A HIT was requested for the information I got. Thank you to everyone
who responded. I'll discuss the information with my principal and we
will make our decision. This is the greatest resource for a new
librarian!!
Michelle Peck
Librarian
Mullenix Ridge Elementary
Port Orchard WA 98367
peck@skitsap.wednet.edu
I bet you've heard from quite a few people. We are in the process of
figuring out how to afford to pay for web-based AR... it looks very
expensive right now. I have used Book Guide alot and have found it to be
worthwhile... it helps you match books and quizzes, it too requires an
annual renewal... Book Guide is also a great selection tool, it really
drills down into specific subject headings... some schools have it
available on student computers and teach the kids how to use it
effectively.
Labels- we have added the AR label with a colored transparent label over
to the spine. It makes it extremely easy to spot AR books on the shelf.
Simplifies selection for the kids, very visual on the spine.
If you do go with Bookguide, print out the labels in shelf-order. Have
an AR afternoon for volunteers. (These could be parents, community
college students, high school students, others who need to have service
hours. I even got volunteers from our Navy base that came out for an
afternoon.
Different ships have different requirements on how much time the sailors
have to give to the community) Each volunteer gets a certain number of
sheets of labels and attaches them to books in their section. Our books
were done in one afternoon.
Even before we went web-based, we used clear, colored label protectors
on the spine labels to indicate the level range in which each book
belonged, ie purple is for 0.9 and below, orange is for 1.0-2.9, etc.
Inside the book, we either had a label or hand wrote the level and
points, sometimes the quiz #.
The specific level does not appear on the outside of the book, except on
our Easy books and that's just to help the younger readers who are
getting used to selecting their own books in their level range. I
haven't used a book guide before, but before we went web-based, I
printed out a list of tests we had organized in level order.
I purchase the AR blank label sheets from Ren. Learn., select the titles
I need printed from the titles list (I don't have the web-based
version), and print off a plain paper copy. (I don't like to run labels
through my laser printer because if one peels off, it's almost
impossible to clean out the paper path.) I then run the labels through
my desktop photocopier - which has a simple, straight-line paper path-
to print the actual label.
I place the labels on the spine under the call number so they are
readily visible on the shelves.
I purchased colored dots from Office Depot. I designated
0.1-0.9 Lt Blue
1.0-1.9 Red
2.0-2.9 Yellow
3.0-3.9 Green
4.0-4.9 dk blue
5.0-5.9 glow red
6.0-6.9 glow yellow
7.0-7.9 glow green
8-0-8.9 glow orange
9.0- up White
Would put the glow colors on the most read levels because they show up
the best.
I am a Junior High and do not stock may books below 3.0. All of my
books
2.9 and down have a lt. Blue dot. You have to have permission to read
these books, but only because I would have kids who did not need the low
reading level reading them because they only want a 0.5 book.
We write the RL/PV. This saves me having to answer how many points.
Most
could careless about the reading level.
When we started AR I have a volunteer paid by the fed. Govt. so she
showed up to work regularly. We put dots on shelf by shelf. Until we
had dots on the students had to check (look it up in AR or in a
notebook) before they took the book.
Book guide can be cumbersome to work with. You can load your data base
in the program and it will then tell you what tests you have books for.
In my K-5 library seving approx. 700 kids,15,000 books. We recently went
from the desk top version of AR to the Web based version. We will
purchase AR Book Guide and hopefully will be approved to label our books
with AR stickers as a special project this summer. I'm thinking it will
take approxiamtely 6 weeks for my teacher assistant and I to do this.
At the same time I will weed the entire collection as the average age of
my books is 1985. No need to waste time labelling outdated books. We
now put AR stickers on the inside front cover. Our bar codes go on the
inside back cover (yes, it's more cumbersome during inventory, but it
stops little fingers from peeling them off). Our spine labels are on
the spine with a labe protector. We additionally have a little star
stamper and stamp the edge of our books with red stars to indicate they
are AR (this is done primarily for the 1st & 2nd graders who do not know
how to read the AR label. Hope this helps. Good luck.
In the interest of time, simplicity, spending your time as a librarian
and not a clerk, and teaching your kids IL skills, why don't you put the
information in the catalogue record and teach them how to look it up?
Take a look at the MATCH option at QuizList Interactive. It's much
better than AR BookGuide and MUCH cheaper. I know - I've used both.
http://www.quizlistinteractive.com/matchoption.aspx
I hope you get lots of answers. Your questions are very complex. I
used to have Book Guide and paid an annual subscription for 3 years.
Once we networked things, though, Book Guide became less usable. It
also became too big for the format they were using, and was much more
difficult to use.
I have been marking the books since I started at my school 12 years ago.
I keep printed lists in the library for student and teacher use. I also
keep one at the public library. However, this year we are entering all
of the test info into our Destiny database. Destiny is available
online, so parents can search for AR quizzes and the books we own.
Keep asking questions and find out what works best for your school.
There are management tools available, but at this time I am not using
any of those. I am only using the sources we currently have.
Putting them inside the book removes some of the privacy issues for
students.
I went to the Renaissance Learning Symposium in Austin, TX on March 9th
and 10th, and that's where I first learned about the BookGuide. It is
well worth the price, and it is an annual subscription. We got ours
with the subscription to the web-based version. You should check with
your rep. to see if you can get it for free for the first year.
Our AR rep. got our school library database via the Internet from our
system administrator for our union catalog, then she printed the labels
to put inside the 5500 books we have in our library--the 5500 that have
AR tests.
The only problem is that the RenLearn folks told me at the symposium
that they still don't have a way to print the call numbers on the
labels--which is outrageous. The labels are printed in alphabetical
order by author, which is fine for picture books and fiction books, but
not for nonfiction. They need to get their act together when it comes
to helping librarians.
We will put the labels on the center bottom of the front flyleaf of the
books. We will then put a color-coded label on the spine of the book
for the main levels, such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but not l.2, l.5, etc. We
will not put the number on the labels, but will have a chart with the
levels that go with each color.
We are totally new to this AR program also, but going to the symposium
gave me a little bit more information. They actually have 3-day
conferences on fundamentals, which I think people like you and me really
need.
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