nice…i like it… i will be more happy if my blog entertains you as yours… http://mindtechnorms.wordpress.com
lgengsy said:
Reblogged this on lgengsy.
motherhendiaries said:
I agree completely. My mum always told me you can go anywhere in a book… I got lost in books way above my level from a very, very early age (I was reading at 4). Oh, the excitement of learning and discovery! To limit a child to checking out only books they are “allowed” according to level is like putting a speed limit on the track at school. Isn’t the point to get them to race ahead and to push themselves that bit harder? How will they know the love of reading if they are not encouraged to set their personal bars higher?
jenmarten said:
Exactly! Books open doors for so many kids!
naomiharvey said:
Reblogged this on So I want to be an author… and commented:
I agree with this. We had levels of books when I was learning to read. I have no idea how many levels I skipped, but I know I skipped a lot! I had to read certain books (silver and gold level) before I could go on to ‘free reading’ and it was a chore. Fortunately I’m a fast reader and was 7 when I was finally allowed to do at school what I was already doing at home. Reading whatever I want.
Laura said:
Great post. And as the daughter of a children’s librarian, I’m glad to see that children’s librarians were on your list of suggestions 🙂
jenmarten said:
My SIL is a children’s librarian. 🙂
originemil said:
I remember reading some pretty challenging books as a kid. In grade 6 I was totally engrossed by “The power of one”, “Les Miserables”, and countless other “adult” books through my childhood. Though I didn’t fully grasp the concepts and sometimes I’d have a dictionary as a second simultaneous read 😛 , I fell in love with the words and the visualisation of what those wonderful characters experienced. Limiting a child’s exposure to “Just what we think you can understand”, doesn’t just impede their ability to read, but to learn and to progress through self determination.
Though I’m not an educator of young people, I work and research the education industry and trends constantly, I’m a firm believer that our current focus on levels, grades and academic points is retarding our ability to truly educate our children and prepare them for a world which is moving beyond report cards. The issue of using “AR” as a means to encourage reading is a method best left in the past. We must find a new way to expose children, and adults, to the joys, pleasure and utility of reading in a more positive and progressive way.
Thank you for raising this issue.
jenmarten said:
Thanks. I just had this conversation with my DD13. We talked about how you can read a book and then read it again a few years later and get something completely different out of it. Books are multi-faceted. We need to let kids experience those multiple levels.
Regenerating Nations said:
I never had AR growing up in the states & I’m have been nonplussed about it til now. I’ve read to my daughter since she was newborn and she’s 6 now.
One of the many things I have against mainstream education. I want to yell – HOW DARE YOU HINDER A CHILDS QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE but, will it make a difference?
I hope your great words get in front of many more eyeballs and helps create change. Bless ya
mybeautfulthings said:
I LOVE what you say here. As an English teacher in the UK I have spent my life promoting reading for pleasure. It opens so many doors for people of all ages. I share your philosophy and though I don’t re-blog, will link to this post in today’s blog. Brilliant! Keep up the good work. I’d have been so happy to have one of my own to be taught by you! 🙂
jenmarten said:
Thank you. I know there are so many people out there who share my love of reading and pass that on to their students and children. We have to keep doing what we know is developmentally appropriate.
mybeautfulthings said:
Yes indeed! 🙂
brokenpicketfences said:
Well and articulately put!
fredreeca said:
I agree with everything you wrote!!
obzervashunal said:
Excellent writing and a brilliant read. I was one of those kids in school who read slowly. Luckily, my love of books made sure I never let it stop me!
settingtheworld said:
I agree. Schools are losing their way (in the UK and US, anyway) – reading should primarily be about fun: make it interesting, and they will come back for more. Denying a child a book they want to read is SO sad!
Wendy said:
Great post! I so relate to this. My youngest is the type who won’t read unless he’s drawn to a subject. I was fortunate enough to run into a precious lady at a book store who helped me find books for him, and we’d read. Now he finds authors he likes, reads for pleasure, and is dipping his toe into the water of writing his own book.
jenmarten said:
Ah, we have a bookstore in town like that, too! She always gives me great suggestions on new authors and books based on what I tell her about students and my own children.
Books should be ones that draw us in. Not to say we shouldn’t sometimes read things we don’t necessarily enjoy if there is a purpose, but also because it gives us a chance to talk about what we don’t like and support our opinions.
My kids have never been shy about telling me they didn’t enjoy certain titles. Some of the best conversations are started when one loves a book that another hates.
tamberrinoartstudio said:
I couldn’t agree with you more! I’m a former teacher, and I felt the same way about the AR program. Let teachers teach, and let kids read. It should be that simple! Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! 🙂
jenmarten said:
You mean, gasp, let teachers do what they were educated to do? 😉 I so agree! We have to trust those who work directly with children to know them and know their needs.
I wrote this because I feel so passionately about the topic, but apparently, so do a lot of other people. 🙂
moldsolutions said:
So true. I was reading Tender is the Night a few days ago and one of my neighbors kids, 16 years old, passed me and asked what I was doing. I responded, “what does it look like? I’m reading.” He answered, “Why? Can’t you just download the cheat sheet?” It seems as if no one reads anymore nor has any interest. Thanks for the share.
daveeckstrom said:
I could have written this post myself. I am a former homeschooling parent whose daughter went to public school (4th grade) for the first time last year. I have watched her voracious love of reading dwindle to a grudging duty over the last two years.
Her teacher finally got so fed up with AR this year that she announced to the class that AR competitions were going to be optional for everyone in her class this semester. My daughter immediately began reading for fun and learning again. She was just finishing up with a non-AR book she loved and looking forward to the next book in the series when (she thought) the teacher announced that the class was going to have to be in the school competition after all.
She was depressed and actually looked sick that evening and my wife finally got her to say what the problem was–she was sad that she wasn’t going to get to read what she wanted any more, but would have to read from the narrow list of books at her level for which our district owns the tests. We called a meeting with the teacher and opted her out. The teacher was very supportive and decided to buck her administration and allow others in the class the option of not being part of the competition.
We’re grateful for this courageous teacher, because the administration doesn’t see the problem and thinks AR is 100% positive for every kid.
jenmarten said:
Kudos to you for recognizing it and opting your daughter out, and kudos to her teacher for standing up for what she knows is best for kids.
I have heard from teachers who have shared this post with their whole school. Feel free to pass on the Bag the Web link at the end of the blog with the teacher. She may find it helpful in continuing conversations with her principal about abolishing AR for good.
Brain Drippings said:
Reblogged this on Brain Drippings and commented:
I saw an Arthur episode on PBS with the same view.
Suzanne Gibbs said:
Well said! Wish it would absolutely be TRASHED from our district!!
jenmarten said:
Thanks! Is there a way you can use this post to start a conversation in your district about it? I think sometimes we do things because we always have, but when someone brings up a different perspective, it can push us to change. Good luck.
FlatBrokeCoed said:
Our elementary school had a library system where reading books and taking computer quizzes on them got you points toward prizes.
There was no leveling structure, per se. Books that were longer (like Harry Potter) or books that are considered a higher reading level were awarded more points on the computer quizzes.
That ENCOURAGED ME to read higher level books. Higher level books like Harry Potter + Points = a motivated as hell 2nd grader. It started my lifelong habit of voracious reading, but only because I learned along the way that I could pick up any intimidating-looking book I wanted and I could get something meaningful out of it.
jenmarten said:
There was probably leveling, but as a good reader, you weren’t held back. It’s the struggling readers who often suffer the most. The ones, who given the chance, will read Harry Potter or Series of Unfortunate Events, even if it is above their level, because they want to read what their friends are reading or what they hear about.
Part of the joy of reading is having a common language with others who have read the same books. I made a Marauders’ Map reference the other day, and the person I was talking with knew exactly what I was talking about.
kuroiika said:
Reblogged this on kuroiika inc.
nitikornkanawongjoth said:
Reblogged this on jothclub.
eleharty said:
Reblogged this on misplacing my modifier and commented:
This perfectly summarizes how I feel about accelerated reading programs in schools.
MiaMusings said:
I didnt even know there is such a system as AR…wasnt there in India when I was in school and thank god for it. No one likes to do things if they are forced into it…I know I would never touch a book if it was solely for points. There are other ways of inculcating a reading habit…this by far sounds abhorring.
rankda said:
It seems to me that the problem doesn’t lie with AR or Google for that matter. They are just a tool that an educator MIGHT use in order to assess the growth of their readers. It’s what the educator DOES, with AR or any other program for that matter, that determines whether a student is being inspired or turned off. I have conferenced with my readers and have an understanding of their likes/dislikes and when they find a book in the library, that might not be in their “level”, I often encourage them to choose it, but to also choose a second or third book that reinforces their comprehension level or challenges them as a reader. That way my readers are growing…stretching…thinking. Renaissance Learning’s STAR reports assist me in driving my reading instruction, not demanding ridiculous reading restraints on my readers.
jenmarten said:
I hear that a lot, and I know some teachers make the best out of it, but I still firmly believe that a teacher can do that without sorting and labeling kids into levels or attaching points to it.
I’m married to a farmer, and the old saying is, “You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it every day.” The constant assessing of reading and learning as a whole is what frustrates me most. I became a better reader because I read – books at my level, below my level, and above it. I was in control of that learning.
And I guess the other thing I see is that research shows that when you remove the extrinsic reward, the behavior does not continue unless it is a low level skill, which reading most definitely is not.
wakingofthebear said:
What a great teacher you must be. Thanks for caring. Thanks for speaking out. I hate that kids these days are taught to take a standardized test that ignores individuality and creativity. Einstein said, “The best teacher is the one that shows a student where to look, but doesn’t tell them what to look for.” Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed.
NeuronTree said:
THis is really great, very inspirational. I’m about to go back to school for my English degree, and one of the things I have been contemplating doing with it is teaching. While my original thoughts were that I wanted to teach at college level, this is really inspirational to look into teaching elementary school kids, to help them become better readers, and to find ways around this divide that you speak of.
Reading is such an important thing, and I think that if one is gotten on the path early enough and with enough inspiration to carry on, it can really set the pace for the child and their development.
A great post. I hope it reaches a great many 🙂
Ramona Lowe said:
An excellent blog and a great conversation in the comments. I used AR 20 years ago when our school first adopted it, and while drawn to it initially, I–and my students–soon became disenchanted. Kids who had read more challenging books were tripped up with trivial questions and I saw kids who could read those books going for multiple far easier titles to get the points. (As a class we read The Count of Monte Cristo and we all–me included–took the test and did poorly because the questions didn’t match our translation). However, I didn’t really see the harm until I began teaching struggling readers in high school. Parents would tell me over and over, year in and year out, how AR had derailed their children. AR wants to be a substitute for the literate classroom environment proposed by folks like Nancie Atwell, Donnalyn Miller, and others. It’s just not even close.
jenmarten said:
Thanks for sharing this. Such a powerful testimony to what reading is all about.
