AR incentives

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AR incentives
By Cheryl Babcock

We've been using the AR program in our school for about three years. I just transferred to first grade from a fifth grade classroom a year ago. We used my fifth grade students as reading buddies for the first grade students
at the beginning of the year, so the older kids would read the books to the younger students and help read the test with them until later in the year when the 5th graders became just monitors to help with words the 1st graders didn't know.
We set a quarterly point goal based on the child's approximate reading level (my students' only had to earn 10 points during the first quarter

this past year which gave me time to find out what they were capable of doing later on). At the end of the quarter, we have a school-wide ice cream "social" for all the students who met their goal for the quarter. We did this for every quarter of the year, so that every student had the opportunity of attending a "social". However, we announced at Back-to-school night that the students who made their goal EVERY quarter would be taken to an aquatic center (with pools and slides, etc.) at the end of the year. Last year, we only had about 35% of the students go to the swimming party. This year, 69% of the students in our school attended the swim party! One idea! Hope it helps.