Thank you to everyone who responded to my question about initial AR points.
Everyone was extremely helpful - of course! After some exploring I did find
the chart. Thought I'd post a hit should anyone need this info in the
future. I've got some great ideas!
Melanie Parker, LMS
Blackwell Elementary
Richmond, VA
melanieparker@msn.com
Original post:
Subject: TAR: AR Points
Greetings to everyone,
I am a second year media specialist charged with the task of setting up
Accelerated Reader in my school for grades 3-5. My question is in regards
to the point ranges you set for winning prizes whether they be from an AR
store or homework passes, etc. I've searched the archives and found loads
of useful information, but not really anything on how to initially set up
point goals.
We are an inner-city school with about 100% of students on free lunch.
Reading, for most of our kids, is not high on their priority list. I want
the students to be successful, but still want to challenge them as well.
Any thoughts on initial goals would be helpful. Thank you!
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Make sure you are really aware of the procedures with the Renaissance
program. Students need identified Zones of Proximal Development or ZPDs
(this can be from STAR or other types of diagnostic testing), then you have
a suggested instructional reading range. Students should usually begin
reading at the bottom of their range. Renaissance provides goal setting
charts, but reading teachers who are experienced and/or know their students
very well can set the goals using their common sense teacher skills.
I am working with a 4th grade teacher who is new to the program and we have
decided that students who are comfortably on reading level regarding their
skills will be required to earn 2 pts per week in the first 9 weeks and 3
pts per week the 2nd 9 weeks, and after that the weekly conferencing aspect
will be in place and students should be able to set their own goals (with
guidance as necessary.)
We want student performing at 85%, and testing regularly. Sometimes
students who have high reading levels get "stuck" in Eragon and don't test
for 4 or 5 weeks. That is NOT good reading practice. It is better to read
a lower level, shorter book and test each week or at least every other week.
The idea is lots or reading and lots of books. Just feed the machine.
Keep it simple, keep it successful, and teachers MUST be monitoring.
Students will cheat and test over books they haven't read, so you must have
good classroom management.
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We do point clubs every 10 points up to 100 and then by 50s to 500. We
give a bookmark for 10 points, a pencil for 20, a mechanical pencil for 30
and an ink pen for 40. For 50 points and up we give a choice of book (we
buy the bruised books from Scholastic that are 100 books for $100.) We
also try to do something special for really high pointers, such as lunch
with the principal or the librarian. This was our initial take on prizes,
and some of my schools now vary this and give more different kinds of
items, but I prefer to keep it simple.
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RenLearn has a goal setting chart that can help. I would encourage a couple
of things right from the start with AR: one -- make sure that along with the
point goal, the kids are reaching for the 85% or above average correct goal
that the company recommends (it wouldn't hurt to note the average reading
level either --we have kiddos who read 1st or 2nd books to get easy points
when they should bereading 4th or 5th for example) ; two, remember that
point goals, like the reading level (zpd) should be individual -- one size
does not fit all.
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I'm in a school with about 75% free & reduced lunch, but with an established
AR program. Our point levels are 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200 (except for
additional recognition for K - 5 points - after Christmas only; 1st grade -
10 points; and 2nd grade - 15 points).
If you are just starting out, you might want to start with lower goals. Up
to you and how supportive the teachers and principal are. Try to encourage
your principal to require every teacher to turn in a Reading Diagnostic
report every Friday (or weekly) to get good participation, and perhaps have
the principal award a class an "AR Banner" or other prize each week to get
some classroom competition going.
We also set a schoolwide goal of passing a certain number of quizzes. We
are a school of about 550 enrollment, and our schoolwide goal varies between
20,000 and 25,000 quizzes passed for the year. Again, though, we are an
established program (although NOT a Renaissance "Model" program).
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If you visit the Renaissance Place website, there is a chart that gives
weekly point goals for a given reading zone and the amount of time given to
the students each day to read. This is a good place to start and once they
get on track, you can begin bumping them up little by little. It is also
really important to monitor the students daily - so the homeroom teachers
really need to be on board. With our 5th graders - we went to a goal for the
whole six weeks period - since they are usually reading bigger bigs that
take longer than a week - I think a week's goal is a good place to start
even with the older ones, then you could bump it to two weeks for those that
move into chapter books quickly. We do small incentives with the weekly goal
and those that meet those goals throughout the whole six weeks period sit a
specially decorated table at lunch in the cafeteria. Hope this helps.