When I earned my Masters in Reading years ago, I was introduced to the work of Nancie Atwell, Donald Graves, and Lucy Calkins, and that shaped my teaching.
I have added Donnalyn Miller and Kelly Gallagher to that list.
I love how you phrased it – “literate classroom environment.”
Mike Zander said:
Reblogged this on zandersight's Blog.
Kitty Boitnott said:
I absolutely agree. I was a librarian for 33 years, and I hated the Accelerated Reader program for all the reasons you cite. I hated the competition, and I hated that the prizes incentivized cheating instead of encouraging a love of reading for the love of reading alone. It taught wrong messages and I was a disgruntled and reluctant participant because administrators and most teachers bought into the hype. Thank you for articulating what I have felt and known for years. What a waste of valuable resources, and what a mistake when we teach our children that reading is a “chore” that requires rewards other than the pleasure of reading a great book and knowing what a blessing a great book can be. Thank you.
jenmarten said:
I know there are lots of reluctant participants out there – librarians and teachers who are required to follow the program even though they know it is not in the best interest of readers.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, and I’m glad this resonated with you.
Shirley Coale said:
I saw the results of the AR program in my own niece and nephew. The head of the program at their school believed that it was the answer to everything. When my niece got to high school, her English teacher said “you must come from ….. school. I can always tell, you don’t know anything about English, grammar, usage, etc.” Both these kids loved books, having been read to by grandparents and aunts from a young age, but it stopped with AR. They read and got lots of points, but my nephew would only read if there was a payoff. Fast foreward to today…”Nobody pays me to read, why should I?” My niece says it just killed any interest or fun in reading. She’d rather spend time with her dog. As a reading teacher, I know how to teach kids to read and love what they are reading and it’s not with AR.
jenmarten said:
A story I hear all too often. Thank you for adding it to this conversation. Powerful.
alaskagirl97 said:
Reblogged this on Thoughts Of An Alaskan Teen and commented:
When I was younger I struggled with reading, but no one put a limit on my abilities, so I grabbed a book that would be considered “not my level” and I struggled through it. It was reading that book, one that made me struggle, that made enjoy reading as much as I do now.
ihackdestroy said:
Reblogged this on PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.
alaskagirl97 said:
When I was in Kindergarten I struggled with reading, but I wanted to read. One day I brought home a book that would be considered, now, as above my level. I sat down with my mom and struggled through it. Eventually I was reading at a level way above what is should have been. During my Freshman year of high school we took a reading comprehension test, when the results came back my kindergarten teacher, who was the administer of the test was shocked, the score said I had the same comprehension level as most college sophomores should.
hannahmyers33 said:
Reblogged this on Tea Party Truths and commented:
I’ve always thought Accelerated Reader was a terrible thing. Yet another reason our education system is broken.
ACJennings said:
While I don’t support the accelerated reader, I don’t feel our education system is as broken as it is ADHD and like our currently NOW culture after a quick fix. As soon as a new program is implemented, but before it can really show results someone else introduces the next thought and we’re off and running!
jenmarten said:
It’s hard to hit the target when it keeps moving. 🙂 I agree that we try too many things and often don’t stick with them, but AR has been around since 1985 – almost 30 years.
Our obsession with data is obscene, and too often we try to quantify things that should not be quantified. As a culture we seem to find some comfort in numbers, and that misleads us into believing that all data is good data.
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HaitianBarbieK said:
Reblogged this on haitianbarbiek.
marycheshier said:
Reblogged this on How 2 Be Green and commented:
A fabulous post from a teachers perspective.
marycheshier said:
What a great post. Wow, you are so right! Yes, Google should have done some research first.
Christy said:
I am so thankful that AR was not around when I was a kid. I was a struggling reader until the summer before 4th grade. You see, my third grade teacher began reading aloud the Laura Ingalls Wilder series and by the end of third grade she had read 3 or 4 of them to us. Well, even though it was probably well above my reading level, I pushed through the entire series that summer and when I returned to school in the fall, I had become a voracious and competent reader. I am sure if I had grown up in the AR era, I would have never become a reader, a teacher, or a reading specialist.
jenmarten said:
A few years ago I had a graduating senior approach me at a graduation party and say, “You’re the reason I read.” He was a struggling/reluctant reader, but I introduced him to the Lemony Snicket series and Spiderwick Chronicles. He soared after that.
Teachers have the power to open up so many doors for kids if we instill the love of reading.
bookjunkiekrystal said:
I’m several years away from having kids, but recently I’ve been finding myself drawn to articles and posts about the current status of education, particularly as it relates to reading. The information scares me.
Christy said:
Krystal,
There are some great models for reading out there (reader’s workshop, reading recovery, comprehensive literacy model, etc.). Look for schools that have student centered learning as a focus.
Christy
jenmarten said:
Christy, Thanks for sharing those suggestions. They are excellent ones.
Krystal, don’t let it scare you, but do be aware and be involved. Ask questions, share research, and be your child’s best advocate. Many teachers feel the same as I do.
Jennifer Lacijan Foster said:
I see many of these issues as well. My older daughter would “stock up” on reading over the summer, just so she would be able to take the quizzes as soon as school started and be done with points for the first quarter. Then she would feel free to read a book “just for fun” before reading up for second quarter quizzes. Shouldn’t all reading be for fun? Now my second daughter is struggling to meet her goals, but she is afraid to try too hard, because she knows if she does make her goal, it will just be raised for the next quarter. The school has also adopted a percentage system that says all students should be at a percent of their goal to match the percent of the quarter that has passed (ex: 25% of goal at 25% of the quarter). If they don’t make these mini-goals, they are forced to skip recess to stay in the classroom and read. First off, what kid can focus on reading when they know all their friends are outside playing? Secondly, this system punishes the students who choose harder books that may be worth more total points, but can’t be read in one week. Where is the incentive to read anything challenging?
jenmarten said:
Thank you for sharing this example. I hear similar stories all the time. Is there anyone in the school who might be willing to start a conversation about this?
jamawynn said:
Reblogged this on Life Of Wynn and commented:
Love this blog on reading for children! Check it out!!!!
shawnacoppola said:
Reblogged this on My So-Called Literacy Life and commented:
I’m afraid Google has gotten itself into quite a pickle with educators. They deserve it.
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dzawacki said:
Wonderful, I never really thought about it at the time I was reading Accelerated Reader books what it might be doing to the people who weren’t like me, devouring every book put in front of me. Its a valid argument, looking back at it now. Thanks for bring it to my attention.
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acjennings2014 said:
Reblogged this on alwaysamomfirst and commented:
One of my biggest passions at the moment is the detrimental costs of AR. The blog below sums it up much more eloquently than I ever could!
Jenny said:
I can say that similar programs have made it into some Australian schools and classrooms. My last child experienced it and went from an avid reader of anything he could get his hands on to a non-reader in two years (last two years in a new primary school for him). I will continue to speak up against outside programs and ensure that I promote choice, quality literature and enjoyment in reading materials.
Casey said:
Reblogged this on A Home In Progress and commented:
I may not have had the greatest most efficient elementary education.. but books were always highly encouraged, at any level we wanted not just at school but at home as well. My sister and I both feasted on book after book, for hours upon hours. Each one leaving a little stamp on our brain, our heart and our soul. I was never discouraged from reading something “beyond or below my level” and I don’t think any child should ever be denied or made to feel uncomfortable reading whatever inspires them.
This letter to Google from Teach From the Heart really hit home with me. I couldn’t agree with her more. I believe that every child should grow up with more books, more outdoors and more things that inspire them to live passionately, I mean really.. isn’t that what being a kid is all about? Finding what inspires you to learn and grow?
jenmarten said:
Thank you! I love how you say you and your sister feasted on books – what a lovely image. Thank you for reblogging my post.
Randolph Fine said:
Wonderful post. As an avid reader, I love to read all levels and genres. As a father of a potential avid reader, I want to encourage my little toddler to read for pleasure as well as for education. The more he reads the greater is skill level will become. If for some reason his level is lower than his peers, I will not be worried as long as he continues to read. Reading is a lifetime pursuit.
ljomccullough said:
It’s just as bad for children in high Lex-Aisles. I could not find ANY appropriate book for my seventh grade daughter. It was suggested she read a college text book. Ugh.
jenmarten said:
Check out the book “Some of My Best Friends are Books” and this Pinterest board from Mensa is great, too. http://www.pinterest.com/brightkids/books-for-kids-recommended-by-kids/
Tricia said:
So many posts and so much passion around this topic warms my heart.
Trying to fit the best learning experience into a data driven agenda never made sense to me. The trend to categorize instruction and learning into neatly organized data just tore the heart out of teaching for me…. so, I left public education.
Parents, please stay involved! They are YOUR children and even the most well-meaning teachers have little choice in the learning environment they are measured and evaluated in themselves.
Bring on the joy in reading, learning, and teaching!
jenmarten said:
Thank you! This is exactly the thought I had as I wrote this post. Kids aren’t data points, but we have become so data driven that we forget that. And, yes, parents please stay involved! You are your child’s first teacher and their biggest advocate, so don’t be afraid to question the data craze.
lokismind said:
I haven’t heard of this before and thought maybe we don’t have it in Australia but it turns out we do, just obviously something the schools my kids went/ go to don’t do it and I must say I’m extremely happy about that. This sounds like a majorly stupid (politest word I could think of without using expletives.)
Apart from that nicely written and it’s a shame that big corps like google don’t think properly before acting.
dzeibert said:
Great article Jen! I’m eager to hear your thoughts / answers to three things that come up in making this work:
1. New teachers: How do we still provide new teachers with lists of books and recommendations that will excite kids and help get the new teachers going? Without some basic guidance on the relative complexity of the text, how do new teachers without a lot of experience help make book recommendations for kids that will help them to thrive?
2. What’s the best way to motivate kids who are reluctant to read to give it a try, when they are reluctant even on topics they love. For example, you mention the Captain Underpants books. These have been great for getting kids into reading. But sometimes it’s a challenge to get some of the kids to give them a try. But once the kids did give it a try, they loved it. So are there tools besides AR that still overcome that initial barrier to even get started on something? There are some kids who were “forced” to read something, anything. And that little prodding, along with finding material they were interested in, was all they needed to overcome their reluctance and get excited. But that initial hurdle for some kids to just give reading a can be really hard for parents and even teachers.
3. How do you respond to the trend in a lot of educational materials to “game-ify” everything? For example, lots of educational materials now are turning to games, where there are points, badges, levels, awards, and other things built right into the games. In some cases, students seem to really these items, and work / play hard as they advance levels. Is this just an example of extrinsic motivation? Or are there some redeeming items here that we can learn from.
