AR ques.

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Home : 2003 : July : 17

AR ques.
By sandyH

I think many of us have found our students trying to "beat" the AR system by taking shortcuts, etc. We have found ways around some of them. Here are a few of my thoughts...
1) See if your school can purchase more AR
quizzes. The more you have, the more variety there is for your students to select from, and the more likely they will be t find books that appeal to them. We just hit 5,000 quizzes this past year (for a school with about 400 of our 500 students currently participating in AR). When we had fewer quizzes, our program was less effective. Maybe your principal, librarian, or PTA can find some

money for this purpose, or perhaps a grant could be written, if $ is an obstacle.
2) What about setting specific goals for your students. I don't think it's fair to have the students competing w/each other since their reading levels vary so greatly, but they can compete with themselves. For each student, after they take the STAR at the beginning of the year, I assign them a point goal for the quarter. (AR even has a report you can print that gives the expected # of points a student will earn based on reading level and # of weeks in the period. We've modified this a bit, but it's pretty simple to use.)
Each of my students is working towards a # of points. They will receive a grade for the % of the goal they reach. Also they receive a grade for the avg. % correct on all their quizzes for the quarter. Together these grades make up 1/3 of the quarterly reading grade.
I find that most of my students take this seriously; and if they don't their parents usually do! We have a chart where students put up a sticker for every 10% of their goal that they earn. It's a good visual way for them to track their progress. I also have them keep a book log where they record title, book level, date of quiz, points earned, etc. There's a spot for my initials and comments.
3) Did you know that there are "quiz blocking rules" in AR? Using this you can block quizzes for specific books or levels for individuals or groups of students. This really keeps my students in their range. Too many kids were fudging and trying to rack up pts. by reading those .5 books.
4) Talk to your students who are reading those .5 books that are on their level but not challenging enough for them. Tell them that they may only read and take quizzes on x# of those books during the quarter. After that you will delete those quizzes and they will not count. You can set the expectation that they will be reading chapter books, and if they don't-no credit. That is not unreasonable if you spell it out for them.
I know I've rambled quite a bit, but I feel very strongly that AR is a terrific program (overall) and it can really be very beneficial to students by holding kids accountable for their independent reading. If I can help in any way, please let me know.
Good luck!