Accelerated Reader
by Chris Keller
Accelerated Reader Program
Students improve in reading in the same way they improve at anything else - with practice! Much of the reading that students do in school is selected by someone else. Students must read the textbooks provided by the district, or the books required by their teachers.
There is a program in place in the Cahokia School District, however, that allows students to select books that they want to read. This program is called Accelerated Reader.
Accelerated Reader works as
follows:
• Students take the STAR test on a classroom computer.
Students read sentences or paragraphs and select the correct
vocabulary word to fit a blank within the sentence or
paragraph. The test adapts to meet the individual performance
of each student - students answering correctly get more difficult
questions and students answering incorrectly get less difficult
questions. The program uses the student's performance to
provide a reading grade level. An independent reading zone is
also calculated. This zone tells the student what book levels
he/she can successfully read.
• Once a student knows his/her zone, he/she selects a book to read. These books can be from the school library, a classroom library, from home, etc. Cahokia District 187 has access to over 100,000 quizzes. Parents can check the list of accelerated reader quizzes from any computer with an Internet connection. Please note - the entire list of quizzes is hundreds of pages long and increases weekly. Printing is not recommended.
• The student reads the book at school and/or at home.
• The student takes the Accelerated Reader Quiz on a classroom computer. Immediate feedback is given as a percent, and missed questions can be reviewed.
• Reports can be printed by classroom teachers to monitor student progress.
• The STAR test is given at the beginning of the year and at the end of each quarter. Student reading levels are adjusted according to the STAR score.
• Every book has a point value based on its length and difficulty. Students earn points for every quiz that is passed.
• Students accumulate points by passing quizzes on the books that they read.
Click here to check if a book title has an Accelerated Reader Quiz.