I’m eager to hear your thoughts on these topics. Thanks for your insights here, we all appreciate them!
denabud said:
1. Schools could spend the money spent on Accelerated Reader on the salary of a LMS (Library Media Specialist). A quality LMS can be a support to a new teacher, creating book lists, books talks and guidance on text complexity. If a school doesn’t have money for a LMS, there are so many wonderful resources online that share all the topics you mentioned above. An example, the CCBC (Cooperative Book Center) at the University of Wisconsin Madison http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/areyoua/k12teacher.asp Colleges should be preparing teachers and connecting them to PLN that can be support systems for teachers.
2. Again, a LMS and a good teacher. If a teacher needs a “tool” to get a student to read, I question their effectiveness. I don’t think you are giving teachers much credit. Understand, reading comes in all forms, not just fiction and non-fiction. Some students may enjoy reading an owner’s manual to a lawn mower or an age appropriate magazine.Should they be limited to what might spark their interest in becoming a lifelong reader because it wasn’t listed on the “tool” they were required to use at school?
3. It is not about the game, it is about the learning. If the game is asking low level, specific factual questions, I would deem it unworthy. If a game allows students to work at deep level of inquiry, promote problem solving and critical thinking, and students earn some badges along the way, I would consider it worthwhile.
dzeibert said:
In terms of #2: For my own son, the key to spark his love of reading was Harry Potter. But getting him to even try it (or anything like it) was a real struggle initially. He’s a math wizard, but just refused to get into reading. Once he had to do it, he finally gave it a shot, and now he loves reading.
So my question in #2: How do you overcome that initial barrier? Sometimes just finding the topics they love is not enough. Having an assignment from the teacher to “read anything you like” can go a long way. Do you consider an assignment where they have to give reading a shot, but get to pick whatever they want as “forcing them”?
jenmarten said:
Dena gives a great reply!
1) An LMS and a PLN – what every teacher needs whether they are new or veteran. Plus, you need to tap into the many free resources available through libraries, book cooperatives, and the ALA (American Library Association), and the owners of the small, independent bookstores that still pepper the landscape. I also built my library on the suggestions of my students.
2) You cannot motivate anyone but yourself. A teacher’s job is to pave the way, but the motivation must come from inside. Your son struggled to start the Harry Potter series? Then why push that one? Start with where they are – that’s what teachers do. They build relationships and find out where kids are. I had a student one year who loved reading manuals that came with machines, so I hooked him up with David McCauley’s work – books like Castle, Cathedral, and The Way Things Work. And we are talking about independent reading which should not have an assignment attached to it.
3) Dena hits it out of the park on this one. The things we incorporate into lessons should always be about the learning. A digital worksheet is STILL a worksheet. A game that that does exactly what a worksheet does is not 21st century.
I suggest you read the works of Daniel Pink (Drive), Kelly Gallagher (Readicide) and Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer).
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jenmarten said:
Love this, Lisa! I’m glad you gave the book examples. That is one of the things that I think we need to educate teachers and parents about – the ridiculous way book are leveled.
Aquila said:
When I was in school, quite a long time ago now, I had been reading before I ever got to Kindergarten. That was a good thing for me as an individual, it was a very bad thing as a student. My mother was called in by the teacher and told that she had no business teaching me to read before I got to school. I had gone through the little workbook and done the whole thing in a few days because I could read the instructions in the center (I was reading about 3rd or 4th grade level in Kindergarten). My mother informed the teacher that I had taught myself to read, she was right. Both my parents read to me, my grandmother who lived with us read to me. They didn’t read just children’s books, they read the National Geographic every month which I loved, they would read books I chose at the library, the newspaper, magazines, I didn’t care. The librarians at the public library were appalled that my mother would check out books that were from the older children’s or adult sections. The school library was only to be used at school and they refused to allow us to pick our own books.
I home schooled my youngest step-daughter, she was doing okay in school but frustrated with the lack of encouragement for her reading, I did with my step-kids what my parents had done with me. They could read pretty much anything they wanted. It was a constant battle with the teachers for all five of them.
I have come to the conclusion that strict grade structure and strict level rules are not helpful to any child. Something where earning points would never had encouraged my step-kids and it wouldn’t have encouraged me. I didn’t need prizes. I went to Mars, traveled the world, learned about different cultures, met dinosaurs and dragons, rode in fighter jets, learned about people and relationships, words, their meanings and where they came from, there was so much. I ended up with an education no school could’ve provided. I’m still being educated, I will be till I die.
If you can read, understand and retain what you read, the rest will follow. I believe our entire concept of education needs to be examined, reformed, rethought. We do not teach the way children learn, we do not teach them the things they really need to know. We have been teaching them to take tests, to become statistics. I think it’s possible that $40 million could’ve been better used by quite a few really engaged educators, even parents. We are not using the gift of the internet as the educational tool it could be, as we did not with television. We have to stop teaching to fill industrial jobs that no longer exist. We also have to stop being open to regimentation of children’s minds. We have a very long way to go.
jenmarten said:
You voice concerns that many teachers and parents have. The factory model of education that dates back to the Industrial Revolution does not serve our students well. It never has, quite honestly. From grouping by age (Deborah Ruf says, “Grouping kids by age makes about as much sense as grouping them by height.”) to buying into scripted (expensive) ‘miracle’ programs, we (as a whole – there are schools & teachers who buck the system all the time) are not doing what is best for students. Sir Ken Robinson does a nice job of explaining this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
There are many people out there trying to change this model, but at the same time, there are many corporations trying to make money off of public education by selling programs that really amount to snake oil.
Christy said:
Jen,
I so agree with you about schools being built upon the factory model and corporations trying to make a buck off of the educations system. There are pockets of people all over the US who believe this, but it is hard to change this model by yourself. Are there any education groups already formed out there where we can ban together to turn this thing around?
Christy
jenmarten said:
Christy,
There are many groups that are fighting to get education back on the right track, including parent groups that are starting to form to say “Enough!” to all the high stakes testing. However, I think sometimes it is easier to start small, within your own school, and work for change there. Little ripples create big waves.
theadventuresofkimandkids said:
Reblogged this on theadventuresofkimandkids and commented:
This is one of the many reasons I homeschool. My children love to read because I allow them to read any book they choose. Yes it maybe difficult for them to read, so I sit down beside them and help them sound out each word they struggle with.
mrkimmi said:
There are more children everyday who do not have that parent to sit beside them and help them sound out those difficult words. It is sad, but true. Putting A Tale of Two Cities in the hands of the wrong person will kill their love of reading.
jenmarten said:
And there are many children who are not given a chance to tackle hard books because it is not within their level. The whole argument against AR is about choice – giving students choice to read easy or hard or just right.
mrkimmi said:
I believe in choice. Students need choice. And parents should have the choice to send there kids to the school that is right for them. I also believe parents should have a voice at their school. These ridiculous implementations of AR should be met with a trove of parent’s voicing their concerns.
nayanmeckwan said:
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Rii the Wordsmith said:
Gah, as always – reading is its own reward. And if I meet someone who claims they hate reading, I’m always positive it’s just because they haven’t met the right book.
Just another reason to prepare my home for homeschooling, filled with all sorts of books from Dr. Seuss to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Fablehaven, Artemis Fowl…and of course, there’s always the library.
jenmarten said:
My classroom was always filled with those books as is my home, and I know many teachers who do the same. And the library is still a favorite place for my family.
Rii the Wordsmith said:
One of the first pieces of furniture I owned myself was a bookshelf…which I quickly filled to overflowing with my own books. As a kid, I always loved owning books. And then there were the “family” books, filling an entire wall of bookshelves. Well, bookshelves and a piano.
…Remembering this, it doesn’t really make sense how AR could teach kids to like reading. Putting a limit on books? How does that encourage reading books? Hm.
mrkimmi said:
I bet I could count the number of books I read in elementary and middle school on my hands and feet. I read very little. I didn’t like it and didn’t see myself as “good” at it, so I avoided it at all costs. When I started high school our district began using the Accelerated Reader program. They set a number of points we had to earn before we could graduate. Well, I didn’t like to read so I put it off until my junior and senior year. About this time, Jurassic Park went to theaters and I was blown away to later learn that it was a book. I read that book in about a week and took my AR test. The 100% I got felt like the first real validation I ever received that I was a good reader. After that, I read the sequel and then the next one. I read all of the other Michael Crichton books we had in the library, each time excited to take that test and see what I would get. AR saved this reader.
The fatal flaw I see in this argument is the implied belief that every classroom is being led by a great teacher. As much as I would hope it would be, it just isn’t true. For some kids, AR is a godsend, the validation they need. For others, it is not. For some kids, AR turns reading into a game (like those things today’s children spend so much time playing). For others, it doesn’t. Every kid is different, right? Shall we deny the kids who would benefit from it because there are one’s who don’t?
There are two sides here, not one. It is about balance.
I used AR as a child. I teach in a school that uses AR. I love to read. I pass that love on to my students everyday.
lorevalkyrie said:
I’m 22, pretty young yet, so I remember the days of being a monitored reader. Back in Koenig Elementary, I was put in an advanced reading group and I HATED it! I never liked to be separated from my friends/peers or pointed out because I was a strong reader or a faster reader. Now, years later, I find myself looking up words I knew in middle school, and really regretting not telling my teachers how I desperately wanted to stay in my classroom and read the fun books with everyone else. Because I was singled out back then, limited on my choices in middle school, and restricted to books I didn’t believe in (such as A Brave New World) I seriously lost my interest and faith in literature. Take that, Google…
It’s only because my fiance supports and encourages me that I’ve recently started reading again, and now I’m blogging just to vent and sharpen up. No thanks to scored reading programs.
mamadorrington said:
I remember doing this in school myself. I liked reading, and though it didn’t ruin reading for me I began reading for sticker towards a pizza lunch rather than for the joy of reading. I see exactly where you are coming from, and I agree full heartedly
Nick said:
When I was in fifth grade, five years ago, I was reading on a very low level in school, yet I had been reading Harry Potter books, and other novels before I entered Kindergarten. The teacher persisted that I had a low reading level, so we went to get my iq tested. I was reading at a college freshman level and everything else was high school. After this, I was able to read any book in the library. I’m very vehement towards this Accelerated Reader program, looks more like a Decelerated Reader program to me.