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I use the point goal recommendations that come with the AR program for the
number of minutes our students read and by 9 weeks because that is what our
grading system We read 15 minutes in a day so I cut the AR recommendation
for 30 minutes in half. ( I wish our teachers had time for in class silent
reading but 15 min. is the practical amount of minutes they read per night.
If they reach their goals for the 9 weeks I give prizes, reading slogan
items etc and a snack party. I send give you my chart I use but it is at
school. For the 2-4th 9 weeks I let the students assist me in setting their
goals if they have achieved it for the last 9 weeks, most want to raise
their goals some because I give end of the year awards for the high point
winners for the year.
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The point levels for this grade range from about 2 point to 44 points
for a Harry Potter, the latest being about 34 points, I think.
Anyway, setting the goal might be dependent upon how often you are
holding a party/store. If it's once a marking period, set the point
fairly low at first to encourage participation. I have pencils and
Oriental Trading stuff for point point. I go up to 50 points for big
Webkinz. Hair bows are 10 points. Soccer ball is 20 points. Your
points might be lower as more incentive. I have one class at a time
come starting with the lower grades. Then 5th graders who read Harry
Potter get the bigger prizes when it's their turn and most of the
little prizes are gone already. The first store of the year is
usually pretty slow, but the kids get more competitive subsequent
marking periods.
Try to get the teachers' backing on running reports and making reading
one AR book a requirement.
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I'm not sure my response will be of any use to you because it sounds like we
use AR differently than you will (and I only use it with grades 2-4). We
don't really use points; what we do is give out "book bucks" for passed
quizzes. We consider a quiz to be passed if the student scores 80% or
higher. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to tell the computer this,
so my aide manually checks each AR quiz printout. If the student scores 80%
or higher, she circles the score and writes how many book bucks they get,
based on the point value of the book. If the book is worth .5, they get
$0.50, 1.0 up to 1.9 they get $1, and so on. If the student did not pass
the quiz, she circles the score and writes $0. She also signs every sheet.
The students take the printouts back to the classroom, where the teacher
hands out the book bucks (which is just some crudely drawn paper money that
is run off in bulk). Every quarter, the reading specialist has an AR Store
where students can use their book bucks to buy junk from Oriental Trading.
Anyhow, this way I get to avoid dealing with points and point goals and
keeping track of all that stuff. If teachers want to set goals for their
students, they certainly can, but it's usually based on a number of passed
quizzes per quarter (which THEY keep track of)--not based on points as laid
out by AR.
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The Accelerated Reader Program has changed their program and, the archives,
although useful, wouldn't reflect this. There is no longer the emphasis on
just points. I just attended an overview of the program as our school has
shifted to the platform known as AR Enterprise. I have not had time to
really digest it all, but there are three things to focus on in this order:
1. Average Percent Correct
2. Points
3. Average Book Level
This will encourage more comprehension, and keep kids reading at their
level,
rather than just gathering points.
It is more complex than that, but after the session I attended yesterday,
this is the understanding that I had.
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We use 25point increments. 25 point club, 50 point club etc. That may
be too high for your kids, but it works here.
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Our points for grade levels is determined by: when we are able to start the
program, level of success with the previous year's goals and the amount of
books we can purchase. We assign goals by quarter. We have a mid-point
reward for those who reach that goal also. Currently, 1st grade's goal is 4
points, 2nd is 6, 3rd is 9, 4th is 13, 5th is 16 and 6th is 19. These are
adjusted/increased each quarter. For end of the quarter rewards, we usually
have some games and activities outside for about 1 1/2 hours. We have also
had shopping in the AR store and popcorn and movie in the library.
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I moved to a school this year where the points for prizes were 25, 50, and
100.
However, I have added additional ones: 10, 25, 50, 75, 100. My prize for
10 is a rubber bracelet; 25 is a dog tag necklace; 50 is popcorn & movie at
end of year; 75 is pizza & movie at end of year; and 100 is a bowling
fieldtrip.
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Within Accelerated Reader's reports, there should be a chart for setting
goals based on each student's level, the amount of time given in class to
read, etc. As a classroom teacher, I had a large class chart where students
kept track of their individual progress. It was in increments of 10, and
they added stickers to show how far along they were in meeting their goal.
For each 10% increment, they might choose a pencil, eraser, etc. For 25%,
50%, 75% and 100%, they had a bit bigger choice. Homework passes, a snack
from home, wearing slippers for the day, and lunch with the teacher were all
popular. I tried to make the rewards inexpensive on my pocketbook (free if
possible) as well as appealing to the students. We also would do something
special when the entire class met their goals (extra recess, 30 min. of
board games, etc.) Having a group goal helped to foster an encouraging
atmosphere and reduced the individual competition. I did discover that what
worked for one class didn't always work for others.
