Appendix

Participant

Comment

18a

Although I somewhat agree that Accelerated Reader promotes more reading, I don't know that it promotes reading at higher levels or higher quality. I have seen too many children grabbing any short book in their range in order to meet their classroom teachers' monthly goals for them.

18b

Because I am in Kindergarten I use it on a limited basis due to a small number of children that are actually reading at those levels however I do feel that it is one tool (out of many) that teachers can use to improve students reading skills.

18c

I've seen big differences in my student's reading level with the Accelerated Reader Program. It builds their self-esteem.

18d

AR is one way to assess some comprehension of the book. AR mainly asks direct questions about things from the book, rather than higher order or engaging questions. It's sort of hit or miss. For young children, they can get enthusiastic about "getting to get on the computer and do something new". But for older children, the requirement of accumulating points or tests defeats the purpose of building a child's desire to read.

18e

I have a class that is very high acadmically. In 4th grade they read most of the higher level books in the Media Center. They require higher reading that the media center does not have. I do not use the AR as much, this year, as I have in the past.

18f

My special needs students are able to participate in the AR program. They are very excited about the program and look foward to going to the library every friday to take their test. They feel so good about themselves each time they score a 100%.

18g

I feel there are alot of great books that are not AR rated.  I do not like to focus child's reading solely on AR books.

18h

I am a Kindergarten Teacher and our grade level does not use AR. I have answered the questions as a parent whose children used AR in grade school, not as a teacher.

18i

The strengths of AR depend highly on how a teacher uses the program.

18j

AR is a great program when it is reinforeced in the classroom by the teacher. Students do much better when it is incentive program.

18k

I teach kindergarten so I do not use the accerlated reader program but know many teachers who do and have seen the tests and students choosing books for AR.  I think there needs to be more monitoring on what levels students are allowed to choose as some choose too easy of a level just to be finished with it.  However, students who love reading are excelling due to the many choices and it enables them to track their own growth as well as their teachers.

18l

Some of the questions are not the main details but rather a random small piece in the book.  The questions need to be reevaluated.

18m

I had to base my answers on my own son's experiences as we don't do AR in Kindergarten.

18n

#15  It improves most kids' personal beliefs about their ability to read, but some are crushed by it because they don't score well on the tests.  Many have overinflated idea of their ability because they can answer a passing number of quetions pretty easily since most questions are just basic fact recall.  They don't realize they miss out on inference and subtle messages the author has in the book.

#14 It can expose them to good literature if the tests are produced for those books. But many times they just choose something for its point value and reading level. That is one thing I could not stand about AR.  They'd say "Look what I'm reading!" and I would say "What?" expecting them to say the title or something about the book. They would say "A 2.3 book" I did not like that part of it. But I would work on that....I'd say "What is the title? What is it about?  What is good about it? Do you like it?" I would make an effort to read many children's books (I like them!) and then I could discuss the harder type concepts with them, share our joy of how great the book was, and ask them higher level thinking questions.

18o

Accelerated Reader is a great tool to use to help young readers to branch out and read different genres.  However, if the classroom teacher does not promote the program, it is being wasted at that school setting.

18p

I am a special ed teacher and do not really use AR except to find grade level books.  My comments are primarily what I saw when my daughter had to use AR as part of her reading grade during her elementary years.

Participant

Comment

19a

I think Ar is very motivating for some students.  However, I think it makes some students checkout ONLY AR books, when there are many other books they could benefit from reading.

19b

Accelerated Reader is the best program I have used and I have been teaching reading since 1974.  It is a wonderful tool to motivate children and monitor their reading.  It MUST, however, be used correctly and constantly monitored.  If it is only used a little, children are not encouraged and taught how to set goals, and the teacher does not constantly monitor student achievement...AR does not work and the significant growth will not happen.  Teachers and administrators that discourage its use and think it doesn't work, have not seen it being used correctly.  I have nothing but praises for the program. There are literally thousands of tests available which I would say allows the students to be exposed to plenty of high quality literature.

19c

I appreciate at Mason that AR is made available to Kindergarten students that are ready to use the program.

19d

GREAT PROGRAM

19e

THis is a great idea to do this survey. Overall I really like AR for my students

19f

I believe that the AR program works in getting students to choose books that are in their Zone of Proximal Development. Which in turn allows them to be more successful readers which leads to life long readers. However I also strongly believe that this program is just one of the many tools that should be used in a successful reading program. It is just one piece to the overall reading puzzle.

19g

I use AR if the students wan too. It can be limiting if the student will only read AR books. Also the questions are not higher level thinking questions. They can be very literal. It can be a part of reading instruction but only a piece.

19h

In first grade a teacher needs a parent volunteer to help with the testing if you do not have one the program suffers.

19i

I wish there was an expert at our school to ask how to see a class summary of student progress.  I also wish I had planning time to do this.

19j

Benefits of AR are continually, monitored practice at a reading level where the student is successful, opens communication between student and teacher about reader when handled correctly in the classroom.
Can be detrimental when teachers don't take time to montior and discuss progress with individual students. When teachers only allow students to read books in their range, they discourage motivation to try something of interest but at a harder level.

19k

When students are to set goal based on their own personal reading skills. However students should be allowed to choose other books not just AR. When they are limited to AR only then students could be discouraged.

19l

To me, AR is a good tool, esp, at a low achieving school.  It helps them select books on their level and helped me know they had a book on their level.  If we were going to read them during reading class, I would hate it when they would sit with something WAY to hard or WAY to easy and that was supposed to be their reading practice that day.   I do tell them that it is fine to sometimes read easier books than their level indicates.  They did not want to test on them as that would bring their average grade level down on their AR Reports.  I encouraged them not to be so taken by AR that they let it rule their lives.  It is a good tool if used correctly. I liked the team aspect too. In a low motivation school, that was nice.  I liked the individual goal setting for level and points.  Made them all work right at the level just challenging enough to help them improve.  And on the teams, they all had their own reading level and points goal, but they all had to do the work to help the team. That made them all feel good.  I tried not to pressure people to death with AR....to make it fun.