Jason Curtis (@EdTechTexan) said:
Jen – You nailed it. I taught 4th grade in a public school district that was very pro-AR for years and I saw time and again the skills gap that was magnified by the program. My strong readers excelled and my struggling readers took a nose dive. The problem got so bad that I began to downplay the rewards and AR in general. I truly believe that by teaching them to love reading, they will desire to learn the mechanics. Logistically, that looks like lots of oral reading of high quality children’s lit – silent reading of poorly written paragraphs intended to teach skills, or student selections, aka The Guinness Book of World Records. After they have a love for reading, then we can capitalize on their desire to learn and teach the skills to motivated kids!
jenmarten said:
Thanks. A literate classroom climate comes from all the things you mention. Granted, there are skills that must be taught, but that doesn’t happen in isolation but rather through reading and discussing. Both of my kids used to change words when they were young readers. When I would point it out, they would both acknowledge that they did it and claim that the word they used was better than the one the author had chosen. 🙂 They picked things that did not change the meaning but rather added to it. It created great conversations and developed some great vocabulary skills.
karenironside said:
As a teacher in the UK I couldn’t agree more with you!
amyishyper said:
I hate accelerated reader. The quizzes make you feel like you haven’t read properly if you can’t remember miniscule details. They used to make us use it all the time, in time which we could’ve been reading instead of taking quizzes. We went to the school library to do quizzes. The point of reading is to read, not to do stupid quizzes. Accelerated Reader and MyMaths ruined education
jenmarten said:
Great point about the quizzes and the miniscule details. That is one of my biggest issues – no depth or complexity to what is expected of the reader.
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th3bak3rman said:
I tried posting comments earlier, but my keyboard kept locking on me. So many good points and such thought-provoking discussion from so many. I’ve truly enjoyed the diversity of topics on this site.
Several books have been referenced; let me add one more. About twenty years ago, education critic Alfie Kohn, wrote Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes. While I believe Kohn took the extreme, he type of made several valid points. We teachers need to think carefully before implementing any incentive program with our students. Care needs to be taken that our students want to and will learn for reasons other than rewards and consequences.
th3bak3rman said:
Keyboard still causing problems…
I noticed extra words in the one sentence, making sound funny. It should say, “While I believe Kohn took the extreme, he made several valid points.”
dyedyedarling said:
I can say this. I was not an “A” student. But, as I grew older I realized I only reatained information when taught with passion. I learn when someone is speaking from the heart. In every area of my life. Thanks for being passionate. That counts for something.
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M Kelley said:
When I went from a high school English classroom to a school library position and found out the library had just purchased AR, I was devastated. I was angry. I dragged my feet. I complained. I sulked. I was SURE that it was going to limit student choice, kill intrinsic love of reading, and overall be a recipe for disaster. At the end of my first year, I walked into my principal’s office and told him I was sorry. I had seen the effects a well-trained staff using AR effectively and appropriately could do. It set those kids on fire with reading. That was nearly 20 years ago, and I think AR is more effective than ever – WHEN IT’S USED PROPERLY. That means knowing how to effectively set student goals and that points are NOT everything. It means knowing how to properly engage with students about choosing books and monitoring reading progress. It means knowing how to use AR to get to know your students as readers. And it means knowing when to break the rules of AR – which Renaissance completely endorses and is purposefully setup to do! – to make reading successful for individual student needs. It means having teachers fully trained in the program having dedicated AR reading time each day and knowing how to use that time to have meaningful reading conversations with each kid. It means having an administration that focuses on rewarding kids for meeting individual student AR goals – not just points goals arbitrarily assigned to every student. (AR establishes individual student goals and a system for every child to be successful – school contests should be setup to recognize and reward those individual efforts. I’ve seen too often that the wrong system can be the program killer). It also means having a well-stocked library with lots of great titles at all reading levels, library staff who can help kids find good books, and open library doors to allow for as many repeat visits as necessary to stock up on more books (because if done right, these kids will be reading like crazy!) I can’t say enough that when the right pieces of the puzzle come together, AR is a powerful, powerful tool for independent reading.
jenmarten said:
I hear where you are coming from, but I will still contend that extrinsic rewards for reading is indefensible. In addition, Lisa Van Gemert points out the many flaws in how the books are leveled in the first place. You can read her take here. http://www.giftedguru.com/3-reasons-i-loathe-accelerated-reader/
I think there are many ways to do what you say AR does that build relationships between students and teachers and create a real love of reading that AR does not. I also think past the in-the-moment of “they read more” now. The research shows that when you remove the extrinsic rewards, kids who go through AR are less likely to read on their own when compared to their peers who did not use AR.
When I look at the cost of the program, I can see so many better ways to invest that money into building literate classrooms.
theshamelessploter said:
Reblogged this on The Shameless Plot-er.
theshamelessploter said:
I was never in the AR program, but I was in something very similar.I had to take a test that determined my reading comprehension level, and since I have been a reader ever since I was very little, my score was over 1000- a high school level score. Most kids my age were 700, or 800. As a seventh grader, my score was weird, and it got worse. Books were also assigned a score. You had to read a book within 100 points of your score. The only problem was all the books I wanted to read were down at what was considered the middle school level. I resented the program because I wasn’t allowed to read Maximum Ride or Twilight. Because of that, I started to resent reading, and I just stopped reading for fun for many years.
Reading programs are supposed to promote reading for your entertainment, and the AR program just isn’t doing that. We need to let kids read what they want, because that’s the only way we will ever get them to love reading.
Catherine Thimmesh said:
Thank you for an excellent post and discussion. I will share here — with an equal mix of embarrassment and pride — that, as an adult, I failed an AR test on a book I WROTE! (ex: What did the author mean by this passage? . . . And then I don’t see a choice for what was meant!) I speak with kids at schools who are distressed by the point system. Who are distressed by the lack of choice. I see (from an author’s perspective) what has been expressed here — the joy of reading sucked from these kids. I strongly encourage you to take the next step: send this post (and comment thread) to the head honchos at Google. Send this as an opinion piece to some national press (The NYT, Time Magazine, and the like); encourage those outlets to investigate and report on the topic. There are an awful lot of authors who are also in your corner. My motto has always been: “Give a child a book and then leave them the hell alone.”
jenmarten said:
Oh my! That’s just crazy. I keep hoping someone from Google will see it floating around on Twitter, but I figure I’m just a tiny blip, not even on their radar. I hadn’t thought about sending it to anything national, but that is a great idea. Any suggestions on where to start with that?
Catherine Thimmesh said:
You might try Huffington Post first. They have a pretty large reach; they already have an Education section — and a sub-section on standardized tests (generally). If you go to the site and click Contact (at the bottom) there is an option for submitting a blog post to their editors. That would be a good start. If they pick it up, it will have more visibility, and if they put it on the front page it will be seen by millions. Worth a shot. Traditional print media is fairly straight forward — sending to the editor in charge of opinion articles (I assume you can search online for names and mailing addresses). But I’d bet Huff Post would pick it up. In my opinion, this is worth pursuing: important topic and very well presented. Good luck!
sugarmuzzle said:
Seems to me like maybe the correct way is some where in the middle. http://www.sugarmuzzle.com
Amanda said:
Wow, I’m so glad that this wasn’t around when I was in school. We just got tickets for reading books. Didn’t matter what kind or “what level” they were. A book read was what counted.
Amanda said:
Reblogged this on Amanda McKee and commented:
I’m so glad this wasn’t around when I was a kid.
Theycallmemummy said:
Perfection. This post is perfection.
Lizz @ Am I a Funny Girl? said:
This is incredibly timely for me, so thank you.
My son (kindergarten) just started AR about a week ago, and I know NOTHING about it. I only know it’s even a thing because I emailed the teacher to find out why he said he was to bring his library book to read “during computer time” because he finished the math program they’re using.
This reading for points concerns me some, and I thank you for this information. I had already planned to request a meeting with the teacher to learn more about this, so now I am even more prepared.
johnwilsonbach said:
Our problem here in the heartland, and I’m sure elsewhere, is the absolute overboard passion our districts have with technology. It is causing some REAL problems with our students, and I’m not just speaking about excessive gaming. May I be so bold as to link to… http://johnwilsonbach.com/2014/03/12/peepshows-for-pupils/
beholdconfusion said:
My cousin, a fifth grader, explained this system to me. I was legitimately HORRIFIED. I loved, and love, reading. This system seems terrible in all the ways that you describe and perhaps more that will come to light over time. I immediately encouraged my cousin to ignore this system. I told her I would take her to the public library and let her use my card if that’s what it took. I bought her books for Christmas. I felt like her school was holding the library hostage.
Ngozi said:
I was a student who came up through the AR program. I absolutely loved it! I was able to get points and free stuff for a behavior I already enjoyed…what a sweet deal! My teachers/librarians didn’t stifle what books I could read. I was reading on a 12+ level in fourth grade so my choice of books was quite daunting for my little 9yr old brain, but I was allowed to read the books that where on the lower levels and get AR points for them. Most of my teachers just stipulated that I had to read 2 or 3 of the lower level books to equal 1 of the 12+ level books. My teachers also read to us as part of our reading time in school. They would read or assign AR books that was on the reason level of the majority of the class so that students who didn’t like to read or couldn’t find a book they liked that month would still be able to get AR points. AR expanded my reading repertoire not hindered it. I can only speak to my experience but I like the reward system that is associated with AR. I do see how AR can kill a love of reading in a child if they aren’t allowed to read at their own pace and what interests them. We know that reading is important, so is there a system we can implement that would encourage kids to read and reward them for that behavior?
headdisciple said:
I remember elementary school when I was required to do AR for a grade. Not all books are AR books. If AR no longer existed, more kids would be reading more books and being more intrigued with reading. Now, I am in the sixth grade and see how foolish it is, to be restricted to one level, to be restricted to certain books. I stand with you.
A Midwest American Girl said:
Reblogged this on A Midwest American Girl and commented:
I could not agree more. Accelerated Reader did diminish my love of reading in grade school. I’m a high school senior now and I read more then ever and I actually enjoy it. Google better improve the AR system or they just made a plain bad investment.
Kirsten Carlson said:
That’s the key!! It’s supposed to make it better. Thank you for at least acknowledging that as a possibility instead of blaming Google and dragging AR through the mud. 🙂
hillo123 said:
Reblogged this on Hillo & Random and commented:
Someone who finally understands how unfortunate this program is!
hillo123 said:
I’ve had this sort of opinion since it was introduced to my school sometime last year. I think it’s so bad how teachers discourage pupils to read a book, even if it is so more intellectually valuable or interests them more, just because it isn’t rated at their apparent reading level (which is only judged by a short test). It’s so annoying, especially seeing that it counts for some of our end of year English grade. I don’t want to be forced to not read a book because I will be considered even “stupider” for reading it!
Dean said:
We’re using AR in a secondary school in the UK. It’s a massive success story. We don’t have points earned for books. Students can choose any book they want. They enjoy the fun of a quiz at the end. What rewards do they get? A certificate for the amount of books they’ve read this term. It has increased literacy levels throughout the school and everybody reads for at least 20 minutes a day. Rewind to times before AR and that was simply not the case.
It’s a little unfair to blame a system when its downfall is the fact that the staff running the program aren’t using it to their advantage. You need to cherry pick the parts that will work for you and use them. Make your own rules for your school. Education isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s a shame you fail to draw any positives in your article.
jenmarten said:
Thank you for your thoughts. Unfortunately, the push toward accountability trumps common sense in many elements of education policy.