Renaissance's training session would really help. It's pricey, but even if
you could attend and share what you learn with your faculty, it would
benefit you all. I think a lot of the negative opinions about AR come about
because it isn't being used the way it was designed. I had great success
when using AR as a supplement to the reading curriculum.
Do the students have designated time to read daily, or is this an extra
curricular program? In my experience, blanket goals are not effective.
Usually, a select few (the kids who are already good readers and love to
read anyway) are able to meet the blanket goal. That leaves the reluctant
readers in the same spot...still not loving reading and with a feeling that
they'll never meet the goal, so why bother. The whole point of Accelerated
Reader is for students to challenged individually at their own level. You
may not have much choice, but it works best if the teacher responsible for
the student sets the goals and monitors the students' progress on a near
daily basis.
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I've worked AR points 2 different ways. First, we did an AR store: cheap
Oriental Trading things. You can get prizes for as little as 1, 3, and 5
points, or as much as 150 points, depending on the prize. I used to use
recycled magazines for the 1 point thing, just because when spending points,
they want to spend every one of them. So you have to have something. I
would open the store 2 times per year.
Then, we started doing an all school thing. For 2-3rd grades, the levels
were: 10pts, 20pts, 40pts, 60 pts, 80 pts, 100pts, 125pts, and 150pts. For
grades 4-6: 25pts, 50pts, 75pts, 100pts, 125pts, 150pts, 175 pts, and
200pts. Then, the prizes would graduate up, as well. Everyone who earned
the first level got to choose from the toys I had. Mostly Oriental trading
and cheap item. Level 2 was a can of pop and a small candy, Level 3 was a
certificate for an ice cream cone, Level 4 was they could order a free book
that was $2.95 or less from the book order, Level 5 was a certificate for a
free pizza, level 6 I would have a Sundae party in the library once a month
when students started reaching this goal. They could come down the last 20
minutes of their final class, and I'd make them a sundae. Level 7 was lunch
with the principal. This was a huge hit. The second to last week of
school, each grade level would have their day to have pizza or tacos with
our principal. The kids worked hard for that one. And the top level was
$5.00 in chamber bucks that could be spent in over 300 stores in our town.
The pizza was donated, some of the books were free once I started ordering
from the book clubs, and sometimes, I got the ice cream cone certificates
donated, too. So, the more you can get donated, the cheaper your costs run.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
start at 5pts. that means they have to read ten books or one big one worth
5 pts.
5pts. bookmark from AR prizes... it means more than just any bookmark...
10 pts. AR pencil
15 pts. AR pull up tag... used to put on zipper pull
20 pt. AR shoe pocket
25 pt AR shoelaces ..
these I gave prizes for without taking away points.... after 25 I went to 30
pts but they had to subtract points they had earn... 30 pts a foil pen from
AR... they seemed to go for the AR items.. I tried regular items but not a
good response.... 40pts, 50 pts 75 pts. 100pts.. 150 pts... etc. I would
make a chart and keep track of their points so they wouldn't loose credit..
the 5th grader with the highest number of points won an AR Trophy at the end
of the year... I Susie had 100 pts and bought an AR Beanie for 75 pts... she
would still have 25 pts left to buy something else. her original 100pts I
would keep on the computer and kept the real total on my prize sheets... I
hope you understand what I am trying to explain....
I used competition by putting the highest person in the grade level up on a
weekly chart...it put grade against grade, and classroom against
classroom... if Susie in 2nd grade Smith was the highest for the week, than
John in Greens 2nd grade class would take over the lead next week in order
to be the highest in the grade level... in the classroom Susie might have
been the highest but Jed was second in line.. by the next week, he would be
first.... I found the more competition the more they were reading and
gaining points....I let them read whatever AR book they wanted... I didn't
go by levels... if a 5th grader wanted to read a picture book for .05 pts...
that was the choice... but if you have good prizes.... they really work to
earn them... trust me...
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If you go into AR manager there is a section on suggested goals for each
grade level. Goals are set on a student by student basis and can therefore
be set up to accommodate each students reading level. The help section will
give you step by step instructions to set up the student goals. I have many
years of AR experience and have found that setting individual goals will
increase student success significantly - it gives each student an achievable
goal rather than an arbitrary point value. Good luck!
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