Last night on Twitter I learned what AR points are. We didn’t have a program like this when I went to school. We were way to concerned with T-Rex attacks and carnivore safety. Basically each book is assigned an AR level. Students can earn things (like Six Flags passes) by reading and then passing a quiz about the book.
My friend Devyn showed me a website where you can see the AR level of every book. I had a lot of fun searching the site and reading the reports there. Here are some of my finds:
- City of Bones – Cassie Clare: AR Points 20
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling: AR Points 12
- Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger: AR Points 11
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain: AR Points 12
- Twilight – Stephanie Meyer: AR Points 18
The points amaze me. I am going to research today how points are awarded. Have you ever completed an AR reading program?
I used to do AR reading programs at my old elementary/middle school all the time! Because of AR reading programs, I could almost any book I wanted just as long they were in the AR reading system (this introduced me to my love for YA books!)
I think they don’t use the program anymore at my old school, which is a bit sad.
Do you think the program helped you learn to love reading?
AR points are awarded based the difficulty of reading, which I think is crap. Just because stuents can read the word irony does not mean they understand the concept and can recognize irony in text. I battled with my admininstration team over this constantly. They wouldn’t allow me to teach Hunger Games or Unwind because the reading level and therefore the point value was below grade level. They couldn’t understnad the concepts were the real challenge for students. Also, look into the tests. Kids can watch Harry Potter or Twilight and pass the tests without ever turning a page. I love motivating kids to read and some students will do well achieving their points, but like all programs not everyone fits neatly into one model and mostly I want to fcus on a love of reading with my students, not how to collect points.
That is so interesting coming from you ‘Moca. I never thought about how point collecting and movies could skew the system.