I believe that the reward of reading cannot and should not be measured. The research on long-term effects of AR concerns me, and I fail to draw any positives as I see none in this program.
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Denise said:
Thank you,
I needed to see this. I have two daughters. One is a voracious reader… The other not so much — mostly because of her fluency — after reading this, I think that the ‘help’ she’s gotten has hurt her in terms of confidence & willingness to try books that are deemed too hard for her. Thanks so much for your insight.
Donald Halfkenny said:
Great Post.
After more than 44 years of passionate teaching I think that the central question we have to ask ourselves is what is our definition of education, and what are its explicit and implicit goals.
If we believe that education, and reading is an important part of the education process in our culture, is about empowering a child or an adult to be increasingly able to actively participate in their mental, emotional and spiritual development. In a manner that enables them to make informed descisions and consciously contribute to society as a whole.
Then comes the questions as to why we expect a corporation like google whose social goals are definately different from these, to have or use the same definition of learning and education that we educators have.
Why are we suprised.
We should see this as a wake up call.
We have to ask ourselves are we really as powerless as we think we are. How when and why did we give up the trust bestowed upon us to an entity whose stated purpose does not include the wellbeing of our chlildren??
We need to take back the classroom and get back to empowering those who have been trusted to our care.
Programms like AR and RL are not the answer.
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Ceast said:
Reference the book, Readicide. The author states that statistics show AR makes students become non readers after they are no longer being rewarded. Classical conditioning would say we should have expected this! Very sad! Literature should help young people develop their ability to think. Presently I think we can see that this just isn’t happening. The love of reading is “caught” not taught!
jenmarten said:
That is one of my favorite books. Kelly Gallagher does a great job of pointing out what we do wrong in reading instruction.
ashleyomelia said:
I so love this post! My daughter loves to read, but I watched her struggle to read forty AR books last summer for the Summer Reading Program. By the end of it we were having difficulty finding books on the list, and she worked her little butt off for that certificate and $10 B&N gift card. At that time I was working full time outside the home, and I have 2 other children, so it was a monumental task.
jenmarten said:
I don’t do summer reading programs anymore either. I just encourage my kids to read. We spent the day at the Museum of Science and Industry last week, and C read almost every display in the exhibits we visited. You can’t put a lexile or AR point value on that. He was engaged, he was making connections, and he was asking for clarification. THAT is what we should strive for in any reading program.
I’d be tempted to forego the summer program and have your daughter design her own and come up with something to do when she reaches her goal – more of a celebration than a reward.
ashleyomelia said:
That’s a good idea! One thing I did for her was to start her own book log. In a total nerd, so I keep an alphabetized list of the books I’ve read. Once she started reading chapter books I asked her if she wanted one, too. Now, when she finishes one, she can’t wait for me to add it to the list!
chrisclaudechris said:
Reblogged this on chrisclaudechris.
dawn said:
My son is 12 years old and in 7th grade. He tests as reading at the 12th grade level. He is supposed to read books “in the top half” of his range, which calculates out to be 8.5 +, and his goal is 36 points a quarter. He struggles to find books he likes in this range. When he finds a meaty book, like A Tale of Two Cities, the quizzes are such that one needs to study the book rather than just read it. He is stressed by this situation. My little bibliophile is beginning to view his reading time as a chore. He laments that his friends get to read books they like and that their goals are so much more attainable. It doesn’t matter that he tests at a twelfth grade level, Dickens is difficult for a twelve year old to follow. He was only able to read and enjoy the book because I read it with him, explaining it, and we went through on-line study notes. He still only got 70% of the questions right on his quiz, and he is a smart kid! I have discovered a site that gives more titles, and he has found some that are more engaging and easier for him, but overall this system is robbing him of pleasure reading. He is having to save that for his summer vacation. My younger two boys are good readers, too, but they don’t enjoy it as much. I shudder to think of what their seventh and eighth grade experiences will be like. Those experiences may just kill any hint of pleasure they have in reading.
jenmarten said:
I don’t read ‘at’ my level all the time. It drives me crazy when kids are expected to! Most popular YA fiction is not at a super high level, but the conversations generated when a group of kids have all read the same book is priceless.
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sckeane1977 said:
Its so sad to hear of such i lazy system elemantating the child and what they bring to their literacy experiences. i’m a vygotskian believer and I believe children should have freedom to explore possibilities knowing that their growing understanding and knowledge will be scaffolded supported where a brigde is made to provide a path from the unknown to the known this rewarding system is just providing an unhealthy unfair learning environment focused on one style of information decoding this is where education reforms let down the dreamers of today who learn to accept that life will always be harder on them creating a nation of non believers that the future is brighter with the delight to discover new and unknown worlds in the pages and pictures of books children of today dont spend enough time smelling a good book and really engaging their minds if all they are worried about is collecting rewards and moving on to the next level wheres the truth in that a nation of throw away concepts and gaining a sense of defeat before the main event as even arrived
kwasisei said:
Am in Africa and in my country very few people read. Students the least of all. We’d rather memorise our textbooks because we seem to believe more in getting the best of marks than improving ourselves. With this kind of mindset, AR (if I understand correctly) would have been very good for us because it would have been another reason to fight for marks. Funny how one man’s poison might just be another’s meat
louise said:
Can i just ask, how are the children assessed? My girls school has just introduced this system and the books they are bringing home they read them in pre primary my 9 year old has brought home hairy maclary, and my youngest age 7 brought one with around 4/5 words to a page about a cat stuck in a tree. I’ve been told the whole of the year groups are below average. My eldest doesn’t enjoy reading but likes being read to and has done from a very young age, that being said there is nothing wrong with her reading capabilities. Where my youngest read the book she was given in 2 minutes and was reading harder books 2 years ago. I really don’t understand the system and feel very frustrated right now.
Emily said:
Hi there,
It appears that AR has been thrust upon me; I am starting a new job, and AR is the curriculum for my intensive reading class. I see some positives, but I’ve also been reading blogs that discuss all the negatives associated with the AR program.
Do you know of any ways I could “tweak” the program to reduce the harmful effects? I want to frame the program differently, using their “level” as a suggestion rather than a set-in-stone number they must follow, and use the tests as a monitoring (to help them ensure comprehension). I know the tests themselves aren’t set up well (focus on pointless facts and specifics– minuscule facts as someone put it earlier), but I think I’ll be held to students taking tests. I also want to push students to read books even if the books aren’t AR books. I’m about to start the Book Whisperer, which I’ve heard is good but not necessarily focused on “my” students (those who really struggle with reading, enough to be placed in an “elective” reading class).
I’m also not doing rewards for points and I’m not sure how I’ll even frame their grades… I don’t want it to depend too much on the test themselves. I will have to see how much freedom I have!
Thanks!!
jenmarten said:
Here’s my collection of articles about AR and lexiles. You should info that will help you justify why you aren’t making it a bigger part of the grade/not doing rewards. http://www.bagtheweb.com/b/ZyWFfn My daughter’s 5th grade teacher had to use, and she did a nice job of conferencing one-on-one with students, setting goals with them as individuals, making sure the points didn’t dictate all the free reading time. I wonder if you could get students to set a monthly goal of X books at their “level”, X above and X below, plus X that you didn’t even want to know the level.
Good luck. I worry most about struggling readers who are lock-stepped into levels and little chance to read for pure pleasure. My other suggestion would be to document the other things you do plus the results, so that at the end of the year, maybe you can make real change.
Kirsten Carlson said:
I haven’t had a chance to read through all of the comments, but what I see is more the lack of understanding by a school or teacher’s part to understand how AR is supposed to be used. They don’t sell the product and say good luck. They offer training, online resources, and many different ways to advance your implementation. Additionally, AR is not advertised as a cover-all for problem readers. It is a way to get students feeling comfortable at their own reading level. The leveling system now offers Lexile–a highly regarded scaled used by many different reading programs. Also, the book level and ZPD ranges offered are not meant to be cages to keep your students in. THERE IS NO REPLACEMENT OR SUBSTITUTE FOR THE TEACHER TO GET TO KNOW THEIR STUDENTS!!! Sorry for the all caps, but that is the most important thing I can stress. They are suggested, not a mandate or curriculum for that matter.
The comment about students feeling disenfranchised that they don’t accomplish point goals, etc. Those are not things that AR recommends or suggests. Those are ways the school has chosen to implement the program. There are rigorous implementation plans and suggestion along with Professional Development offered to master the proper fidelity in its administration.
Before you judge Google too harshly, maybe check out the facts for yourself. http://www.renaissance.com/products/accelerated-reader
I think if many of you would look into the facts and information on the program and its intended use, you would be able to see AR in a different light. All in all, I have to respectfully disagree with the negative reviews.
jenmarten said:
As a veteran teacher of 27 years, I have seen it used in many ways, and none of them good. The most effective way to teach students to love reading is to let them read – not based on levels but on interest. Research does not support extrinsic rewards, which is very much a part of AR and other such programs. And oh how I hate the words “fidelity to the program”. Teaching should be about fidelity to the student. An effective teacher with a budget to buy books not buy tests – that is what deserves fidelity.
Kirsten Carlson said:
Being that your are a teacher, it is alarming that you are not good at making logical arguments. This is all based on your personal experience, and since you’re on the internet, you could be lying. How would I know? Please give me some facts and figures of how it is a useless program.
What you are telling me is that you refuse to follow the way the program is SUPPOSED TO BE used, because you didn’t have a good experience. And please, literally explain what you mean by “fidelity to the student”. If you mean a strict observance of promises, duties (as a teacher is a servant to their students) it is one thing. Or do you mean fidelity as in with accuracy and exactness? Because let me tell you, if you actually use the program correctly, you’ll have fidelity to your students. That is the whole point.
My guess is that your school was to implement the program and it failed miserably and you got blamed. Your bitterness is what seeps into every word, because your arguments make no sense. They are fancy talk to look smart.
If you were smart, you’d actually LOOK at the resources that some comments are offering you about how it ACTUALLY works. Instead, you’re arguing that rewards are not a good way to motivate students and inspire a love of reading.
Books are free at a library, and in ALL the documentation I could find, it highly encourages students to read outside of their specific LEVEL into a range. The range isn’t to restrict. It is there to show their ACTUAL reading ability. They first have to take a reading assessment. It’s not like it is the same range for all students of a certain age/grade. There are generalities out there to help guide it, but you’re making it sound like AR was supposed to be a savior. It’s not. It’s a TOOL. Something to be used to SUPPLEMENT your own instruction.
Quit pinning all your anger on something you don’t even fully understand. Maybe you can take the high road and just do some actual research. OR SHARE YOUR OWN THAT YOU CLAIM TO HAVE!!!!!!!! Instead of pointing out OTHER people’s research.
Nobody with half a brain wants to listen you point at other people’s work.
jenmarten said:
Actually, my logic is well thought out and supported by research as well as personal experience. I think it is frightening that you are posting comments without putting forth that you work for Renaissance.
I’m not angry. I am concerned with what is best for students. If you choose to post further, please maintain a tone that is civil.
I have read the resources from AR, spoken with teachers who love and hate AR, and have drawn from the lived experiences of students – a very valid research methodology.
Kirsten Carlson said:
http://www.arbookfind.com/
I challenge you to explore this website. You can search by interests.
jenmarten said:
Been there, done that. Still not impressed with the program.
Kirsten Carlson said:
Out of curiosity, how to you explain the hundreds of success stories? You seem to be in the minority from my experience with AR. My school uses it. I used it as a student. I have not heard anything negative except with a small concentration of people. And no offense, it is usually because it was poorly implemented. That’s not a cheap shot, it’s the truth.
Would you be able to provide links to me, as some have for you? I would like to see your research and summaries.
jenmarten said:
I posted a link to Bag the Web earlier that has lots of links. Scroll back through the comments today. Success is subjective.
jenmarten said:
Read through the comments, not in the minority at all. Once again, scroll down. I posted a link in response to one of your earlier comments.
Chris Wejr said:
I wonder how Renaissance would view your tone in the above comment? It is one thing to share your views and point to “research” on AR done by Renaissance but to use this sort of tone that attacks a person rather than an idea shows complete disrespect for educators who choose to go beyond the research produced by Renaissance and actually question if it is best for kids. At my former school, we moved away from AR and chose to focus more on modeling joy in reading and… yup, our reading results (both assessment and surveys on student interest in reading) went up! The biggest challenge we had was that some students stopped reading after we took the points away… we had to “reteach” them a joy in reading. You both have such a passion for reading… with different views. Why is it ok for one to share their views and not the other? We don’t need to put down an experienced. reflective, passionate teacher for having opposing views for a program sold by the company you work for. As someone who spent much time on the phone with Ren and lots of time looking through the research on the site, my suggestion would be to find research that is not funded by Renaissance or does not conclude with “more research is needed in this area”. Even under “peer reviewed research”, research that was supported with a grant from Renaissance is included.
Renaissance seems like a brilliant company that is doing so many right things as a business. I am thankful, though, that my current district has not been sold on this and are instead focusing on best practice rather than programs.
Lisa Van Gemert said:
Sooooooo are you the same Kirsten Carlson with this email address: kirsten.carlson@rht.com that just happens to be a Renaissance Learning email address? I’m guessing yes. It seems to me that any company that feels that its employees should impersonate random blog readers in order to attack critiques of their product must not have very much faith in their product. You know that card game where you pretend to have cards, and if people think you’re lying, they call “BS”? Well, I call that on you, Ms. Carlson. Come clean (better late than never) and let Renaissance Learning respond like an honest company. If it can. Shame on you for playing games. This takes trolling to whole new level.
Lisa Van Gemert
Jaime Ostrom said:
It is interesting to see how many teacher’s and schools implementations of AR (including the author of this article) seem to believe that there is only “one” was to use Accelerated Reader, and the way that they describe it is the most damaging way to use it. Sort of like the straw-man argument, they describe AR as a cage or a rewards program so it can be torn down.
The unfortunate fact is that many teachers are not given training to use Accelerated Reader and because there are so many features, they feel they must use them all, to a “T”, without adjusting based on the classroom’s needs, student’s needs, or curriculum. I understand that a “program” is often thought of as A “one” program that you follow like a diet, and it’s all about restrictions and rewards. This is not the case. AR is a tool.
The way I like to think of Accelerated Reader is like a student’s reading log. You know, where they get a blank log and fill in the books and pages that they read (even if they didn’t). With the introduction of quizzes, it creates accountability and a way for the teacher to manage how well their students are understanding the books they read. Points don’t even need to come into play, and in fact a more productive goal may be to simply have students read books that please them and try to score above 85% on the quizzes. The use of points in the program is simply because lots of teachers actually prefer to reward students and create a competition out of the program. This is only one use of the program and in fact in AR’s documentation it’s not recommended use.
For more information about how to use AR as the developers intended, I recommend this document they have created to share with those interested: http://doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R003975403GG965F.pdf
Check out page 38 for recommend use and “Practices to Avoid”. What the author lists as how AR “should” work is actually addressed explicitly as practices to avoid.
I understand and have dealt with administrators wanting to implement AR in a way that seems to go against common sense and I can relate with that, but looking into the documentation and Professional Development options have helped a lot of misconceptions and incorrect practices from being exacerbated. I wish you all the best of luck!
jenmarten said:
Actually, I have been blessed to teach in schools that do not buy into canned programs, instead trusting teachers to do what is best for individual childen. My experiences with AR have been through students I have tutored and my own children, as well as through research while earning a Masters in reading and currently working on a PhD in curriculum and instruction. You compare AR to reading logs, and if you check my archives, you will see multiple posts on reading logs as well. My belief is that they make liars out of poor readers and annoy good readers. I don’t need a slip of paper with book titles on it to know how my students read. We spend too much time gathering data and too little time actually assessing students in natural situations. I can’t remember which researcher said it, but this quote is dead-on: “If your teachers need a test to tell how their kids are doing, then you hired the wrong teachers.” If your goal in teaching reading is to get students to do well on a multiple choice test, then I guess AR works. However, my goal for the children I teach as well as those I raise is that in 20 years they will still be picking up books to read for the pure pleasure of reading. Here is a link to many of the articles I have gathered about my concerns with reading for rewards. http://www.bagtheweb.com/b/ZyWFfn
Mark Barnes said:
The day I need a quiz to hold my readers accountable is the day I need to stop teaching. I have tons of experience with AR. When my child says she doesn’t like to read, because she hates AR, I’ve seen and heard all I need.
Jaime Ostrom said:
Also, Google’s investment wasn’t solely for AR, it was in the company included all it’s programs, such as the STAR Assessments, Accelerated Math, and their flash cards programs. The argument seems to be that Google’s use of their money would have been better spent on books and reading programs other than AR. Google does use free ebooks and lets schools use Google Apps for Education for free, and Google Play for Education…
https://play.google.com/store/books/collection/topselling_free?hl=en
As far as giving money directly to public schools for books/teachers, unfortunately it is not as easy as you make it sound. But Google does have an interest in education, to compete with Apple, assuredly. If forced to use programs at your school, it pays to research ways in which they can work for you. There are valid criticisms of every program, but some times you have to devote your energy to making the best of the situation.
jenmarten said:
My issue is with a company that is known for its creativity and 20% time investing in a company that sells canned programs and destroys creativity in both teaching and learning. As for the ease of investing directly in schools, it is all a matter of what you value. Many districts have Foundations which deal with such donations. My district just broke ground on a huge project that was initiated by an anonymous donation that grew to over a million dollars in less than a year. If companies truly care about education and want schools to produce students who have the creativity, problem-solving, and initiative to be the employees they want to hire, then they need to invest in people not programs. As for making the best of the situation, that is not an option when programs are damaging to students. It would be educational malpractice to do so. My energies are devoted to meeting the needs of the students who walk into school each day expecting to learn.
Jaime Ostrom said:
I think the truth is that not all teachers are you nor come with your background. They may believe that their students are mastering their curriculum and can “tell” that students are making progress. This may go on for years until the student graduations – when that student is ready to enter into the work force or college, they haven’t learned yet that reading isn’t about pleasure- it’s required now. The students fall behind. Some teachers want data to review that their students are broadening their reading habits- into harder books, nonfiction books, or longer books. This is one of the ways AR can act as a tool to assist the teacher. The time spent collecting data is reduced because students don’t need to fill out reading logs, they just read, and quiz shortly after reading, and then get to browse suggestions for books or review their stats. Seeing their totals rise can be encouraging for reluctant readers. Some people, students included, like to be able to measure their progress. They want to see totals rise. Some students may be gifted, they can browse through a book without doing careful reading. Some students may devote the time into finding the correct responses to quizzes instead of reading the book. Some students just want their reading habits to be secretive/unrecorded and hate quizzing. If nothing else, the correct use, misuse, or lack of use of the program can help clue in a busy teacher who may have a highly transient population of students, or is just started out in the work of teaching and lacks the apparent expertise in student reading comprehension measurements that you do. The use of any program should fit the classroom needs, instead of the program shaping the way students learn. If used as a supplement and not the end-all-be-all of “reading for rewards”, you might view this and other programs differently.
It just may benefit you or others reading to research best practices instead of the downsides to the program, which isn’t going to help a teacher who needs to figure out the ins-and-outs of AR. But whether it’s Google, or the government, some times there is little choice in where the money goes. So it’s best to arm teachers with the knowledge to starting off on the right foot- rather than a sour note of doom and gloom.
jenmarten said:
I think you are selling educators short. As professionals who are in the classroom, working with students day in and day out, they are the experts. I think it is preposterous for companies who have little or no educational experience to assume they know better than teachers. The research that supports AR comes from AR, not outside sources.
Bottom line, we need to trust teachers to do the jobs we hired them to do. Too much time and money is spent on programming that collects data while our students suffer. To quote a wise old farmer, you don’t fatten a pig by weighing it.
Teachers are armed with knowledge – it’s called a degree in education that focuses not only on curriculum but pedagogy and child development as well. If companies want to invest in education, then maybe they need to form partnerships with schools and figure out what is truly useful.
Jaime Ostrom said:
Perhaps I am selling educators short and you would really know precisely how much and what quality of fiction and non-fiction reading your students are accomplishing from year to year. But I think the truth is that everyone needs some help once in a while to be sure that their students are getting at least 50% nonfiction practice in, or to discover that one of their students is really interested in a certain subject thanks to their reading record…how to apply this information relies on the teacher’s professional opinion. But not every teacher can follow their students home each evening to see what they are, and aren’t, reading.
I believe that AR has many educators who have come together to create the foundation and research behind AR. You can find this information here which I located by doing a Google search for “Accelerated Reader research”: http://doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R003363907GD4850.pdf
Since you are skeptical about the research coming directly from Renaissance Learning, here is something else I found along those same search terms: http://www.promisingpractices.net/program.asp?programid=292
Renaissance Learning also does reach out to schools and administrator often when developing it’s assessment tools, some of those connections are on their website: https://www.renaissance.com/success-stories
Those who have access to the program can deliver feedback to a live person, which then goes into changing the program to adapt to teacher’s needs. I am doubtful that Renaissance Learning assumes to know what teachers want…without research and development based on actual district needs, their business model would have crumbled years ago. Instead there have been many changes to the program, even over the past year. This is in direct response to the things teachers have been asking for.
Having experience with Accelerated Reader, I will have to disagree with a lot of the things you are claiming, and again reiterate that it is not the teacher’s fault when they are expected to use the program in a way that goes against what they know and understand about learning because it is what they are told to do, instead of researching the methods for themselves. Teacher’s should be able to use their professional judgment when implementing any tool in the classroom, but I can understand when district personnel suggest otherwise. And unfortunately, big companies will use their professional judgment when making investments and business decisions. Google also invested millions in 23andMe, a company who used the money to pay back a loan and provides a DNA service.
It just seems like a lot of energy is being put into lamenting over things are beyond all of our control, when the focus could be shifted on recognizing that there are ways to use AR and other tools from Renaissance Learning to advance the implementation and make something that works for everyone. What I am saying is that if you have time to trash it, you would have time to do your research first to find that a large percentage of your claims are not backed by the developers and research that supports proper use of the program.
If anyone really is interested in how AR is supposed to work, I would again invite you to glance over one of the documents that has helped me in many ways:
Getting Results with Accelerated Reader http://doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R003975403GG965F.pdf
jenmarten said:
Why do students need 50% non-fiction?Many kids go through phases and read a specific genre for long periods of time. I am less concerned about WHAT they read and more concerned THAT they read. I can touch on any genre I need through curriculum. And to discover what students are interested, you have conversations and build relationships. I suggest you read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller and Readicide by Kelly Gallagher.
As for your comment about my claims not being backed by research, I again suggest you read the books mentioned above, check out the work of Sir Ken Robinson and Daniel Pink on extrinsic rewards, and find research about AR that is not published by Renaissance.
I have apparently hit a nerve with you and with Renaissance because you have invested a huge amount of effort today trying to engage me and resorting to name calling in the process.
I stand by this post and the negative impact AR has on the joy of reading. Students deserve to be more than a data point.
lisavg said:
Oh, Mr. Ostrom, I call foul! Your comment is deceptive because you fail to reveal that you WORK for the company that makes AR! “Having experience with AR…” is apparently code for “it pays my mortgage.” This clearly deliberate omission makes your entire comment worthless, and it only serves to cement my own anti-AR beliefs. Is it a coincidence that not one but TWO Renaissance employees choose to attack this post on the same day? I think not. Wow.
This is the kind of thing that companies get humiliated on YELP for – facing fake comments as if they are normal readers/consumers, when in actuality, they are plants from the company. Shame on you for your dishonesty. And thank you, because this is something to add to my own anti-AR post at http://www.giftedguru.com/3-reasons-i-loathe-accelerated-reader/. Unfortunately, I won’t let you comment on mine because I don’t like liars any more than I like AR.
Lisa Van Gemert
a true reader
Christina Nosek (@ChristinaNosek) said:
Jen- kudos to you! As a reading specialist, teacher with many years of experience, and now a K-5 literacy coach, I applaud you for standing up for what’s right in education. Thank you for this post and the recent comments.
I truly think teachers who like AR just haven’t been taught how to implement a thoughtful literacy program. AR is easy to use and doesn’t take much thought on the teacher’s end. Teaching a child how to read and to love reading is not easy and takes a great deal of thought on the teacher’s end. It is hard work. It truly saddens me to know that many teachers who do know better are forced to use it.
In today’s world with Teachers College at Columbia, NCTE, ILA, and many others putting out research and findings around good reading instruction, it is a crying shame that programs like this still persist.
Keep up your great work! It is much appreciated.
jenmarten said:
Thanks, Christina, for the kind words. Sometimes I feel like Horton or even the Whos down in Whoville when I talk about what is best practice for teaching a child not only how to read, but how to love reading. So much of teaching is about joy, but canned programs suck that joy right out of us. Our job is to be true to our students, and that often means that each one needs something different. As professionals, I believe we need to speak up and speak out for what is right not what is easy. You hit the nail on the head when you said that teaching a child to read is hard work, but oh how rewarding that work is!
tokens sister said:
Sorry to say Jenmarten, you are mistaken. AR is an excellent program! The point system sometimes may be an unattainable goal for some, this is where you adjust/adapt to fit your classroom. We all thrive for rewards(to a degree), points are no different. Furthermore, students are allowed to select AR books along with equal amount of non-AR books of their liking, preferably closer in their reading level, but of course it should be emphasized to students their AR books (except most chapter books, of course) should be read at least 3 times picture to picture, cover to cover. Additionally, it’s not being managed properly by the teacher if students are sitting beside others and giving answers. Students should be taking test in your presence, and the librarian and computer lab staff should be aware that students should not be on AR in those settings. All students are capable of making 100 percent on reading (AR Test) and this should be celebrated and displayed in the classroom. Especially for struggling and ESOL students, to see 100% is an ego and confidence booster like no other.
Ilene Graebner said:
My son’s elementary school used AR extensively. It was interwoven into their daily schooling. The teachers competed against each other to see which teacher had the most kids with the highest points. Kids raved about how many points they had and which books they had read and were reading to get the most points. At one point, my son failed a test. I was told “he shouldn’t have read that book because it was clearly above his level.” My son used to be an avid reader. He was reading before he started school. We were reading to him at weeks old. I had made comments to the librarian at school about why this program was used and she raved about it. She said that if she didn’t have this program then kids wouldn’t read. She had a set level of 25 points for the first award which typically wasn’t that hard, but 100 points and higher for secondary awards at the end of the year. One teacher actually benched kids at recess for failing an AR test because he wasn’t keeping up with the two other teachers in that grade level. It was also used in part of the regular grading as well.
Reading is not a competitive sport. Each student should read books and if you don’t remember every small part in it so what? People get better at reading by trying more difficult books , not by being told “oh that book is too hard for you, why don’t you try a lighter book”. Getting a failing grade on a test is not helpful in confidence. I am so grateful that I do not see this program being used at my son’s middle school. I have talked to numerous other parents who have not seen this program at their elementary schools and they are glad. Then again, I have another friend at middle school level whose school does use the program and their family hates it.
Have the kids read books..yes…Test them on books, ok. But the librarians and teachers need to use the program accordingly to help the kids improve their reading skills without punishing kids who “aren’t passing tests”.
Millie Springer said:
I have been a teacher for the past 8 years and have used AR that entire time. Many of your complaints are due to misuse of the tool, not the tool itself.
As an example, I got a training last year and they strongly discouraged the use of points for prizes and parties. It does exactly what you described “ruins the love of reading”. Points should be individualized to each student and kept private with the student and the teacher in a way to monitor growth. Points are assigned based on how long/how hard each book is as a measure of comprehension.
So if your post were true, should we not give classroom tests to see if a student is gaining the concept and growing? Should we not measure progress as a way to guide instruction?
If you play basketball, how do you get better? You practice and you get coaching within your level ability. AR does the same thing for reading. You read more within your level, get coaching, and have points to monitor your progress.
The second point about fiction vs. non-fiction has nothing to do with AR. The Common Core states that kids should be reading a 50/50 split of fiction vs. non in order to be college and career ready. How often do you read fiction as an adult?! over 90% of what we do on a daily basis is non-fiction reading for life and I can attest that our kids are completely unprepared for that in a lot of cases.
Third, I think it is beyond hysterical that everyone that disagrees with you must ” work for the company”. That is insulting in the fact that people that may have a different opinion than you can’t possibly exist?
AR is just a tool, a tool that has hundreds of independent research studies completed. If teachers don’t have PD to know how to use it and misuse occurs, that is on the school not the tool.
One last thing. Google as a company is anything but stupid, do you really think they would have invested in AR if they hadn’t looked at all the research and the impact of the tool??
Just as in politics, everyone is entitled to their opinions, I just request that it be an informed and respectful opinion instead of one based on feeling and misperceptions.
jenmarten said:
Actually, the two I called out, DID work for the company.
I didn’t say we shouldn’t teach kids to read fiction and non-fiction but that their pleasure reading should not be dictated.
I agree, AR is a tool. However, I believe that we should not be grading free reading. That takes the free out of it. There are lots of amazing ways to formatively assess students’ progress without destroying their love of reading. I’ve worked that magic for 28 years with a wide variety of students.
As for Google, I’m sure they looked at the bottom line of how an investment would affect their bottom line. As you said, they are a business.
I appreciate that you took the time to read and respond. However, I still stand firmly behind what I wrote. My thoughts are based on extensive research, personal experience, a Masters in reading, and a PhD in curriculum and instruction.
Marcia said:
Your article is absolutely tremendous and mirrors my experiences with a similar program exactly. I really appreciate that you have been able to catch the attention of so many people with your eloquence on the topic – thank you, thank you, thank you!
literaryhomebody said:
THIS!! I homeschool and I tried to get them to read using those stupid tests and incentives. Biggest fail–not for pizza, not for prizes, not for points. Now we just read to read and we read whatever the heck we want, when we want. They read a TON. They live to read. They carry books with them everywhere I’ll let them. Just Read.
svardell said:
Wow, congratulations, Jennifer– this piece has LEGS! Two years later and people are still commenting! You are so right and I am so proud of you!
jenmarten said:
Thank you! I’m always a little surprised when this gets shared again. I wrote it based on my experiences, and it has generated so many great conversations. I have amazing teachers like you to thank for all I know about literacy and learning. 🙂
Lynn Vogleler said:
Amen!
Elissa Malespina said:
I am a school librarian and could not agree with you more. I am also the ISTE librarians network PD chair and run a monthly webinar series I would love to have you on to discuss this. Please email me so we can talk. I think this is such a great discussion.
jenmarten said:
Elissa, oh wow, thank you! I will email you later this evening.
Bobby said:
I’m not sure how I feel about the AR program. I think it definitely helps certain kids with a read for reward mentality. My son has been an avid reader from early on. Set the record in 6th grade with 1600 points, 1200 last year and 1300 so far this year. He doesn’t read for points but he does enjoy the rewards that come with it. My daughter is completely opposite. Could care less about the program and does not enjoy reading. I think it’s nice there is a reward at this age level and some notoriety for something other than stick and ball sports. I wouldn’t be so quick to be negative about anything that may encourage learning.
jenmarten said:
While I agree that we need to honor academic success, I don’t believe that is what is achieved with programs like AR. The research on the negative effects of extrinsic rewards on long-term learning is staggering. I don’t care how many pages or minutes a child read (my own or my students), what I want is for them to be readers in 20 years. I’ve heard enough parents and teens say AR ruined a love of learning to know it’s not a program I can support.
Chelsey said:
I was in Second or Third grade (’94 or ’95) when AR was introduced to our school. My mother was a 4th grade teacher in a neighboring school district that had AR introduced at the same time. I’ve always been a strong reader with good comprehension skills, but I don’t test well. So my AR level was always well below where I could actually read. I hated AR, hated it I tell you. I was backed into a corner when it came to my “level” and was frustrated that I couldn’t read something slightly below my level OR above it. Imagine being a 4.1-4.7 reading level, but only a handful of books in the library were within that reading level. I remember I was in tears several times.
Mom encouraged me to read two books at a time, if I felt I could handle it. One AR and one not, to keep my interest alive. Thankfully, the majority of my teachers also knew me well enough to give me a pass on following my reading level so strictly. I had to have a note for the school librarian, but it was something. That’s how I was able to fall in love with Beverly Cleary, Lois Lowery, and C.S Lewis. Now as I’m nearly 30, I still read two or three books at the same time. I read Rick Riordan because I love his writing, but I also try to sit down with a classic like Pride and Prejudice every year just to challenge my vocabulary.
I understand what AR tries to do now that I’m older, but I still think the system is flawed and the students suffer for it. I’ve always felt that if you can’t read what you want, it becomes a chore and not the amazing adventure it can be.
Kimberly Bower (gladeslibrarian) said:
Reblogged this on O2b heavenly minded and commented:
Couldn’t have said it better. #readforpleasurenotpoints #iheartpicturebooks #kidlit #teacherlibrarian #iteachtoo #librariansrock
Teeyah said:
Thank you for this well-reasoned post. I am not a teacher, but I am a mother. And, I want my daughter to love reading, like I do. She isn’t quite school-aged yet, but should she be in an environment where AR is incorporated (and I’m sure she will), I want to be prepared for these kinds of challenges. I don’t want to be the last to know about the effects of these well-intentioned but potentially detrimental programs.
jenmarten said:
Teeyah, you make a great point, many of these programs are well-intentioned, and I try not to belittle anyone who uses it, although I do try very hard to convince them otherwise. 🙂 The best advice I have for you is to read with your daughter and to her, give her access to lots of books, and let her find her way into stories. Think about what makes you love reading and help her find that same spark.
Cass said:
So thankful I went to school before all this AR nonsense. I only remember assigned reading for HS classes. I’ve caught myself asking my son “But is it an AR book?” No more! He’ll probably get his points anyway, because he reads nonstop. I’ll just make sure to promote all books!
Cynthia said:
I have two highly accelerated readers for whom this system worked wonders, one slightly accelerated on their terms, and one only average on their terms. Although I believe in a rewards system, any reading at any time should be applauded according to that child’s standard, need and interest.
jenmarten said:
I think there are ways to encourage readers and acknowledge and even celebrate their progress without rewards. The research behind extrinsic reward programs do not support any longterm learning or behavioral changes. I find that conversations with kids about books is the most powerful motivator – what are you reading, what do you think of it so far, have you read other books by this author, hmm, I don’t really like that genre, can you convince me to read this book, etc. go much further in applauding their successes than anything else.
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Daniel Fountenberry said:
Hi Jen – I’m so glad that you wrote this article. I’ve seen too many classrooms where students are divided by reading ability – strong readers sitting on one side of the classroom and struggling readers sitting in a different part of the room. It’s terrible for their self esteem. I’ve seen the look of shame come over students as they walk down the “Lex-Aisle.” I created Books That Grow specifically because I did not want to see students held back by their so called ‘reading level.’ Books That Grow offers digital text that increase or decrease in language complexity to match the readers ability. What we’ve seen is that given a chance and some encouragement, students will often exceed their teachers expectations. I’d love for you check out Books That Grow and see if helps you engage your more challenged readers. You can check it out at http://www.BooksThatGrow.com, please reach out to me as well. – Daniel
jenmarten said:
Hi Daniel, thanks for the kind words. I will check out your site, and I’d love to touch base about this topic – something so near and dear to my heart.
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CF said:
In my opinion: Thank you so much for sharing this letter. It is amazing to me how many people do not even know how A/R originated. You can research it and see just how small A/R was when it first began. There must be some GREAT salespeople out there selling it to our schools because A/R has grown quite considerably in our schools. Many people do not realize that our schools do not have to purchase these types of programs. I truly believe your teaching passion expressed in this letter is felt by many teachers, students and parents and I am wondering if you have done anything to help our country’s schools in this matter. Is there anything being done about this? If not, why and what can be done to reveal there is a more practical and efficient way for students to learn how to read? Has there been a study on how much schools are spending each year on this program? Thanks again for sharing and I am hoping that we do more than just read your letter.
Dan Schmidt said:
I’m a middle school media specialist currently involved in a campaign to convince our district to repurchase the AR program. I do not work for RL or have any reason to care whether the company flourishes or fails, except that I think it would be a shame for AR to not be available to schools. After scouring the Internet for reasons to not employ the program, I can’t find any rational ones. The November 2015 post by Milli Springfield, and echoed by others, correctly summarized the cacophony of negative, emotional complaints when she said “Many of your complaints are due to misuse of the tool, not the tool itself.” But I don’t think she went far enough. It appears to me that ALL the complaints are due to the misuse of the tool. No school or teacher that uses AR is obligated to use points, award points, employ a rewards program, or restrict or direct any student’s reading choice. No school or teacher is obligated or encouraged to use AR in their grading system. All of the arguments and complaints that I have seen are misdirected towards the program and should be directed towards the schools and teachers that use the tool improperly. There is no reason to villify or hate a hammer simply because you once smashed your thumb (or your child did).
This whole AR-bashing bruhaha reminds me of another, similar campaign that garnered passionate supporters and vehement detractors: the battle between the Whole Language approach, and Phonics. When the passions subsided and common sense finally prevailed, it became obvious that there was a place for both, that neither was the holy grail, nor was either of them the terrible destructive force that would ruin our children.
One thing that is common to the majority of arguments and posts against AR is the emotional language. The articles and posts frequently use words like “hate”, and “loathe”. Lisa Van Gemert even entitled a blog article “3 Reasons I Loathe Accelerated Reader”. And in her name-calling attack on Jaime Ostrom, in which she called him a liar and accused him of attacking this post, Ms. Van Gemert does not respond to any of his perfectly valid points, but asserts that his “entire comment [is] worthless, and it only serves to cement my own anti-AR beliefs” Despite her multiple degrees and 20th grade reading level, this self-styled “guru” reveals herself to be unwilling or unable to engage in any substantive discussion or rational assessment of the AR program, but instead clings to an emotional belief. The hysterical tone makes it very hard to take her or any of the “anti AR” arguments seriously.
Bryant McEntire said:
Hi Dan, I agree with you 100%, have stated it here and in countless other venues, but I believe such points as those you have made have no impact on changing a mind. In 25 years as a teacher I have never seen calm factual evidence persuade anyone or change their attitude about a tool or product they are opposed to and especially those who push out such subjective information as the arguments presented here by the dissenters. Teachers, librarians, administrators who choose to jump into a student’s heart and: 1) declare what another person’s reason for reading is whether it be “intrinsic” or “extrinsic” and; 2) then decide to either condemn and/or judge the other person’s motivation as damaging to them will simply continue to do just that. I don’t think anything can be done about it. Students and teachers who are looking for a scapegoat to hang someone’s disdain for reading or their new found lack of interest in reading have found a very worthy candidate in AR. A piece of software will continue to be the whipping boy. Dare I say it? More use it incorrectly than correctly. And I place most of that blame at the feet of Administrators. I have seen the correct deployment of AR work miracles for readers and non-readers alike. I have seen it empower teachers who actually sit down with children, have two way discussions, and goal set centered around reading and individualized choice. I have seen balance in libraries that have AR in their school where students are just as likely to borrow a book without an AR label as with. Have I seen children cry in the library due to pressure from teachers or parents with AR at the vortex? Sure. These are school management and family dynamics issues. AR is just another tool. If you take a hammer and pop someone in the head with it, do we toss all hammers ose. And reading is and always will be one of the central skills for the majority to master in order to succeed at the highest levels. I believe we all agree about that. What role each of us plays whether we have AR or not is of paramount importance. DISCLAIMER: Like Dan, I have no vested interest in the company and I do not have it in my present school but we’re looking at it. The needs around me are so great I rarely take the time to respond to stuff like this. Oh! Another child wants a book! If you’ll excuse me, I gotta run….ut the window? No, we put the tool in the hands of a craftsman and ask them to please build us another school. Any tool can be misused. For the little boy who hits his finger with a hammer while learning how to drive a nail and surmises he will never try to drive a nail again do we condemn the hammer? Surely it is the teacher’s fault for giving the child the hammer in the first place when he/she wasn’t ready for it or properly prepared. AR must be near the top of the list of misused tools according to the legions of nay-sayers posting here. Having been in IB schools there is so much reading about reading while trying to find out what was really meant by a passage under scrutiny. AR at the stages of reading development is a tool that allows students to reflect on reading just accomplished. How high the stakes are is up to systems, each individual school and teachers. As we all know the stakes are indeed quite high in high school almost across the board whether it is an IB school or otherwi
jenmarten said:
As you say, no amount of calm reason will change someone’s mind, so I won’t try to change yours. However, I will address your last comment about AR helping kids reflect – even by RL’s own admission, the quiz questions are 87% surface comprehension questions.
Bryant McEntire said:
Reading is reflection. Just because the AR questions are simple comprehension (as if decoding and recall are “simple”) the reading itself is reflection of the highest order. AR in many instances used correctly does motivate children to read more and some to really engage with literature for the very first time. I would be willing to bet that all the research you suggest uses data from poor practice. I think Dan has clearly covered that angle. Thanks for the joust. My horse is tired. Best!
jenmarten said:
Absolutely, reading is reflection; however, the things you mention can be taught without AR. In fact, many teachers do just that.
Below is a link to one of the research articles.
jenmarten said:
Hi Dan,
Thank you for the reply. I’ll start first with your take down of Lisa Van Gemert. Her comment was directed to the fact that Ms. Ostrom posted at length but did not identify herself as an employee of RL, an omission, that Lisa and many others found to be deceptive at best. If you read Lisa’s article, she does take on the issues.
As for research rather than complaining (as you call it), the anecdotal examples given in my original post, and the posts shared by others IS a form of qualitative research. In addition, I suggest you check out Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide, Daniel Pink’s Drive, and the links in my bag on reading for points found here. You will find several research studies in there as well as posts by teachers and students.
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Brooke said:
I am not pro or Anti AR but in the district I moved to- originally allowed middle school students (6-8) to read from certain colored dots. 8th grade was blue. If it didn’t have a blue dot, you couldnt read the book! Also, certain quarters had to be certain genres- so first quarter was fantasy, historical fiction and non-fiction. Grading was also an issue- it as imbedded into their English term grade at 10% of their overall grade. So, the student earned a 100% if they earned all of the points; the student earned a zero if they didn’t meet their goal (even if it were merely two pints away from their goal!) many of my non-readers failed the term because they struggled in class AND with their reading- but we weren’t allowed to do any AR reading while at school.
I convinced my administration to remove the restrictions – allow kids to read ANY appropriate level books, in any genre, and I graded my students on the percentage of the goal met -AVERaGEd with their percent correct.
I absolutely hate it when a student asks me: what book would you recommend for ____ points?
It’s killing the passion of reading for enjoyment. This next year we are no longer using AR/RL and I’m so excited to put passion back into reading!
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